Earlier this week, I fished a trophy trout river in Spain teeming with big browns. A Spaniard familiar with the river recommended nymphs and small streamers like woolly buggers.
The day before I fished another river (below) known for large browns and rainbows. This river was narrow and technical like a spring creek which called for short, precise casts plus a million snags from bushy banks and trees.
So I was excited about getting on bigger water the next day. Upon entering the river, I saw large trout everywhere and didn't see another fisherman all day.
I started at 7 am in a wide section of the river with a slow current. There were weed beds on the bottom with active trout in feeding lanes literally everywhere I looked.
I had my 5 weight and took a half dozen streamers in the 3-3.5" range. It was raining and as this was my first time to this river I wasn't fishing with a lot of confidence. I was second guessing my flies especially my streamers but I fished on.
I casted to deep runs, seams, banks, slow currents you name it but I couldn't buy a strike.
I tried several dries as well as a nymph which I wasn't feeling.
I literally chucked every streamer I had simply because I wanted to go big or go home even if that meant striking out ... I thought surely I could entice a strike on one of my streamers but nothing.
In the span of 10 minutes I lost my iphone and dslr: the phone got a few drops of water from a streamer in my fly box. Then I took my camera unwisely in a neoprene case around my shoulder and waded too deep in a spot I was unfamiliar with and that was all she wrote.
After lunch, I went back to the river and observed a couple trout feeding at the head of a riffle that opened to a large pool with active fish.
I decided that they were feeding on nymphs so I tied on a beadhead prince and fished a slow deep current and hooked a trout.
I lost the fish about a foot from my net on 4X but I could see it and feel that it was a big boy.
I changed to 3X and fished the same nymph in another run and caught a small brown.
That afternoon the sun came out so I threw a hopper around the edge of some cattails just because I was in the mood to fish the surface in beautiful light.
I splashed the hopper in the middle of weed beds because every now and then there would be ferocious strikes from the middle of impossibly thick vegetation.
Back to streamers - all I see and read about is people chucking meat and catching huge browns - I'm not buying that the large browns in this river only eat salad so I will try streamers in this spot again but clearly nymphs were more effective as they resulted in my only catch and a hookup and break off. The fish I lost fought like a bull jumping and bucking from the hook set until breaking off a foot from my net.
I'm kind of scratching my head re: streamers which I haven't fished a lot. If anyone has any experience, advice, tips, suggestions I'm all ears.
My 9' #5 was struggling with the weighted streamers so I'm looking forward to taking my #7 next time but I'm new to the streamer game and have a lot to learn.
Is there such thing as throwing too large a streamer to big trout specifically 3-3.5" streamers which I consider small though not a woolly bugger?
Below is a pic of the technical river the day before; the rise in the middle was a small trout. The river was much deeper and wider but this stretch was beautiful so I snapped a pic.
The day before I fished another river (below) known for large browns and rainbows. This river was narrow and technical like a spring creek which called for short, precise casts plus a million snags from bushy banks and trees.
So I was excited about getting on bigger water the next day. Upon entering the river, I saw large trout everywhere and didn't see another fisherman all day.
I started at 7 am in a wide section of the river with a slow current. There were weed beds on the bottom with active trout in feeding lanes literally everywhere I looked.
I had my 5 weight and took a half dozen streamers in the 3-3.5" range. It was raining and as this was my first time to this river I wasn't fishing with a lot of confidence. I was second guessing my flies especially my streamers but I fished on.
I casted to deep runs, seams, banks, slow currents you name it but I couldn't buy a strike.
I tried several dries as well as a nymph which I wasn't feeling.
I literally chucked every streamer I had simply because I wanted to go big or go home even if that meant striking out ... I thought surely I could entice a strike on one of my streamers but nothing.
In the span of 10 minutes I lost my iphone and dslr: the phone got a few drops of water from a streamer in my fly box. Then I took my camera unwisely in a neoprene case around my shoulder and waded too deep in a spot I was unfamiliar with and that was all she wrote.
After lunch, I went back to the river and observed a couple trout feeding at the head of a riffle that opened to a large pool with active fish.
I decided that they were feeding on nymphs so I tied on a beadhead prince and fished a slow deep current and hooked a trout.
I lost the fish about a foot from my net on 4X but I could see it and feel that it was a big boy.
I changed to 3X and fished the same nymph in another run and caught a small brown.
That afternoon the sun came out so I threw a hopper around the edge of some cattails just because I was in the mood to fish the surface in beautiful light.
I splashed the hopper in the middle of weed beds because every now and then there would be ferocious strikes from the middle of impossibly thick vegetation.
Back to streamers - all I see and read about is people chucking meat and catching huge browns - I'm not buying that the large browns in this river only eat salad so I will try streamers in this spot again but clearly nymphs were more effective as they resulted in my only catch and a hookup and break off. The fish I lost fought like a bull jumping and bucking from the hook set until breaking off a foot from my net.
I'm kind of scratching my head re: streamers which I haven't fished a lot. If anyone has any experience, advice, tips, suggestions I'm all ears.
My 9' #5 was struggling with the weighted streamers so I'm looking forward to taking my #7 next time but I'm new to the streamer game and have a lot to learn.
Is there such thing as throwing too large a streamer to big trout specifically 3-3.5" streamers which I consider small though not a woolly bugger?
Below is a pic of the technical river the day before; the rise in the middle was a small trout. The river was much deeper and wider but this stretch was beautiful so I snapped a pic.