Fall Streamer Fly Fishing: 3 Tips for More Strikes
Streamer Fishing Is One of the Most Visual and Exciting Ways To Fish for Trout
As a former member of the U.S. Youth Fly Fishing Team, I picked up some streamer tricks that are useful for both new and experienced anglers.
Here are 3 tips to consider when you’re “hucking meat” this fall.
1. Approach the Water With a Plan
Joel (holding the brown trout) & Thomas Hierholzer of the Virginia Tech Fly Fishing Club.
Avoid Stepping in the Water as Much as Possible
I can't tell you how many people (including myself) I've seen blow up a hole before they even make one cast.
Think about your steps before you make them. Have a planned approach before you start to fish.
You'll be surprised how many more fish you'll catch with this tip alone.
Don’t Ignore the Skinny Water
Oftentimes, anglers avoid skinny water in favor of deeper pools.
Granted, there are big fish in pools, but, more often than not, the actively feeding fish are in shallower water where it's easier for them to hold, feed, and corner baitfish.
I prefer to fish water four feet or less with decent flow, as these are the areas I get the most action.
Small Water Fly Fishing: Streamer Design and Tactics
Time of Day
As the sun gets progressively higher in the sky, the more traditional methods of fly fishing (dry flies, nymphing, wet flies) tend to slow.
On a sunny day at high noon, I like to use streamers with a lot of flash to attract fish. It kind of has a “disco ball” effect in the water that fish simply can’t resist.
Who said fish aren’t fans of The Trammps?
2. Target and Retrieve
James Molloy, president of the Union Fly Fishing Club, demonstrates "The Mend."
Structure
Structure in a stream can be a little more abstract than in lakes.
Aside from the obvious downed tree, undercut bank, or misplaced shopping cart (we’ve all been there), look for subtle differences.
Pushing Fly Fishing Forward: The Next Generation
Focus on small dips in the stream bed, slightly larger rocks, and where the river bottom changes color.
Brown trout particularly are attracted to these parts of the river. A nice pair of polarized sunglasses (I personally like Costa’s 580 silver mirror lenses) helps detect these areas.
Downstream and Across Retrieve
Traditional streamer fishing dictates to cast your fly downstream, with an upstream retrieve.
I suggest the opposite.
Instead, try casting upstream with a downstream retrieve, as this more accurately imitates a distressed baitfish and causes fish to instinctively chase the fly.
Another retrieve to try is (when the fly is 90 degrees in front of you) to let the fly swing and strip it perpendicular to the current. This offers “a full view” of the fly to the fish.
Paired with long, fast strips, this becomes a deadly way to fish streamers.
They’re at Your Feet, Dude! 6 Reasons To Make Shorter Casts When Wade Fishing
“The Mend"
While performing a downstream and across retrieve, when the fly is 90 degrees from you, try a quick mend. This causes the fly to rapidly change direction.
Oftentimes when this change direction occurs, it induces a strike – even by fish who have denied the fly on a previous cast!
3. Fly Design
Weight the Front End
Weighting the front end of your fly with a Fish-Skull Sculpin Helmet or Baitfish Heads, along with tungsten wire in the front half of the hook, will cause your fly to have a jig-like motion.
This jig-like motion simulates a dying baitfish, and triggers more strikes from hungry trout!
Traditional Streamer Hooks Don’t Work
Through trial and error, I've found most traditional streamer hooks don’t work. Either they pop out of the fish’s mouth or are prone to foul-hooking them.
Instead, use hooks with wider gaps and smaller shanks. After using Gamakatsu B10s hooks for the past few months, I've found the extra hook gap has increased my percentage of solid hookups!
Importance of Variety – Weights, Colors, Flash
Variety is an important element of any streamer box.
A good streamer box should consist of flies that have varying weights, colors (brown, olive, black, tan, white), and flash (none, some, and a lot).
You don’t necessarily need a lot of patterns; just a few variations of a handful of “confidence patterns”.
The fewer patterns you have in your box, the less time you spend picking them and more time fishing!
Quick Review
Approach the water with a plan, look for subtle structure, and offer the fish a variety of retrieves and fly patterns.
Then get ready to buckle in!
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Enjoy tying streamers? Check out our step-by-step streamer fly tying tutorials to learn new patterns!
About Andrew Loffredo:
Andrew is the TU Costa 5 Rivers Coordinator at Trout Unlimited, where he assists college students with starting, organizing, and managing TU-affiliated collegiate fly fishing clubs. He has over a decade of fly fishing experience, including being a member of the U.S. Youth Fly Fishing Team and president of the Virginia Tech Fly Fishing Club. For more information on the 5 Rivers program, or if you would like to start a TU-affiliated 5 Rivers fly fishing club, please contact Andrew at aloffredo@tu.org.
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I disagree with the use of smaller shanks. As a fly tier ,fly fisherman and guide I would like to know how you would ever be able to keep a streamer wing ( either marabou, hackles, hair, synthetic, or any other material ) from twisting under the shank of a short shank hook when retrieved? It happens. And usually when on a drift only a single cast presents itself. I prefer 3-6x long streamer hooks, preferably by Daiichi for all my streamer patterns. Down Maine they use 8x long hooks for their streamers, not for the tandems.
Also, when a trout eats a streamer it sucks it in deeply potentially gill hooking that fish.
Traditional length hooks with wider gapes like stinger hooks
that are made 2-3X strong to reduce their flexibility might work ok. But you can achieve the same result by changing hooks from a # 6, 6X long to a #2 4X long. That will result in approximately the same shank length with a wider gape
Try it.
“Doc” Cohen sudburydmd@comcast.net
I like the suggestion of using a shorter, but larger, hook. I’ve been using streamers tied on 10’s and 12’s. That fishing would benefit from a larger hook.
Also, I’ve been fishing the small streamers while dead drifting an unweighted streamer behind light split shot. The takes are very light, like a trout taking a nymph. These fish aren’t being self-hooked. The hook needs to be set to get them.
The trout have consistently been hitting the dead drift more than the stripped retrieve.
The biggest fish this year, using the dead drift technique, have been a 22" palomino, a 24" pickerel, and an 18" smallmouth. Earlier in the year I landed a 17" brown that had the streamer and a live black salamander sticking out of its mouth.
Big fish don’t mind eating dying minnows.
yes please
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