Okay, I use wooly buggers, zonkers, muddlers, etc in stillwater, but I Know they kick on rivers also. When I fish rivers I usually use a dry/dropper or indicator and two nymphs.
Around here several of the fellow FF use streamers, but I have yet to try it. I would think that I would probably do the cross/drift/strip tech, but, what do you all use and how?
I have use streamers on the bigger rivers of Idaho, but not here in the rocky mountains, due to the fact I use either a 2wt to 4wt and either bamboo or glass, plus the full flex graphites. I like to feel the take.
I pretty much use a standard across and down, swing and strip style myself. I may do a mend or two to get the fly down, but once the line starts to swing, the fly is going to rise anyway.
Most takes come on the swing or on the dangle (always let the fly stay on the dangle for a few seconds before stripping). The rest of the heavy strikes are on the first couple of short strips in.
When the takes is on a tight line, there is no missing it. 4 wgt boo took a nice 16 inch cutt in Idaho with a muddler. (shhh, that’s between you and me)
Goddess,
I don’t know you can get from this info, but when I flyfished for steelhead with a Guide. He hammered on me the whole day to MEND my line so the fly was downstream ahead of the line.
There was no stripping involved, except to recover the fly. I was told to drift the fly into holding areas. I envisioned that the fly was to dangle on the steelhead’s nose and it would strike.
Unfortunately the theory wasn’t proven since I didn’t get a bump all day.
In my opinion the Muddler Minnow is one of the most famous flies of all time. It is unique because of the deer head and very lean body. It looks simple but I never learned to tie it. The variations on the Muddler are amazing.
Doug
I use the swing mentioned by Ron as well as stripping, and let the fish tell me which technique to stay with. If I’m stripping, I’ll vary the speed and timing. (ex: strip, strip, strip, pause, strip, pause,…; or a simple fast, static strip) If I get a bump while stripping fast, I switch to a slower strip and pause or swing technique.
Fast stripping can be very effective. But I’ve also seen trout hit the tail of my streamer while I was stripping it, yet not hook themselves. I try to stop the retrieve when that happens to see if the trout will take the streamer as it drifts. When this happens, I switch to a slower strip and pause, or swing technique.
Another technique is to give your streamer a little action while it swings by raising and lowering your rod tip a little, or stripping a few inches of line.
The answers above are good but give this a try- use a sink tip or full sinking line, you’ll be surprised how many more strikes you’ll get . It will get the fly down. And from my experience bigger fish will see the fly.
I used my sink tip a lot this year. I caught a lot of trout and they averaged larger than I had before.
Thanks, I do use a TYPE II on rivers (I prefer the full sink, but that is just me)
I also have a streamer line that is 15’ of sink tip with floating following. I agree, gets you down there, and I don’t weight many of my flies, other that the bead heads.
Get yourself a copy of Kelly Galloup and Bob Linsenman’s book “Streamer Fishing for Trophy Trout”. Kelly also did a DVD on the book which sells through FlyFish TV. Good stuff.
Part of the ‘secret’ in Kelly’s book is how the fly is retreived. Especially true on big flies, retrieve them fast - as if it is a bait fish discovering it is in the wrong place and needs to get out of there fast. There are a large group of folks who believe big flies = big fish.
For the most part that would be me, but the big ones this summer where indeed caught on smaller (size 12 and smaller) flies and during the winter I have no trouble with size 32’s and good size fish, but I will stress, I never go smaller than 6X tippet.
Hi,
When I use a streamer in a river, I tend to use a typical down and across presentation. Floating or sinking line can be used, basically try one and if nothing seems to happen, switch and try the other.
As for patterns, I use Micky Finns, Cossebooms, Spruce Fly, various matuka patterns, and red setters (and variations thereof). I’ve been tying up some Spey style flies using Pukeko feathers (a native NZ bird) which look good in the water, but I’ve not had a chance to really give them a go.
Generally, however, I tend to use streamers more in lakes and such, and often forget to try them out in the rivers. Ooops!
Tie some of these up, it’s a Clouser Foxee Minnow. There is no wrong way to fish it, fish will take it fished upstream, downstream, across stream, dead drift, you name it and it works.
A buddy from The Land of the Long White Cloud sent me a few Pukeko feathers, along with some Scotch Poachers. Both the feathers and the flies work very well on our trout here. Those feathers have a beautiful bluish sheen in the water. Can’t find another feather that works as a substitute.
I agree. On a Pukeko there are the blue feathers and there are black as well, both are very useful for flies. Scotch Poachers are very popular night flies, and I have a few of those tied up myself. There are a few patterns in a similar “style” as the Scotch Poacher, which simply change the colour of the body and hackle, etc. They are often tied very large here (size 4) and used at night. Are you using them as day or night flies? And what sizes do you use?
For my “spey” flies, I use either colour for the long flowing hackle, though still use mallard feathers for the wing (and still do the the wing badly, but its fishable). The results are a fly with a lot of motion, and they have looked great in the water on the few times I remember to test them out.
Micky Finns, Silver Doctors, Black Nosed Dace and Hornbergs along with the Wooly Buggers. Generally fished across and let it sweep at the bottom. Hold it there for a few seconds and then strip it in.
Caught this beauty on a dinky streamer last year. Casted across and worked it down - - - mending, and mending till it was bouncing off the bottom. I cauti ously waded down stream with the fly too.
Orvis T3 864-4
Orvis WF-4F Streamer
8 lb to 4 lb Flouro Leader/Tippet
Size 12 Weighted Muddler (or was it a 14? I don’t remember but it was tiny).
