Streamer Fishing

Streamer Fishing for Trout - Overview of Techniques and Tackle

The general theme is casting at or near a place where a fish might be. The angler is required to both 1) cast a streamer - anything from a 1 inch woolly bugger to a 10 inch rainbow trout lookalike - to a likely spot, and 2) animate the fly during the retrieve in order to simulate fleeing, injured, or dying prey. The process of casting and animation during retrieval can take on many forms. Preferred technique(s) can be dictated by as many variables as you’d like, which include, but are not limited to: angler experience, fly selection, rod, line, the conditions, current speed or the target species.

Angler Experience: Zero experience is required to fish with me. I cannot say this with enough emphasis. Trout fishing, fly fishing, fishing big flies and sinking line with rods bigger than some are used to - none of these present a challenge that cannot be overcome with willingness to learn something new, and an admittedly large amount of effort. That said, the more experience an angler has, the higher the odds are of sticking of a fish. Some of my most memorable days guiding have involved very challenging conditions and a lot of not catching fish. They are memorable because the tough bites and bad conditions provide an opportunity for me to get as deep into my bag of tools as I can, which doubles as a chance for me to show off different teaching techniques and fishing styles. As an angler learns different strategies, experiments with different rod and line configurations, and casts streamers with varying degrees of weight, air resistance, and water retention, we can start to find the most enjoyable combination, and pair that with what the river is giving us that day.

Fly Selection: I tie as a part of my job, as a means of creative outlet, and for my own enjoyment on the water. Certain sets of conditions can call for a specific presentation, which can change from one 50 yard stretch of river to the next. If the situation calls for it, we’ll fish the biggest flies that can be casted on fast action 8 weights. I bring 10 weights in the event that clients might want to explore what might happen if we start approaching a 32 inch trout the same way we would approach a 32 inch musky. Hair flies, topwater, jig flies, 1 inch shad patterns, swinging crawdad imitations - I’ll never accept that I know the only way to approach these rivers or the fish in them, so I enjoy providing as much guidance as possible, based on my experience, while leaving the final call on fly to the angler.

Rod(s): We typically use 7 and 8 weight, 9’ fly rods while fishing from my boat. Unlike some of the more well-known fisheries, including the takeaway that most anglers bring back from fishing the South Holston, our targeted approach involves very little open water casting and retrieving, casting and retrieving, casting and retrieving. We target certain sections and subsurface structures based on time of year, flows, and what I continue to see and learn and attempt to pattern while fishing others and on my own. In doing this, a lot of our casts are ‘close quarters’ - not necessarily short casts, but with obstacles behind, above, and in between the angler and the target. Said another way without as many words, we spend the most time casting into the fishy spots. In moving water, from a boat, regardless of angler experience, I have found that the fast action 7s and 8s are able to load and deliver almost all of the flies I’d want to use, using sinking line with the sink rate and grain weight that is most appropriate for the task at hand. I am always trying newly released products, and our aresenal will include what I believe are the best rods available for what we do.

My current favorites and boat mainstays are the Scott Centric 7 weight, Echo Streamer X 8 Weight, and the Temple Fork Outfitters Axiom ii-x 7 weight.

Line(s): Outside of specific circumstances like mousing and baitball blitzing striper, we will full sink line, with grain weights of anywhere between mid-200s to mid-300s. My current favorite combinations are the Rio Outbound Short 7wt I/S5/S7 265gr with both the Scott and TFO rods, while I have gravitated toward the Airflo Shovelhead 330gr and the Scientific Anglers Triple Density 3/5/7 for casting larger flies on the 8weight Streamer X.

Leader: The leader doesn’t matter for fish spooking purposes. You can reread that a few times if it’s an unfamiliar concept. They won’t see or care about fly line, not to mention the leader. Leader does, however, play an incredibly important role in our ability to both cast and most effectively animate our flies. As a rule, for the ‘swim flies’ aka the flies using buoyant material like deer hair, I like to try to get down to 16 or even 12 lb fluoro, with the butt section made of a foot or so of 20-30 mono. We put our flies into bad places, and while we do lose flies during a day, which is part of the process, 16lb fluoro or even straight 20lb mono (20lb fluoro is a bit too stiff) can snap branches off and bring in a pile of years-old leaves from a log jam without breaking, and still be supple enough to allow the fly to move in the water naturally.

Learning how to cast and retrieve properly takes time, doing so when it counts takes a lot of practice, and capitalizing on a strike by setting the hook properly takes more practice (and a good number of lost fish). I believe that this type of angling is the most active, engaging, and universal way to fish with a fly rod. The practice of casting then retrieving a streamer, along with everything I teach throughout a day of fishing, translates directly to Pike/Musky in the Northwoods, Giant Trevally in Seychelles, Peacock Bass in the jungles, Smallmouth Bass on midwest lakes and rivers, Redfish, Snook, and Tarpon in the gulf, Stripers in the Atlantic…and the trout in all of the small spring creeks and limestone streams.