Disclaimer: I am not a world-class fly-fishing champion. I’m a humble guide/ employee of a fly shop who lives, breathes, and bleeds fly fishing. The opportunity to work with guides and other fly fishermen to bounce ideas off of, exchange information, and even just grab a beer and tie flies with, has given me the opportunity to learn and grow as a guide and angler. I’d like to share that with those who are willing to listen. Too often I find that fly fishing has become a “hush-hush” sport. But I’m a firm believer that sharing insights is not the same as sharing a secret spot or secret fly. Essentially my goal in writing this article is to help you, the fisherman, map out a series of decision making that will help you catch more fish, and eventually catch larger fish, on streamers. This article is geared towards trout fishing but can be applied to a variety of gamefish.
So, what is there to talk about? You cast the fly and you pull it back to you it’s that simple right? At least that’s what I used to think. Firstly, there is no “wrong way” to fish streamers, only more effective ways. There are many variables on the water that alter my approach from flies to fly lines. This post focuses on the decision making involved selecting flies when fishing streamers.
The first and often most overlooked variable is what are you imitating. Here in the Eastern Sierra, there are a variety of different water types and almost all of them have their own special buffet of swimming fish food. Whether it be Sticklebacks, Tui Chub, Sucker’s, Whitefish etc. it’s important to have a grasp on what the forage is available as food as well as how that food behaves (more on that later). When selecting or tying flies to mimic the available forage, I usually follow these attributes: size, profile, action, color
Mimicking the size of prey is essential. Trout and other predatory game fish can and will key into fish, leaches, and crawdads of a specific size when they are abundantly available. This is especially true shortly after hatching periods. When the prey items are smaller, I will throw a streamer that is 1 to 2 inches long with confidence. Sure, you can throw a six-inch fly during these occasions, and you’ll probably get bit. But if you are looking for the fish of a lifetime, and there is small forage around, the fish will be eating what is readily available to them. Trout in the 25”+ range didn’t grow that large by refusing to eat smaller food items and only choking down large prey they can barely swallow. A perfect example of this is the Upper Owens River. The Upper Owens is a nursery stream. Rainbows, Cutthroat, and Brown Trout all come up from Crowley to spawn in the Owens. With all these fish spawning at different times of the year there are ALWAYS fry in the 1-2” range in that river and even the larger fish will key into those small fries because there are so many of them available. I’ve spent countless afternoons mimicking the smaller trout that live in Owens (3-6”). But in relation shear biomass, they are barely a fraction of the fry available. That’s why generally I fish smaller streamers in the Owens River. This also applies to larger forage. Personally, I get excited when I see schools of bait in the 4-6 inch range hugging the bank because it gives me a solid reason to pull out the larger flies in my box and fish them with confidence. Larger flies means fewer responses, keep that in mind. But almost ever river in the Sierra has plenty of Browns or Rainbows big enough to take down a fly that size, you just have to find them.
Next in importance is profile, especially in larger flies. This concept was first brought to my attention while watching some of Gunnar Brammer’s tying videos. In his videos, he discussed predators and their use of profile for forage recognition. The example Gunnar uses is logos and stickers of gamefish. Often, they are all black or have some kind of artwork inside them, but 9 out of 10 fishermen can name the gamefish on profile alone. Forage identification can be really important because not all food is shaped the same. For example, a Sacramento perch is shaped much differently than a juvenile whitefish. Sacramento Perch tend to be tall with flat sides while Whitefish tend to be more elongated, and cigar shaped. Trout may not think the way we do, but you better believe they know the difference between a Perch and a Whitefish. Due to this, it’s best to try and match the silhouette of the available forage fish.
Action is important for fine tuning your imitation of forage. For example, Crawdads and Sculpins are seldom found high in the water column, and they are not the fastest nor strongest swimmers in comparison to other prey species. So, I often use weighted jig style or inverted flies to allow me to crawl these imitations along the riverbed. Inversely, Red Sides, Tui Chub, Dace, and other strong swimmers move sporadically to evade predators. They can often be spotted higher in the water column or hugging the bank. so lightly weighted or unweighted flies are usually my go-to imitations for these prey items. there can be exceptions to these examples but it’s a great place to start when considering fly selection.
Color is last on the list but can be of equal importance to the other key attributes. I found this to be true after countless days on the water fishing with my friends and fellow guides on our local waters. Often color can be the change that turns the tide during your day on the river. That being said, I generally start with natural colors that mimic the forage fish until the trout tell me otherwise. Starting with colors that match the forage fish gives me confidence that I will eventually get bit. If you are just starting to fill your streamer box, all the color options available can be overwhelming. The staple colors to start out with are Olive, Black, Tan, and White. Olive is a general all-condition color and can mimic a multitude of baitfish. Black is usually best at dusk, when it is overcast, or when the water is murky because it provides a silhouette that is easy to see in low light or murky water. Tan is a real confidence color for imitating forage fish, most of the forage fish in the Sierra have tan or light brown hues to them so I often start with tan. White is a great color when the sun is high or when the water is gin clear. During these conditions baitfish tend to be lighter in appearance. White flies are also fairly easy to see in the water, so I like to fish white streamers while fishing around structure. The ability to see my fly helps me cover structure more thoroughly because I can see the fly sweep under or near logs, overhangs, and boulders. The guidelines for color selection are not binding by any stretch of the imagination. I have had days where fish are crushing white streamers in murky water. I’ve also fished bright days on a clear river and fish in the system responded best to a black fly. Sometimes color selection is more “code cracking” than educated guessing, so make sure you create a system of color selection that helps you cover all the bases efficiently.
All these variables can make streamer fishing overwhelming for some, but remember, it’s just fishing. Play with it, see what works for you. If you talk other guides in the Eastern Sierra their beliefs on streamer fishing may differ entirely from mine. These are merely things I think about when approaching a river with a six-weight in my hand.
