Barry's Thoughts on Streamers
My rule on streamers is: They can save the day and I put a lot of faith in that rule. I know that everyone enjoys an insect hatch and rising fish but what if the stream is off color because of rain or snow run-off? Perhaps it's early morning and no sign of a hatch or rising fish? Or the water is high and cold, as in early season? The list goes on, but one thing is certain – if you fish streamers you can cover a lot of water and, in my opinion, streamers produce bigger fish. Big trout don't usually grow big on a diet of small insects. Streamers provide the angler with the perfect search-type fly which generally imitates a small baitfish, crayfish or sculpin minnow – something that a larger trout will want to eat. A meal.
Most of the time I like to fish streamers with an across and down stream presentation. Retrieve speeds are important, if you have super cold water temperatures the trout may be lethargic and sitting on the bottom so it's important to get your fly down to them. Keep your rod tip low and close to the water surface. Learn to slip strike by setting the hook with your line hand. If you have a strike and miss the fish you have only moved the fly a few inches and the trout has the opportunity to pursue the fly again. If you set the hook by lifting the rod tip you pull the fly up and out and the game is over. And, make sure you have the best line for the job. A favorite of mine is the RIO Outbound short. It turns over large streamers easily and comes in a variety of sink tips to get your streamers down.
Super Buggers continue to be my go to fly; black for off-color water, tan or olive if the stream has a crayfish population. After that fur leech patterns in white, black or olive; and articulated streamers are always in my fly box. If the pattern is not producing, change patterns. Make sure your fly is down where the fish are and vary your retrieves. Fish your streamers with confidence and you may catch that fish of a lifetime.
Shop for streamers & other flies here
Reading the Gauges
This piece comes to us from MidCurrent and is a topic that we all hear about, but can everyday fluctuations in fish catching be triggered by a morning-to-afternoon change in pH? Boots Allen gives us some interesting information on this old but still very important subject. Worth reading.
Up Jeep Creek
We stumbled across this video and do you know what we like best about it? Well, the star is not a young rearing-to-go young guy. We think you might relate. Anyway, it doesn't teach or make you a better fisherman, it's just nice to watch. Enjoy.
And as promised, here are the links to the photo galleries of Barry & Cathy's most recent trip to Argentina.
