Streamer Techniques

[dgames]

Seeing some of the previous topics on various nymph fishing techniques got me to thinking about streamer fishing. I have read a lot of material, fished with several guides and have spent a number of years on the water working on nymph fishing. In comparison, I have done very little streamer fishing. While I have caught fish stripping wooly buggers and a few other streamers, I don't consider this one of my strengths.

Say you are approaching a large wide riffle area with some deeper pocket and you want to cover that water with a streamer. What is your approach? The type of water I am thinking of is like what you would see around rim shoals on the white or pointe royale area at Taneycomo.

Here is my approach. I don't own a sinking line, so for starters, I am making do with a floating line. Assuming I am throwing a wooly bugger, I tie mine with some weight on it and in addition, I would add a split shot 12 inches or so from the bugger. I would normally be using tippet 5x or heavier, depending on the size of my streamer and how heavy the water flow is.

My approach to a large riffle area would be to keep moving. My experience is that if I am going to get a hit on a wooly bugger, it is probably going to be the first cast into a particular spot. I cast generally across stream. If the fish holding spot I am targeting is deep, I might quarter upstream a little to let the fly sink for a few feet before I start any kind of retrieve. Mending in particular is where I am curious what others do. I tend to try to throw a downstream mend so that when I start a retrieve, I am presenting the fly broadside to any fish that is facing upstream, I then let the fly swing across the current while vibrating the rod tip a little to give some action. I let it swing until the fly is directly below me and will often let it hang there for a few seconds and then strip it in a little. After a couple of casts to a particular spot, I will step downsteam 5 feet or so and do it again so that I am now hitting new water. Doing this, I can cover water pretty quickly.

I generally have some success doing this approach, but I am really interested to hear what others do that fish streamer a lot.

[3wt]

I usually weight mine when tied, and try to get as much on as will fit the hook shank. For most of my buggers leeches and sculpins I like them to get down quick. I pretty much cast across, quarter up or even downstream.

Be careful downstream mending. You might be suprised how fast you are making your fly move due to the current and the swinging motion. I think over-fast swinging flies look pretty unnatural. I sometimes do a small upstream mend to keep the swing from accelerating the fly too much.

In water that's moving fairly briskly I don't do a whole lot of stripping or retrieve, maybe just some short pulses. I also find that with streamers you can get some fish after you've presented several times, so it can be worth working slowly and changing up presentation.

And don't overlook the end of the swing. Let the fly sit "still" at the end when it's directly downstream of you for a few seconds, and even strip a few inches in pulses. You can get big hits when the fly slows down, rises and dances in the current. Just be careful because with tight line like that it's easy to break off.

[Al Agnew]

I also like to use quite a bit of weight on the streamer itself, without using a split shot farther up the line. I tie a lot of streamers with dumbbell eyes...I want the dumbbell eyes to be on the side of the hook shank away from the bend, so that the hook point rides up on the retrieve. I like the dumbbells because they help keep the streamer from rolling over during the retrieve.

As far as my approach, I don't like casting much upstream...never so much as a quartering upstream cast, mostly I cast across or slightly downstream. With any kind of upstream cast in current, it's more difficult to keep in touch with the streamer. Also, whatever kind of food the streamer is imitating usually swims with its head pointed upstream. If I mend at all, I mend upstream, not downstream.

I let the streamer sink a little bit, and then start the retrieve. I like a fairly aggressive retrieve. I've found that a lot of times a slow retrieve with lots of pauses actually turns following fish off. So I'll strip it aggressively. If I'm not getting any action doing that, I start slowing down, but trying for long, slow strips and rod sweeps rather than long pauses between strips. If that doesn't work I'll try dead drifting it. If that doesn't work I try something different.

Streamers are for actively feeding fish. They'll often come up off the bottom to hit one in the middle of the water column. They'll chase it. The faster and shallower the water is, the faster I strip it. But I also like to fish them in slow, fairly deep pools, with a slower, sweep-strip retrieve.

If you're casting across or quartering downstream in fairly strong current, letting it swing is just the natural thing to do. I'll often let the current do most of the work while letting it swing, just using a variety of very short strips or longer smoother strips without actually taking in line...pull back on the line smoothly, then move your hand forward, back and forward, which makes the streamer move forward and rise a bit, then drop back and sink a bit as it swings.

Fishing a streamer is largely a low light, low visibility technique, at least for me. I want either murky water, a cloudy day, late evening or early morning, or a lot of wind on the water. Clear water, bright daylight, and no wind will almost never see me using a streamer.

[dgames]

Thanks for the replies.