In Part 1, we looked at the basic setup needed for using this style of streamer fishing. In this blog, we are going to look at other variables which can be adjusted to optimize your success.
Color Can Matter:
Opinions on how much color matters are all over the place. Ask 5 different anglers and you will get 6 different opinions. I have always been a bit of a skeptic until recently when I was dutifully rotating through 4 different colored Zoo Cougars (Black, Brown, White, and Olive). I started with black for no particular reason and switched colors every 12-15 minutes. I immediately connected with a nice 13-inch brown and hoped this was a good omen. However, 45 minutes and three-color changes later that was still the only fish. I reached a spot where I have had success with streamers before and nothing happened with the olive Zoo Cougar. Knowing this was a good spot, I decided to put on a white Zoo Cougar and cast to the exact location I had just cast the olive streamer. Two strips into the retrieve a feisty 16-inch brown plastered the streamer.
The problem is tomorrow or 200 yards further up the stream it could be the opposite. My approach is to keep switching colors as I work up or down the river. I change colors every 12-15 minutes. When I get to a spot that has produced recently, I may go through the full color rotation to be sure I have not missed the βcolor du jour.β
Fishing Upstream or Downstream:
I have had about equal success going upstream and downstream. Most of the time the decision is made by which direction is easier to fish. An important triggering factor is to get the streamer to wobble like an injured or dying fish. I find when I am going upstream making a slightly upstream and across the current cast combined with a retrieve that is perpendicular to the current produces this action. The opposite is true going downstream. However, if you can find another way to produce the βwobble,β great β do it! In addition, thereβs always an exception to these generalizations, so feel free to try different retrieves until you find one that works. In the end, the fish will tell you what kind of retrieve they want. If you are not seeing fish or getting takes, it is a good idea to experiment with how you are retrieving the streamer.
Size Can Matter:
Earlier this year the conditions for streamer fishing with this technique seemed to be perfect. But after more than an hour of casting #2- and #4-streamers I had not seen a fish. I decided to switch lines and go to a dry-dropper set-up using a #12 hi-vis parachute Adams (Itβs easier to see, floats well, and can be twitched or jostled without going under the water.) with a dropper to a #16 tan caddis since I had seen some caddis on the water. My line got caught in a current line and pulled both flies under. I figured I may as well twitch them back since they were already under. To my amazement, I had two nice fish swat at the caddis before picking up for the next cast. Sometimes these sorts of things are an exception so I went back to where I had started fishing and deliberately pulled the caddis under and twitched across the stream. It was like magic. I turned fish after fish for the next hour and landed four nice trout. This was particularly impressive as I had already been through the water and seen nothing!
Streamer Style:
On a given day, any streamer could work. So, feel free to experiment with different styles of streamers. As I said earlier, streamers with a spun deer hair head seem to be more effective because the streamer rises when you pause. Any streamer that has a head that will rise on the pause should work with this technique. My favorite patterns so far are Zoo Cougars, Wooly Sclulpins, and Marabou Muddler Minnows. All three have produced well for me when the fish are on.
If you look at the black marabou muddler minnow head you will notice the head has been trimmed using a razor blade to create a taper from the tip of the head at the eye of the hook to the collar. This helps the fly to dive deeper. You may want to trim a few of your streamers like this for times where you would like your streamer to dive deeper.
Multiple Fish from the Same Area:
Large fish tend to be loners. Since they are the dominant fish, they will chase smaller fish out of their feeding area. Hence, you may see fish chasing but not taking. Be patient, sooner or later you will run across a fish that is eating. Normally, the largest fish will feed first. So, the first fish from an area tends to be the largest. However, occasionally you may find that there is a pod of larger fish concentrated in a small area. It is always a good choice to thoroughly fish the surrounding area where you have landed a large fish. This is particularly true when you are fishing cloudy water where you can see the bottom clearly in 4-12 inches of water. These conditions can cause a group of larger fish to feed actively in a very small area. Below is a picture of a 20-inch brown trout caught on a black Zoo Cougar during runoff where the water visibility was 4-6 inches. After releasing the fish, I landed a 15-inch brown, saw two more large fish slash at the streamer, and had another larger fish on that got off within 15-20 minutes. While this is not very common, it pays to fish the surrounding area where you landed a larger fish in case this is the situation!
Using a Sink Tip Line with Non-Buoyant Streamers:
To this point, we have explored the advantages of using a sink tip fly line in conjunction with a spun deer hair head streamer. It should be obvious that a sink tip fly line can be used with any style streamer. Any time you need to get a streamer deeper into the water column you can use a sink tip fly line instead of using weighted streamers when you need to reach depths of two to four feet. Much deeper than that and you will need either a heavily weighted streamer or a full-length sinking line. The sink tip fly line offers the advantage of picking the line up off the water more easily while still being able to get the streamer deeper into the water column.
When you are using a non-buoyant streamer, you will need to start stripping shortly after the streamer lands near shore to avoid snags near shore. In addition, you will want to take make two or more quick strips to get past other snags in shallow water. Once your streamer has reached deeper water you can wait longer between strips to get your streamer deeper.
These are just the basics of using a sink tip fly line. Thereβs much more to say but this should be enough to persuade you to consider trying a sink tip fly line and give you enough knowledge to make it easier to do this style of fly fishing effectively!
