Strike Triggers for Streamers

All about flies Fly Tying
1

Hi All,

Karli-Rea’s post got me to thinking about strike triggers on steamers…but I didn’t what to potentially hijack her post, so decided to start a new one.

I have read a bit on strike triggers, and know that some folks think that certain features on streamers add to the attactiveness to fish, and help the frequency that fish will actually take the streamer.

What are some of the features that you think, or have read, help to make streamers work better?

One feature that I have read helps is the addition of eyes on streamers. I try to put them on my larger streamers, especially the ones I have tried lately, but not necessary on the small ones for crappies and white bass, … maybe I should try some on the smaller ones too.

Another feature is the addition of red material in the gill area of streamers. Fish take that as an injury to the small bait fish, making them easier to catch, so they will take them better.

Finally, this last one is not really an added feature, but rather a total change to pattern color. That being to tie some streamers in white, red, and pink. I have read that when a minnow or other bait fish gets bruised, unlike us, they bruise all over. The head being the darkest part. Thus, I tie some of my streamers entirely in pink, sometimes with red toward the head area, and sometimes with the front part pink, and the tail area white.

Almost all plug makers have models with a red front half and a white back part, or with a red head and white body. Fisherman buy them because they work. The bruise theory is one of the reasons that has been given to explain the effectiveness of that color pattern.

At any rate, what are features that you add to try to make your streamers more effective?

Thanks and regards,

Gandolf

2

None.

At least for baitfish / sculpin streamers. Like these …

… which is the only streamer I fish. It has taken all kinds of trout in all the freestone streams and rivers I’ve fished it here in the Intermountain West and the Northern Rockies, and lots of them, and some very big fishies.

For some idea how effective such simple streamers can be, follow the link to a recent discussion covering many different places this streamer has been used successfully and how many species it has consistently caught.

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?49679-Pine-Squirrel-Cheater-Step-by-Step

I think most “strike triggers” are intended to strike the fisherman’s fancy, not catch the fishies. People who create flies to sell need a lot of triggers to get the bucks in the profit column. Those of us who create flies to catch fish mostly keep it simple and get it done, although I’m sure many approach it as a creative art and enjoy adding stuff which probably isn’t really necessary, and that’s cool.

John

P.S. The red on some of the streamers is not a “strike trigger”, it is simply an indicator that the fly has some weight added.

3

I agree whole heartedly about eyes. The other things I incorporate are contrast in colour, and movement. Articulated streamers and maribou streamers work well for me. I also always add a red throat in all of my clousers.

4

John,

I would disagree that the fly has no “strike triggers”. It has several.

One is the bulky collared head that pushes water and creates an acoustic signature/footprint that allows the lateral lines of trout to find the fly even in dark water. It creates sonic pulses that the fish interpret as a bait fish.

The second is the fur strip that undulates which also indicates life. I consider a marabou tail as a strike trigger, and I think the fur strip tail is as well.

The red thread may indicate fly weight to you but to a fish it may indicate blood or life. Flies such as the frenchie nymph use a red thread head as a “hot spot” trigger.

We may disagree, but I consider both of those features as strike triggers.

http://www.garyborger.com/2009/12/09/the-acoustic-footprint/

http://www.garyborger.com/2009/12/14/the-lateral-line/

In fact, I have a similar fly that I tie which rides hook point up. I call it the USD Squirrel Bugger

5

Silver Creek -

The question was “At any rate, what are features that you add to try to make your streamers more effective?”

I don’t add anything to the pine squirrel zonker strip that is tied on a hook in a particular manner so that it alone will be effective.

In the for what it is worth category, when I did use Keith Fulsher’s Thunder Creek Minnows, I didn’t add eyes and the fishies still ate them. When I did use Scott Sanchez’ Double Bunny, I left off the eyes and the crystal flash and the flies caught bunches of fishes. But the PSC is much simpler and has been effective enough that I have no interest in fishing other people’s patterns.

Never fished a clouser, so I can’t speak to eyes and throats on that fly. I was mentoring a novice on the lower Henry’s Fork several years ago. He was using the fly highly recommended for our outing by a very competent local guide - a clouser. He had fished without any success for the best part of an hour. I handed him my rig, with a sculpin olive PSC. He fished it over the same water he had just been fishing with the clouser. In about 20 minutes, he caught six brown trouts.

John

P.S. Regarding the features of the PSC that you consider “triggers.” I seriously doubt that the pine squirrel collar pushes any water creating an accoustical effect. The undulating fur strip is a key feature of the fly, not an added trigger. I’ve only fished the weighted version of the PSC with a red thread head to designate it is a weighted fly a couple times. It has done as well as the unweighted version without the read thread head, but not any better. In some situations, the added weight is a liability, not an enhancement to the fly.

6

I interpreted the question differently than you. I was answering this first question.

"I have read a bit on strike triggers, and know that some folks think that certain features on streamers add to the attactiveness to fish, and help the frequency that fish will actually take the streamer.

What are some of the features that you think, or have read, help to make streamers work better?"

I can see that later, Gandolf asks about adding features. Upon re-reading his original post, I think your interpretation is correct.

7

I almost always add flash to either side. I believe this may give the impression of a lateral line. I think this increases the strike count. I also tie contrasting colors and have good luck with red and white combinations.

