Basic Streamer Fishing 101

Fall is a great time to throw a big meaty streamer at hungry trout. Brown and brook trout are getting really feisty as they begin a feed...

Fall is a great time to throw a big meaty streamer at hungry trout. Brown and brook trout are getting really feisty as they begin a feeding frenzy before they spawn in the late fall or early winter. Rainbow and cutthroat trout feel that same urge to feed in the fall. Winter is coming, and most animals need to put on some weight in that last month or two before the cold and dark make it too hard.

There are plenty of different ways to fish with streamers for trout. Let's start with gear and then focus on techniques later.

Most anglers starting off will be using whatever rod they already have available. I like a 9'0" 6wt for streamer fishing, but a 9'0" 5wt will do if that's what you have. A 4wt is going to be pretty limiting on what size of fly that you can actually cast with it.

You can very easily fish streamers with the same floating line that you already have. It's not the preferred method in many locales, but it works. Generally, anglers will use a really long leader with their floating line. Streamers need to get down. If you don't have a sink tip, you will need some good weight on that streamer, and a long leader to help keep it down. Short leaders result in the fly coming towards the surface when retrieved. We want to keep that fly down...

The most popular way to setup a streamer rig is to add a "versileader" to a floating line. This is an easy option. Most every trout angler has a floating line, and not everyone has a spare reel or spool with a streamer line. Just pull off whatever leader is on the line and throw on a versileader, then add 3-4 feet of stout tippet (2x is the thinnest I like to go with streamers). Any of the versieaders from a 3ips (inches per second) to a 7ips will work just fine, but the heavier ones are harder to cast.

This method works just fine for many anglers and rod/line combos. However, really light lines and short rods are going to have a harder time with it.

With this method, you can get away with casting a decent sized fly. Something like a #4 conehead woolly bugger should be in most angler's wheelhouse with a #5 or #6 rod, but trying to throw a huge streamer like a drunk n disorderly, sculpzilla or trophy dungeon might require more dedicated gear than just adding a versileader.

Streamer Lines
There are a ton of great streamer lines available on the market today. Streamer lines are heavy, with a bunch of weight in the front of the line. That helps the rod load with a short amount of line out of the rod (because you stripped the fly back to the rod) and it helps turn over big flies. You can use a floating streamer line in conjunction with a versileader or a long, tapered leader. You can also use a streamer line that has a sink tip built in. This is a great idea because those lines cast really well. They are seamless and make casting streamers as painless as possible. The problem is that you should get dialed in with what type of sink tip works best in your streams before committing to buying a line that can't be changed.

A 5 foot, type III sink tip line is far different than a 24 foot, type V sink tip, and getting the right one can make or break the day or season if you are unable to buy a different line. That is part of the fun of figuring it out. That's why I prefer to start with a versileader, and then move on from there as you start to figure out what methods and type of sink tips are better in your waters.

Here is a quick list of our favorite streamer-friendly lines.
Favorite Streamer lines:

Drunk n Disorderly

Floating Lines
S/A Mastery Titan
Rio Outbound Short
Rio Big Nasty
Royal Wulff Ambush
OPST Commando Smooth

Sink Tip Lines
Teeny T-Series
S/A Titan Sonar
Rio Streamer Tip

Methods

This one ate a Conehead Autumn Splendor

I was just talking to one of our good customers here in the shop today about streamer fishing. He crushed it on the Deschutes a week ago pulling streamers. He was saying that first he was casting upstream with a sink tip and letting it sink in the current. Then he would start stripping when it came tight. That was working really well.

Then he got down to a spot where he needed to cast more down and across, throw a mend and then strip it back. Other places he was catching them just on a steelhead type of swing. The point is that there may be no wrong way to fish a streamer. Really fast, really slow, across, down, up, it all has a play in the book. Varying it up until you see what works is often the key. Local methods are huge. There are places where the water, the fish and the type of flies they like will lead to anglers using certain methods over others. Casting downstream and towards the bank is the most common method used when fishing from a drift boat or raft, but wading anglers often have more options.

Sculpinator

Flies
Flies will vary, depending on the method. Or maybe the method varies depending on the fly. Most anglers will use a weighted streamer when fishing in rivers. Coneheads, like a zuddler, muddy buddy or conehead marabou muddler are great at getting down quickly and not being all that difficult to cast. For the most part, you want flies that will get down quickly, but will not get hung up on the bottom.

Zoo Cougar - Articulated

Really big flies are not necessarily weighted as much. An Articulated Zoo Cougar is pretty darn big, and unweighted. That one is great to throw across a big shallow flat with a sink tip, when brown trout may be laying up in the evenings. A Sculpinator is a great fly with a lot of weight. It has great action and is a good fly to throw around big boulder fields, while a conehead crystal bugger is a great fly to fish out of a drift boat. Not a ton of weight, but it stays down in the current. There are a lot of good streamer patterns out there. Try not to get something bigger than you can cast on your rod, but there is no hardfast rule about what works. There are baitfish, sculpins and leeches just about everywhere that trout live, so find a couple of patterns that you like and get on out there!