Streamer fishing

When you arrive at an unfamiliar put-and-take water and do not know where the fish are holding, knot on a streamer. It is a larger fly that resembles a baitfish or a leech, and you fish it actively on the retrieve. Where a nymph is fished quietly, the streamer provokes reaction takes, and it covers a lot of water in a short time. That makes it your best searching fly.

Why you start with a streamer

With a streamer you quickly cover both area and depth and can read where the fish are. It is especially effective on freshly stocked rainbow trout, which often chase without hesitating. Once you have found the fish you can finesse with a nymph if the takes thin out, but it is the streamer that shows you where to concentrate the fishing.

Streamers to carry

The Woolly Bugger in black, size 8 to 10, is the safe start. Zonker and Muddler are alternatives that look more like baitfish, and Booby is a floating streamer that you fish over the bottom on a sinking line and hang in the pauses. Colour follows the same logic as for all flies: muted in clear water, attractor colour on freshly stocked fish and in coloured water.

Vary the retrieve until the fish answer

1. Cast out and count the fly down to the depth you want.
2. Retrieve in short strips with pauses in between.
3. Change tempo. Sometimes the fish want it fast, sometimes a slow, even pull.

Keep contact with the line the whole time. The take often comes in the stop, when the fly sinks after a strip, and then you want to feel the grab at once and set a firm strike. A common mistake is to stand with too much slack line, which means the take is barely felt.

Read what the fish want

Two ways of fishing cover most of it. The first is short, snappy strips with clear stops, which imitate a fleeing baitfish and fire the hunting instinct. The second is a slow, even retrieve where the fly just creeps forward, which often works best on sluggish or chilled fish. Start actively and slow down if you get follows but no takes. If you see a fish follow all the way in without taking, a small stop or a sudden burst of speed right at the bank can trigger the take.

Reach the right depth

It is usually the line, not the fly, that decides whether you reach the fish. Have a floating line for shallow fishing and an intermediate or sinking line for deeper water. A Booby fished on a sinking line just above the bottom is a reliable trick when the fish hold deep and will not come up. More patterns and selection sit in the fly overview.