… what do you mean by that term, what kind of streamers do you fish, and how do you present them ??
The reason I ask is that often it seems like we are talking apples and oranges and turnips and tomatos and whatevers when the general topic turns to or includes comments on fishing streamers.
For example, I wade fish only moving water for trout in the Intermountain West. My streamer fishing is limited to sculpin / baitfish style streamers such as the PSC, Sanchez’s Double Bunny, Fulsher’s Thunder Creek minnows, and Night Angler’s PMS and Hibernator. I typically fish these streamers off a Class II full sinking line and present them down and across and swing them across the current adding steady, short, stripping motion.
Night Angler’s Hibernator is very similar to my PSC. He fishes it at night in stillwater as a leech, as I best recall from one of our discussions. Virtually the same fly, but a radically different presentation in a totally different situation.
So there’s an apple and an orange to get it started. How about telling us what you mean by the term “streamers” and where and how you use them.
depends, sometimes I’ll just go with a small wooley bugger…deadly on lakes stripped slow.
other times I’ll go with something that’s just downright filthy, like this:
good old sculpzilla…
that works pretty good either swung down and across, or dead-drifted and the swung up towards the surface. I really like it for swinging under log jams. That’s mainly what I fish for with trout…if the water is pretty deep and swift, I’ll throw it on a 7-10ft sink tip but that’s usually unnecessary so it usually gets fished off of a floating line on a straight non-tapered leader no longer than 6’
for bass & the salt, I’ll typically just reach for a standard clouser in various colors & vary up the retrieve until I find what the fish like the most.
Hi John, for me I think any fly designed to imitate a creature able to move against the current is a streamer. I usualy fish them on a sinking line or a fast sinking tip and Swing them accross the current or strip them in if fishing Lakes. If you need to swing/strip rather than dead drift or twitch you are fishing streamers regardless of pattern.
Just my thoughts.
All the best.
Mike.
I “prefer” to fish bucktails on a sink tip line in moving waters. That is what I enjoy the most. But still do my share of buggers and leeches when dredging the big holes or still waters.
My streamer fishing is usually focused on warmwater chasing LM or hybrid bass. For that application, I prefer a polar fiber minnow tied in similar to a baby bunker or a clouser minnow, usually tied in olive, over chartruese over white. That being said, I fish leech patterns all the time fly for bass, bream and trout. I don’t really consider leech patterns streamers since I am not trying to immitate a small fish. Just my 2 cents worth.
Streamers are a fly…having said that :roll: , I too, think of streamers as a bait fish imitation.
I’ve been focusing on stillwater the last couple of years and usually use a T-200.
My favorite streamer patterns are the old classics…here’s one I tied for a recent swap.
When I think streamers I think of big articulated stingers tied with plumes of marabou , lots of flash ,and a big dear or wool head. When i fish them I like to cover lots of water and keep active playing with all types of retrieves. On moving water I hardly ever fish them on the swing or a dead drift I know I should but my A.D.D always kicks in and i start stripping. On still water how ever i do use a dead drift allot more but that’s just because i usually have a beer in my hand. Depending on my fly weight and the depth I plan on fishing I will use either a floating line or a 200gr sinking line i cut down to fit my 6WT. White is my favorite color most of the time.
I like streamer fishing when the conditions are favorable for it. Typically I’ll fish them as you described, down and across. I tend to fish smaller eastern streams so sinking lines don’t or at least for me, haven’t gotten a lot of use. I’ll us a floating line with a 6’ or so 2 or 3x leader. I have a variety of patterns I like, Micky Finns, Sculpin, Black Nose Dace, all the various woolly buggers, egg sucking leeches, my version of the 3/9 and one of my favorites is this one.
Just a cone head with lead wraps on the hook, a strip of rabbit and a bit of marabou. I’ve been particularly successful with this and it’s variations fished almost like a jig. Bounce this along the bottom, not quite a dead drift, but with a little lift or bounce now and again and it’s been deadly.
A Streamer pattern is anything that represents anything other than an insect. In addition to classic streamer baitfish patterns, the classification can also include bucktails, Clousers, Wooley Buggers, Deceivers, Puglisi -Style flies, Crawfish patterns, Wooley Buggers, etc…
For us, Streamers would cover everything from small leeches and buggers to twelve inch long Cuda flies.
While we look forward to the times when a floating line or a sink tip are indicated, the vast majority of the time we turn to the use of full sinking lines and more commonly shooting heads in varying sink rates.
The retrieves cover the gamut, from the inching along creep 'n hop, strip - stop & drop, strip & twitch to ripping strips as fast and as long as your arm can reach. Swinging a streamer with a tip or integrated head on our rivers works too.
Photo depicts a small cross section of our " typical " streamers.
Often, I drift my “golden retriever” under an indicator - I guess I’m “nymphing a streamer”
I think maybe it helps hide my poor mending since a little movement helps a streamer anyway.
I have pretty good luck with it in moderate moving water.
Fishing streamers on a semi-dead drift under an indicator (usually trailing a nymph or soft hackle) is a very popular technique in SW Montana on guide trips. This is especially true at the tail end of runoff or with rookies. Sculpins are not good swimmers once they’re dislodged from the bottom, so a sculpinish streamer (olive Woolly Bugger is plenty close enough) fished in this manner is entirely imitative, not to mention that screwed up baitfish of all kinds will drift downriver with the current with only an occasional twitch.
