I was doing some snooping through old threads and thought this was worth bringing back.
Without a doubt once you enter into the catagory of tying and fishing streamer flies there is only one level left, salmon flies & fishing. The materials that one must gather and the skills that are developed in the construction of the classic feather wing streamers and the buck tail flies are on a par with the salmon flies and their tiers.
But it's not just about collecting materials is it; the feel, the thud, transmitted from the point of the hook all the way into the flesh of your rod hand is what makes a streamer fisherman. I love fishing, I loved bait fishing when I was a kid and the use of spinning lures as I gained experience, fly fishing was always the goal but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. I dabbled in every style that was related to the craft of fly fishing but when I felt my first 'dead stop thud' with one of my streamers tied on, well that pretty much cast the die through which everything else would have to pass and compare. I've been tying streamers since I made my very first fly it's been a learning experience since I was in the early teens and I'm still at it.
One thing that I know for sure is that my stubborn dogged pursuit of becoming a good streamer fisherman led directly to my success as a salmon fisherman. The art of controlling a submerged streamer fly, carefully guiding its course to the known lie of a brown trout or Brookie is the same skill needed to fish for salmon. I say this to those who dream of salmon fishing and of using classic style flies and presentation to fulfill that dream. If you have an eye on that ultimate fly fishing goal, then use every trout fishing trip as a salmon or steelhead training run. I spent innumerable years fishing the waters of North Central Pennsylvania until the ice and cold drove me off for the winter. When I was out there swinging those flies in creeks with names like Lycoming, Loyalsock and Big Pine, in my mind I was fishing the extreme North West Coast Rivers. Places I had not yet been but knew somehow I would and yes, Alaska the last frontier. I am thankful for all the time I spent fishing those big wet flies in my old home waters because it was that which made things easy here.
Just like collecting dry fly supplies the gathering of materials for streamer tying is a life work.
Pictured here are two of my favorite streamer rods and both are used here every year still. The Graphite is an Orvis PM-10 9' #5 with a CFO IV as it's reel. The cane rod is a custom build by the Orvis rod shop from days gone by, an 8' #6 with a Hardy Princess that it was built to balance. Only God knows how many hours we've spent together.
The flies are a big part of the draw, here is an old pattern and a very effective one, The Light Spruce.
An equal to it's mirrored pattern the 'Light' is The Dark Spruce.
Some old patterns that I simply enjoy tying and fishing;
I am fully aware that no discussion of streamer fishing can go forward without paying just dues to the venerable Woolly Bugger and the Buck Tail flies. Although I failed to include an original Olive & Black Bugger in the shot I do keep a bunch handy. The Bugger is probably the one pattern that I have seen the most variations of in all my experience with flies.
In My Buck Tail wallet I carry a few Thunder Creek patterns, a few Muddler variations, and a whole bunch of Whitlock Sculpins. The sculpin has proven itself to be a good answer when my pretty flies just can't seem to turn up a trout. They have also caught a good number of Silver (Coho) salmon.
That makes three threads, Dries, Nymphs & Wets, and Streamers. I could have tucked these away in my blog pages but decided with winter upon us I would stick some stuff out here on the discussion board to see if others will join in with pictures and stories.
Ard
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