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Tips, Ties And Tactics
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 More Streamer Fishing Tips: Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout And Steelhead
Posted by fliesandfinswest on Wednesday, January 10 @ 17:39:57 PST
I started writing this as a comment on Skitch976's last post and it kind of got out of hand. So I figured I would let it stand on its own. I love fishing streamers. I did not used to. Not because I thought that the method was “not acceptable” as some fly fishers may have you believe. I did not fish streamers because, like many others, I never had much luck on them. It took me a while to figure them out. Here are a few tips based on what I have learned so far. I hope you will find them helpful.
For Trout-Most of the time I fish streamers as my "go to" method particularly if there are no dries about and for good reason. If trout are on the streamer then usually they are on it, meaning you will catch a fish every few casts and many times the big ones will come out to play. I like
to make about 25-50 casts and vary the retrieve-direction (casting directly upstream to directly down stream as I work the water), speed (fast slow) and style (consistent, choppy, long strips, short strips, punctuated pauses and so on). I try to mimic whatever food might be available-crayfish, minnows, Hellgrammites, big nymphs, aquatic worms and so on. If I get a take I repeat whatever I was doing and it usually produces more fish, lots more. If I don't get any takes I try a different fly and do the same thing. Usually I bounce between light and dark woolly buggerish patterns and minnowish patterns. I usually start in the size 6 to 8 range, unless I am privy to information that persuades me otherwise. If I don't get any hits then I give up on it. I have found that fish will not always take streamers and you can't make them, particularly when it comes to a brown trout fishery. They are either all on streamer or will not touch them and I have found limited exceptions (although those random exceptions to tend to be HUGE fish). I have also found that on most overcast days the browns will cooperate. Off colored water is also a good indicator that the browns will be on the streamer. Rainbow trout fisheries tend to be a little more unpredictable and random takes are more common. Typically, I find that rainbow crush stripped streamers in the spring and browns in the fall. I have also found that rainbows tend to really like white.
I do like to dead drift streamers too. Most of the time I fish them below an indicator, as the lead fly. They are effective year round, even in the dead of winter. I have found leach patterns to be most productive on the dead drift but don’t exclude minnow patterns. They work very well dead drifted in tail water fisheries where schools of bait fish can be churned in dam outflow. Swinging dead drifted streamers at the end of the drift or twitching them throughout the drift can work well too. There is a well known fishery in Wyoming where I have seen catch rates increase 10 fold with a simple twitch of the fly.
For Steelhead-I have found dead drifting and swinging streamers to be the most effective. It takes special conditions for steelhead to take a streamer fly on the strip. I have only seen it a few times. Quartering down stream for the swing or, if conditions dictate, quartering up stream is my preferred method. Dead drifting is, well, dead drifting-just like nymphing. I like anything egg sucking for the dead drift. When swinging streamers for steel the fly selection depends on the conditions, water temperature and time of year. I like to go smaller and darker when the water is clear, but really there are no rules. When fishing streamers on the swing for steelhead confidence in what you are doing is the most important thing. Keeping still while swinging for steel is also very important.
The other big adjustment for fishing streamers by method other than dead drifting is leader length. When fishing a sink tip you must shorten the leader. It can be as short as 6 inches for swinging flies, and should be no more than 2 feet long, especially for steelhead. I prefer un-weighted flies to prevent hang-ups. If you fish a long leader with a sink tip you defeat the purpose of the sinking line. The fly will float up and/or not get down fast enough rendering the bulk of your drift useless. For stripping streamers on a floating line with weighted flies I like to keep the leader a little longer, 4-9 feet, depending on the water speed, depth and clarity.
Lastly-don't overvalue your need to get deep. It is not always necessary to be on the bottom. When the conditions are right (low light) fishing your fly in the top 3 feet of water is more effective. If you don't believe me go outside with a wooly bugger and hold it at eye level below the horizon, then hold it straight up above your head. You can see the fly much better when it is silhouetted against the sky, so can the fish. That point was made clear to me while fishing the Cache La Poudre River near Ft Collins a few years back. My buddy and I were doing a little full moon fishing in late summer. He was slaying and I was not. I figured I was not deep enough so upon his advice I kept adding weight. After about an hour, and his 20 fish to my one, I grabbed his line to find an un-weighted wooly bugger with no weight added to the line. It was a valuable lesson learned and he got a good laugh about it. I would love to hear your thoughts.
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Re: More Streamer Fishing Tips: Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout And Steelhead
by Marcel_Karssies (Marcel@cnn.com) on Thursday, January 11 @ 03:29:17 PST http://home.hetnet.nl/~shimanto15/index.html | I fish the streamer often but have never used the dead drift technique.
I will try that when the trouting season down here starts (sometime in April).
The streams I usually fish are very small and fish are often located under undercut banks or deeper pools in the stream bends.
I always cast downstream and let the streamer move close to banks, deadfalls and treeroots to coax the trout.
What I have found out in my local stream is that the streamer will most of the time provoke an attack by the trout.
I have stood at pools many times when countless nymphs where ignored, when I would tie on a streamer trout would suddenly become active.
My favourite pattern is a small bead head zonker pattern.
I guess the shape and color mimics some of the small baitfish species in my local stream. |
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Re: More Streamer Fishing Tips: Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout And Steelhead
by steelheadbum (steelheadbum@hotmail.net) on Friday, January 12 @ 08:44:53 PST | | I too like streamers, I have only been fly fishing for 1 1/2 months. But, I bought a white zonker and thought I would give it a try. Much to my surprise, I cought an 8lb. steelie in the boise. Since then I have primarily fished streamers because I do not know the proper way to fish nymphs. I have had 7 fish in all react to my zonker, all of which have been steelies.So, fish them streamers and good luck. |
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Re: More Streamer Fishing Tips: Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout And Steelhead
by KodiakCommando on Friday, January 12 @ 15:04:31 PST http://www.fishalaskamagazine.com | | I agree with everything jason said! Like him i like dead drifter egg sucking anything. I like dead drifting streamers with materials like rabbit fur or marabou because those materials pulse in the current with you having to strip. |
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Re: More Streamer Fishing Tips: Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout And Steelhead
by jeremy on Friday, January 12 @ 16:32:01 PST http://www.ineedasimplesolution.com | great stuff jason ... we do happen to fish streamers alot here in maine ... especially for landlocked salmon because a primary food source in our rivers and lakes is smelt ... so patterns like gray ghost,s black ghosts etc... are the standbies here in maine ... and believe it or not, in contrast to the west coast, nymphing within indicator or nymphing at all is relatively "new" and certainly still secondary to fly fishing with streamers ... some of the things that i have found is that the strip definately matters and i often see many guys cast cross stream and swing the fly ... they have some luck but when another guy steps into the same spot with the same fly and throws the fly way UP stream and strips it back ... the hook up ratio is sometimes much greater ... for some reason the salmon and trout sometimes only want to see the fly presented head first .... as if the baitfish were swimming downstream ...
one thing i have never done is dead drift a streamer (other than an egg sucking leach) .. i will have to give that a try this season here in maine ... there are several tail waters where pods of smelt come through the dam and get all smashed up ... so a dead drifted streamer would make sense ... i will try it . thanks for the tip...
pps .. don't know if i told you this but that fly you introduced me to out west, the platte river spider, works very well here in maine for salmon and brook trout .. a great fly .. second only to a cone head olive wooly bugger .. thanks. |
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