8

I interpreted the question differently than you. I was answering this first question.

"I have read a bit on strike triggers, and know that some folks think that certain features on streamers add to the attactiveness to fish, and help the frequency that fish will actually take the streamer.

What are some of the features that you think, or have read, help to make streamers work better?"

I can see that later, Gandolf asks about adding features. Upon re-reading his original post, I think your interpretation is correct.

I believe any streamer that has a bulky front will push water when retrieved. I guess we have to disagree on this point.

In his book Long Flies, Gary Borger discusses the design properties of streamers. They include “displacement, color, shape, and action” (pp. 67).

Gary specifically discusses water “displacement” and “acoustic footprint” on pp 63-64, 67, and 93. The muddler minnow was one of the first flies with this feature. Gary writes, the muddler minnow’s “success comes from the deer hair head, which causes the fly to give off a positive acoustic footprint. In the early days of its development, no one attributed it’s success to the displacement waves it made.” As you know the muddler minnow is a sculpin imitation just like you state your pattern is.

I submit that a key feature that your fly shares with a muddler minnow is the large head, even larger and flatter than a muddler minnow. It looks like an under water popper. I have no doubt that the displacement wave that it creates on the retrieve is a key feature to its success.

I even wonder if giving the front face of the fly a light brushing with clear silicone caulk would make the fly more effects in off color water. It would stiffen the face of the fly and create a larger displacement wave.

9

eyes and tail edging. look at a minnow or even a guppie first thing is eye second is the tail edge.

10

Decided to finish up a really good day of fishing today stripping an unweighted PSC.

No eyes. No flash. No throat. Just a strip of sculpin olive pine squirrel zonker fastened to a hook in a particular way.

Had this guy and two other fishies just like him in about fifteen minutes. Then it was time to head home and get some dinner.

John

11

Let’s see, you’ve got a red head, bulky thorax, tail for movement, and color to match naturals. You don’t consider any of these triggers? Huh.

12

Well, actually, this was an unweighted version so it didn’t have any red thread on it. ( My original PSC is unweighted and has been fished many, many times. The weighted version has only been fished once or twice, quite recently for a particular situation. )

I don’t consider the features of the basic fly “triggers”. I consider them features of the fly, without which there would be no fly. Maybe it is semantics, but the original post was about what you add to the fly to make it more effective. I don’t add anything to the PSC ( the red thread is incidental on the weighted versions to indicate that the fly is weighted ).

John

13

So from what I know, a sculpin is a camouflaged, bland fish, living in pretty darn clear water. To imitate them, you don’t want to add a lot. No contrast, no flash…

Shad and minnows are not so camouflaged. They have much more flash and contrast, and seem to be generally more active throughout the water column.

It seems we are comparing apples to oranges a bit here.

14

Not only apples and oranges, Zac, but how about bananas, or pears ??

I tend to refer to the PSC as a baitfish / sculpin pattern, and I think it serves as both kind of depending on the water where it is fished. Probably, for the most part, it serves as a baitfish, not in the sculpin, shad, or minnow categories. Not sure what this guy took a PSC for this afternoon, maybe a juvenile salmon, cutt, or steelhead, which are all in the system right now, but I certainly enjoyed meeting him. The largest, by far, of the few bull trout I have caught, and one of the strongest, hardest fighting fish I’ve caught on my home water.

Having said that, I still think a lot of the “strike triggers” are added to streamer patterns to strike the fancy of anglers, not get fishies to strike.

John

15

IMO, usually in a verbal interaction there are two kinds of people; those who seek consensus and those who maintain their point regardless of the views and comments of other parties. Thus, for me the distinction between a conversation and a debate.
In the conversation on adding triggers: I agree include eyes although I am often too lazy to do it. For the last few years I almost always add gills.
Two items not mentioned yet because the question was on streamers, but which have helped on other flies, are egg sacks to distinguish female mayflies and caddis, and a small clear glass bead representing an air bubble on diving caddis/boatmen, or emerging caddis and mayflies. I believe wraps of silver tinsel formerly did this job, but I think the bead is better.
I have some flies by Fran Betters (later years) which were all tied with hot red thread regardless of the pattern, so I would say he thought that was a trigger.

16

And here isanother one which I am going to try again this summer for smallmouth. It is theuse of a dodger ahead of my streamers. For those who don’t follow rainbow andsalmon fishing in the Great Lakes (as an example), a dodger is a spoon-likeplate linked on the line about 2ft ahead of the bait. The dodger both attractsby its flash and affects the bait by making it move irratically.
Thinking ofthis I devised a ‘dodger’ using false fingernails, and the most interestingthing is that in the current the streamer moved SIDEWAYS some of the time,rather than up and down which would be usual when applying various tensions. Unfortunately the false fingernails aresomewhat fragile.
In the thread on that topic a few years ago, the use of a button on the leaderwas also mentioned, and a few different sizes might do the trick. Pettitjean has a small plastic cone to slip onthe leader (big end forward) which basically does the same job. One of the bestworm jigs I ever had used this addition 50 years ago.

So a trigger I am going to add this year is a button up the leader, or maybethe plastic fingernails (with a few holes hot-needled into them for threadingthe leader) to give the streamer that manic wobble.