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3. Streamer Fishing

What’s your favorite rod, weight and line combo?I,ve been fishing a h3d 8 wght with orvis depth charge 300gr and a mirage reel 7-9wt.What’s your favorite way to fish it?We fish from drift boats and rafts.Also who is your favorite streamer fly designer Gunnar Brammer,Kelly Galloup etc.

I fish two rigs based on streamer length and weight. A 9' #7 floater or sink tip depending on water conditions for sizes #1 - #6 and a 9' #6 floater for #4 - #8. I never use streamers smaller than a #8 for trout. I prefer to wade fish when throwing but have a drift boat and will throw from the bow if someone rows for me. I use various retrieves but prefer steady long, 18" - 24", strips. Although in very cold water, 45 - 48, degrees I have done surprisingly well throwing across, mending up river, and letting it dead drift along the bottom.

I'm old-fashioned when it comes to streamers. I like a Royal Coachman streamer, Woolly Buggers, and my own ripoff of the Comet steelhead fly, the KBF. I go smaller than Matt, though - #10 is my favorite size. And my favorite WB variation is my POG bugger - peacock (body), olive (-dyed grizzly marabou for the tail), and grizzly (natural hackle palmered then counter-wrapped with green wire). Makes a fair sculpin imitation when well weighted.

Oh, Marabou Muddlers as well! And use various colors of dyed grizzly marabou for the wing, and plenty of weight.

Caveat: most of my waters are smaller, though I do plenty of stillwater fly fishing as well. I use a 9-foot 5-weight with a WF floating line, though I have a sink-tip on a spare spool if I need it. The nice thing about the floating line is you don't have to change it if they start popping dries off the surface. One of my favorite spots, Reid Lake, is 38 feet at the deepest and mostly 15-20, but I've pulled rainbows out of there up to 18 1/2" using a floating line and # 6 streamer (with lead-dumbbell eyes for weight).

So, you can take this info and just scale it up a bit and see if it works with your situation. Tight lines!

Jonathon

This is good info, so Johnathon: when your Doing Stillwater , do you alter your retrieve style/speed a bit? I’ve never really still water fished for trout only warm water species. Also, do you do a countdown to dial into proper depth?

Thanks,

David

We also fish the water other guides tend to row thru as they refer to it as slack water on our rivers and have very good success streamer fishing. Typically once you find wear they are feeding in the water column its on. Do your count and switch up your retrieval fast short or long slow throw in a jig or two.

David, I always try to give my streamers an irregular retrieve:

strip....strip strip…..…………..STRIP...strip...strip strip…

Like a crippled baitfish having a hard time keeping equilibrium in a Stillwater, or the natural irregular movements of small fish in streams as they are hit by microcurrents that push them a little this way or that. And yes, when fishing Reid Lake or somewhere of similar depth, I give it a while to sink but don't really count, sometime set the rod down and take a quaff from the canteen, then pick it up and start my retrieve.

In a shallow spot like [REDACTED] Pond I use lighter weight (bead-chain versus lead dumbells) and start my retrieve a few seconds after it lands. Otherwise you might kiss it goodbye, even though you can see it in the log right below you. And I haven't snorkeled there since the 4-5" red-bellied leeches showed up in 2013, so that fly is GONE.

An aquatic organism having a hard time is easy food. That poor mayfly nymph that accidentally let go or is desperately trying to reach the surface, that crippled little minnow flashing in the sunlight, or sculpin darting from rock to rock trying to avoid Mister Brown...put something in front of them that looks like that and acts like that, they'll eat it!

Jonathon