How to fish Streamers???

[Red Owl]

I can't be the only one....I do best with dry flies, okay with nymphs, and I haven't really gotton into wet flies. I have tried streamers but they only work if I troll them and that isn't really fly fishing to me. I am told you have to strip the line to make them look like a minnow but I am confused. How far of an actual presentation can you get with a streamer? A couple of feet- just in front of the trout? Cast across and then strip? I've been told to use a weightless streamer and a "Polly" leader because the polly leader will sink. In any event using a streamer is an aspect of fly fishing I'd like to improve upon.

 

[lancer09]

In a stream I typically fish them on a swing or drift even. you can also cast across/up/down/back/left/right/straight/forward/backward, any of them really and strip them. If your from a boat, pound the banks and look for that reaction strike. You can also impart some action with the tip of your rod. I'ts really made out to be a lot harder than it is. I've found some fairly decent youtube videos as well as some good links from google.

 

[mcnerney]

Check out this thread: http://www.theflyfishingforum.com/f...82-whats-your-method-stripping-streamers.html

Larry

 

[ted4887]

From my experience, there really isn't a wrong way to fish a streamer. You can literally do anything you want with them depending on what species you're chasing. Today we were out chasing smallies all afternoon, and I believe I cast up, down, and across stream. I fished them dead drifted, swinging, stripped quickly, slowly, and twitched them around on the bottom. For me, once I find what the fish are keying in on, I just 'rinse and repeat'.

 

[Guest1]

From my experience, there really isn't a wrong way to fish a streamer. .

I even saw a thing where they were dead drifting big streamers. It worked. If there were ever a way to do it wrong you have to think that would be it. But it worked proving to me at least that you are right, there really isn't a wrong way to fish a streamer.

 

[Rip Tide]

I dead drift big streamers in the surf all the time. In this picture I'm high-sticking a 7" flatwing with a 4" blonde dropper in the longshore current. Here the current, just beyond the white water, is flowing left to right in a trough formed by the receding surf. The gamefish patrol this depression searching for baitfish injured or confused by the surf action. Keeping your fly in the zone where the fish are most likely to be is key. Casting out and stripping the streamer back in would only have your fly in the strike zone for moments. In this case a dead drift is far more productive.

 

[Red Owl]

It might be a situation where I have tried them now and then and not had much confidence so I gave up rather quickly and went back to dry flies or nymphs.
Do you fish different streamers differently? The woolly worm is supposed to be a great fly but I have never had much luck with it. Same with the muddler minnow. What has worked are long slim- black nosed dace types.
Any streamer tips appreciated.

 

[swirlchaser]

It might be a situation where I have tried them now and then and not had much confidence so I gave up rather quickly and went back to dry flies or nymphs...

You hit the nail right on the head! Most of my fishing is similar to Riptides. I live and die by streamers, on the rare occasion that I get up to a Trout stream I look at all those nymphs and dries at the fly shop and just scratch my head. Then I use an Olive Bugger all day.

 

[littledavid123]

Red Owl

I am a relative noob to streamers as well so I understand the puzzlement. What I have learned may only work in my waters but the best advice I can give you is to not give up! Stick with it, try making short and repetitive 5" strips and work your way up to longer strips and different techniques. Variance and not giving up will be the key to your success. Perhaps the best advice I can give you is NOT to concentrate on numbers of fish but different techniques.

The more I practice, the luckier I get.

Dave

 

[pab1]

I usually fish stillwater and use streamers 95%+ of the time. The fish might like a fast shallow retrieve one day and a deep slow retrieve a day or two later (sometimes both extremes on one day as the weather changes). I try everything until I start catching fish. I don't know how many times I have stopped a retrieve to check one thing or another in the boat only to have a fish on when I started the retrieve again. Like others have said, try everything because what worked one day or on one lake/stream might not work the next time.

 

[Ard]

Welcome pab1,

Your answer is about as right as it gets and I too have had fish grab the fly while I was doing nothing at all.

Ard

 

[mudbug]

Welcome pab1,

Your answer is about as right as it gets and I too have had fish grab the fly while I was doing nothing at all.

Ard

This is why I often stop and light a cigarette as my fly just sits or drifts. I have in the past got hit right at that moment.

 

[swirlchaser]

This is why I often stop and light a cigarette as my fly just sits or drifts. I have in the past got hit right at that moment.

I do the same. That's why I can't quit smoking.

 

[webrx]

Been fishing stillwater lately, with nymphs and scuds and chironomids, but when I fish the river I use a lot of streamers or buggers. I typically cast them accross the current, let them dead drift then swing accross at the end of the drift. On the retrieve, I try to strip them right next to the foam line in the slow side of the current in short 3 to 4 inch strips. This seems to work.

Oh yeah, don't forget to let them hang at the end of the drift for 5 or 10 seconds this makes them rise up and the fish will often hit them really hard at this point.

d