[Grampa Spey]

I would appreciate hearing of the successful techniques using Spey Rods/lines with Streamers to fish for the bigger Rainbows and Browns.

Like what lines, tips, leaders and types of flies with what type of casting, drifts and retrieves?

Is there a better time of the day or should tactics vary during different times of the day?

Thanks!

 

[Dr. Swing]

G-Pa'

Tossed a few streamers today. Looking for Baetis and not finding any so I chucked the big nasty on the single hander. In addition to what I posted before, a few observations come to mind.

I get more interest when the fly comes perpindicular to the fish, or swims in front of it, rather than hanging downstream on a tight line. I think I hook more fish when there is some belly in the line to give the fish some slack to get the fly in their mouths. I also feel that a fly fished with movement gets more interest than a plainly swung fly.

Converted to two handed fishing, I would try to keep casts a 90 degree angles accross stream, don't mend a heck of a lot, and use a short head line so you can shoot and strip while the fly is swinging.

As far as leaders, something stiff and heavy. I either use 8 or 10lb Maxima for tippet when ever I am pulling streamers. Haven't broken a fish off on a streamer in about 5 years. Knock on wood!

I like to toss the big ugly either in the evenings or on cloudy days. Today was snowing and the fish wanted to kill it. If you are a morning guy (not me!) you might toss it around dawn. I'll stick to sleeping!

Also, it is a PITA when spey fishing, as the rig likes to tangle, but tossing two streamers at once can be really productive. I like to throw a little bugger, like an 8 with some evil giant creation behind it. Sometimes I'll trail a streamer with a San Juan worm and strip the crap out of it. Don't laugh, Browns like the "speedy worm" No kidding. But you probably wouldn't believe me anyway:hehe:

 

[Grampa Spey]

Dr Swing thanks

Your response to my Streamer question:

"I get more interest when the fly comes perpindicular to the fish, or swims in front of it, rather than hanging downstream on a tight line. I think I hook more fish when there is some belly in the line to give the fish some slack to get the fly in their mouths. I also feel that a fly fished with movement gets more interest than a plainly swung fly. "

So far, I'm having more luck in the last 1-15' of my drift. The movement/twitch seems to help.



"Converted to two handed fishing, I would try to keep casts a 90 degree angles accross stream, don't mend a heck of a lot, and use a short head line so you can shoot and strip while the fly is swinging."

So far I have used my MS 7/8 with my Sage 6126 with the tip compensator and sinking tips depending on the time of the day. My next trip out, I will try my WC 678 with the shorter head so I can strip while the fly is swinging. My problem here re the best pool on my home school requires at least a 60+' cast and a good size up stream mend to keep the fly in the deep part of the pool and where the trout are.

"As far as leaders, something stiff and heavy. I either use 8 or 10lb Maxima for tippet when ever I am pulling streamers. Haven't broken a fish off on a streamer in about 5 years. Knock on wood!"

I have been using the 6, 8, or 10 # Maxima Green. This enables me to break loose of the moss or small branches in the water. Also, I don't snap flies off with a bad cast or when they "catch" the brush on a d loop attempt.

"I like to toss the big ugly either in the evenings or on cloudy days. Today was snowing and the fish wanted to kill it. If you are a morning guy (not me!) you might toss it around dawn. I'll stick to sleeping!"

The best fishing so far was a couple of hours before a storm hit this week. It got cloudy and the 3 pound trout pushed the 1-2 pound trout out of the fishing lanes.

"Also, it is a PITA when spey fishing, as the rig likes to tangle, but tossing two streamers at once can be really productive. I like to throw a little bugger, like an 8 with some evil giant creation behind it. Sometimes I'll trail a streamer with a San Juan worm and strip the crap out of it. Don't laugh, Browns like the "speedy worm."

Trying putting the smaller fly above a knot between two sizes of tippet. Just run the tippet through the eye of the hook and then run the fly up the first tippet leaving about 12" below the fly. Then tie a double or triple surgeon's knot where the knot will prevent the fly from slipping down. It works great in the water but watch it when you have a fish on the lower fly and are trying to get the hook out. I hooked my self a good one in one of my fingers yesterday.

Thanks for your comments. I going to keep my indicators and itsy bitsy flies in their boxes for a while as I try to learn more about using streamers with my new 6126. So far I'm averaging 3-4 fish a day with streamers while learning versus a 10 to 15 fish day. Day being the afternoon.

 

[Dr. Swing]

G-pa

You mentioned trying to mend to keep your fly in the deep part of the pool. Try throwing it in there, and stripping it out as soon as it hits the water. A lot of fish will move up and chase a fleeing streamer that don't show interest in a fly any other way. It doen't always work, but you will be surprised by how deep you can pull a fish out of by fishing a fly like this.

Try the Windchucker. I think it is more suited to the presentation than the MS, and I have fished both lines.

Here's something a little different:
Try throwing the streamer up and across stream. Toss a little DOWNSTREAM mend. The streamer will sink and swim down river. A few strips give it action and the line, though bellied is always tight enough to the fly to set the hook. I use this presentation a lot with a single hander, haven't played around with it and the double. The fish seem to like it. Might toss the big nasty this afternoon if the nymphing isn't much good. Thanks for your imput!

 

[Grampa Spey]

Dr Swing

Thanks for these two tips. I will try them this week and get back to you.

One question re both techniques, do you keep your rod tip low when you are stripping in the line?

