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3. Streamer trout

I probably have posted some of these streamer caught fish pictures before but some might be new. It is funny almost all of my really big fish 23" - 25" have been caught on little dry flies but I have caught exponentially more 18" - 22" browns on streamers.

I really only fish three colors for trout. The two pictures at the bottom and an all white with silver flash. I met Jeff Blood (father of the Blood Dot egg pattern) and he told me that when minnows die they lose all their color and basically turn white but maintain the bright silver median line. He told me that dead minnows just float along in the river and trout know they are easy prey and key in on them when they are present. I have had many instances where I throw an all white #6 Clouser up stream and just control the line as it floats back towards me. No action is imparted to the fly and often the line will dart off in the opposite direction as a trout picks it up or when I go to lift for another cast there is a fish already on.

I use all kinds and weights of the dumb bell eyes depending on flow volume, depth, turbidity, etc. I use aluminum eyes, nickel plated brass eyes, lead eyes, recessed eyes, those bulbous Eye Ballz, bead chain eyes. When the flow regime is more than 800 cfs on the Delaware or WB I normally go to a 10'-15' sink tip and a leader never longer than 3' if the water is stained.

I see you took my suggestion, Matt. Thanks, those are all beautiful big fish! Yes, it is ironic that you catch bigger ones on tiny dries than on big, meaty-looking streamers. Who knows, the trout aren't talking, if they could I would ask them if they think my hopper imitations really are grasshoppers!

Looks like big Clouser Minnows as you described. I see at least one that looks grey and white. I've now officially caught my biggest flyrod trout ever on a streamer, too.

Jonathon

P.S. Aha, you've posted more and the fly pics too. Thanks!

Matt, if you don't mind what weight rod do you like for streamer size and line you use.
Mike.

It is based on how big the flies I am using and how long I think I will be fishing. It gets very tiring throwing 60 - 70 feet over and over every minute or so. I've been doing it for so many years that I have developed the ability to make one false cast so the fly lands about 30' in front of me and I immediately pick it up and make one back cast and shoot another 30' - 40' so my entire cast is 60' - 70'. I prefer to use a 9' #6 fast action rod with a Wulff WF Triangle Taper line. Problem is with the #6 rod I can't effectively throw flies bigger than a #2 or Clousers with lead eyes. The cast collapses because the line is just too light to carry that big 1# or 1/0# more than 30'. When I use a 9' #7 fast action rod I use an Orvis streamer tip line. The first 15' sinks.

BTW I use the heaviest butt leaders I can find. At least .024" or thicker. Also I like a leader no longer than 7 1/2'. Like I said I normally use Seaguar 0X but you could get by with a good 1X. I like the loop knot to attach the fly as it does allow the fly to move freely within the loop. But I get lazy and once I've changed flies a few times I usually just go with a regular clinch knot, moistened before pulling it tight.

I can only throw those long casts and do the repetitive retrieve for about two hours and I'm played out. However if I'm in my Hyde and the oarsman is very good I can stand in the bow and throw for 4 - 6 hours because I'm not having to throw more than 30' as the rower positions the boat close to the bank on an angle so when I make the backcast the hook is away from the rower. I always pinch the barbs on the streamer hooks. Burying a barbed hook in my buddy can really ruin his day.

Over the past couple of years I've hooked my best bud twice while we were frantically casting to rising fish. Once in the arm and once right in the top of his nose! Bled like a son of a gun. He is a righty and I'm a lefty. We were casting to rising fish on the right bank. I was in the stern and he was in the bow so whenever we made our back casts the lines were inside the boat. We should of changed places so our back casts were outside the boat. Luckily both times the hooks were #18.

"Over the past couple of years I've hooked my best bud twice while we were frantically casting to rising fish. Once in the arm and once right in the top of his nose! Bled like a son of a gun. He is a righty and I'm a lefty. We were casting to rising fish on the right bank. I was in the stern and he was in the bow so whenever we made our back casts the lines were inside the boat. We should of changed places so our back casts were outside the boat. Luckily both times the hooks were #18."

Yes, thank goodness it WASN'T one of your weighted Clousers!! Another advantage to using dry flies...I once hooked a teenager who walked behind me, right in front of his parents! In spite of my extreme apologetic outburst they said it was all his fault anyway...and luckily it was a #12 EHC if I remember. I also remember his Mom, "I'm a nurse, let me do this" causing him pain by trying to be slow and gentle. No no no, don't fiddle with it....I finally clamped on the hemos and yanked it straight out fast and clean. "Did that hurt?" "Nope!" It's like someone being too delicate with a fish when unhooking - you want to be gentle but the longer you keep them up in the air the longer they're suffocating (and drying out in general).

BTW Matt, you do have some good fishing stories to tell!

Jonathon

Jonathon,



Haha, only about a million!

Your right Jonathon, and sometimes, like this one, his posts are rich with information you can use, and has been tried and tested. Great bit of info there Matt on dying minnows, rod weight, and fly lines.

What hook you using there.

Eric sent me a pic from the Fly Fishing Museum's banquet the other night where they celebrated Mr. Clouser's 78'th birthday.

Thanks for posting this. The flies picture just got saved to the computer.

Spence

To all, note how sharp the hooks are on the gray over white and blue over white Clouser! Needle sharp. Those are Mustad 34007 hooks. They are quite dull out of the box. I take a few swipes across the top, and each side with a flat 6" jeweler's file to get it closer to being sharp and then take a diamond hone and finish the procedure until the point will easily dig into my fingernail when drawn across it.