"You mentioned trying to mend to keep your fly in the deep part of the pool. Try throwing it in there, and stripping it out as soon as it hits the water. A lot of fish will move up and chase a fleeing streamer that don't show interest in a fly any other way. It doen't always work, but you will be surprised by how deep you can pull a fish out of by fishing a fly like this.



"Here's something a little different:
Try throwing the streamer up and across stream. Toss a little DOWNSTREAM mend. The streamer will sink and swim down river. A few strips give it action and the line, though bellied is always tight enough to the fly to set the hook. I use this presentation a lot with a single hander, haven't played around with it and the double. The fish seem to like it.

Thanks for the above, and I will use my Wind Chucker as you call it.

 

[Dr. Swing]

G-Pa,

I keep the rod low 95% of the time I am pulling streamers or any other strip retrieve. The other 5 percent is when I am flipping a fly in a pocket at close range and using the rod tip to give it action. I guess every once in a blue moon I will keep the tip high to keep the line out of a nasty fast current, but most of the time I am trying to keep the rod low and strip. A little belly in the line on the water is ok by me, but I want the rod pointed straight at the fly line. Hope that makes sense! Good luck and let me knwo what you find. As I have said earlier, most of my streamer fishing has been done with a single hander and I am trying to adapt what works to a spey rod. It is fun stuff though.

 

[ChromeFever]

Fly Designs

I have been playing with a number of different designs for streamers on a spey rod. Some of my favorites are large marbou muddlers tied on a 6x long shank streamer hook. A sculpin pattern using almost all marabou from pheasants and turkeys tied on the same 6x hook. Looks like hell in the vice but once it is wet it is amazing and the fish love it. Also a new favorite is a skagit minnow two piece fly using 1" aluminum tubes for the front half and a small saltwater hook for the rear section. This has turned out to be one heck of a producer since the fly is basically jointed and or articulated in the middle between the hook and the tube. Works wonders on smallies and brown trout!

As for how I am fishing some of these. I am still playing with skagit style lines and trying to shoot as much line as I can for the river I am on. This way I have the opportunity to strip these flies in at times, or twitch them. This past weekend it seemd to be the ticket. Casting across at 90 degrees, NO MEND, big bow down stream bow in the line and twitch it once or twice and let it swing. Repeat this as often as you can before you get to the end of the swing. Fish were crushing it. On a straight swing with no stripping or twitching I got "0" strikes?

 

[Grampa Spey]

Chrome Fever

Okay, I will break out my Skagit line sent by Simon and try it as noted by you below.

Do you hold your rod tip low during the twitchs and the rest of the drift?

Do you have any pictures of your flies?

Thanks

"As for how I am fishing some of these. I am still playing with skagit style lines and trying to shoot as much line as I can for the river I am on. This way I have the opportunity to strip these flies in at times, or twitch them. This past weekend it seemd to be the ticket. Casting across at 90 degrees, NO MEND, big bow down stream bow in the line and twitch it once or twice and let it swing. Repeat this as often as you can before you get to the end of the swing. Fish were crushing it. On a straight swing with no stripping or twitching I got "0" strikes?"

 

[Dr. Swing]

Peter and CF,

Thanks for your obsevations. Will play around with a few of your ideas. Peter, there are a billion different ways of fishing a streamer, from a dead drift, to Lafontaine's (sorry for the name drop) steak method. I don't see a singlehanded technique and a two handed technique. Obviously some methods work better with a single hander than a two hander (long strip retrieves) but I am begining to see that with short heads a two hander can be
surprisingly adaptable.

 

[ChromeFever]

Speys and Streamers

GS

I do have pictures but I dont have them in a digital format for attaching. I will have to start doing that soon. As for rod tip I prefer a low tip as I am swinging, stripping and or twitching. Just seems to work for me?

When fishing for browns or anything else when streamer fishing I usually keep the rod tip low. When setting the hook I prefer to sweep towards that bank as opposed to lift straight up. It seems to work better and I get a better hook up ratio with this technique. I dont use a lot of polyleaders with my spey set up. Only on the one handers? For tips on the two handers I use mostly the RIO 15' standard sinktips. Anything from an intermediate to a type 8 depending on the river flow, depth and the species that I am after. One other technique that works great is to wait for a hatch and watch the minnows and chubs start to rise in order to take emergers and dries. Then from out of nowhere a large smallie or brown will streak in and crush these minnows close to the surface. Its at this time I like to grease line a muddler or other non weighted streamer on the surface. Can be very exciting and great way to catch fish on the surface. Again the 90 degree cast across stream and get that bow in the line works great. I usually dont strip or twich a great deal when doing this.

 

[mklara]

flies and techniques

I find that all the typical streamers work just fine on spey, but the conehead rabbit strip type stuff that is very popular in montana can be a pain to cast on the lighter rods (T&T 13' 7wt). After all, we're really in it for the casting. As an alternative to bulky rabbit flies that tend to really stick in the water I fish a lot of bucktail patterns. Clousers and Brooks' Blondes are my favorites. The Blonde casts like the isn't even a fly there and you can tie it in a way that creates a large silouette. With these flies I rely on the dense tips to get the fly to the effective fishing depths.

As for techniques, my favorites are...

Fast water - cast up and across or 1/4 down, mend to get it deep, the do the "give and take" thing on the swing. make a quick, 1-3 foot strip of the line, then drop the slack back into the drift to let the fly sink/pause/breathe

Slow water - cast 90 deg across and again do the give and take thing. I get alot more fish adding action to the swing than with the plain old heave and leave steelie swing.