Your best day w/ Streamers

[fishngun]

My latest one was on the WB Delaware this past Novemer. I offered to row since the guy that owns the boat usually rows the majority of the time. We spent 8+ hours on the water. I rowed the majority of the time and only fished for around an hour and a half. My two buddies were only able to raise one fish all day. I ended up with 6 fish landed and 7 fish raised in the short time that my fly was wet. It's not so much the fact that I killed them and my friends didn't, because I like it much better when everyone is getting fish. It was just really cool to be able to cast and feel like it didn't matter where the fly landed or how I stripped it in, I'd probably get at least a look.

[RedHookStreamer]

Cool. Among all of these great scenarios, note that two of them are cold-water conditions, a November and a December story. Are streamers really a 12-months a year option in the East? Hard to answer that question, because I know that nymphing IS a 12 months a year solution, in one technique or another. It can be a lonely life when you're a wade-walk streamer lover that knows you should be nymphing instead =)
RHS

[northcountryman]

Cool stories guys!! I never really believed in streamers too much until this past season where I had pretty decent success w/ 'em. Its definitely a different style and attitude of flyfishing cuz your not trying to idenitfy bugs, match the hatch etc. For that reason only, I've read that some guys streamer fish exclusively and also due to the fact that the casting is more energetic: i.e., your pretty much constantly casting and retrieving instead of holding the fly motionless in a drift pattern. Definitely a great method for casting practice!!

[fishmastaZERO]

Here my take on bows chase'n streamers , down here on taneycomo (tailwater) n quite a few other lil wild creeks I fish I can get them to chase down sculpin patterns n hit them with vengance, also ive been noticing that every now an then I can get a good chase down from a circus peanut or a peanut envy...but now for the post topic, big fish wise best day would have been a month or so ago stripping double bunnies down on taneycomo at dark caughg a football shaped 27 inch bow ... Number wise earlier that same day I whacked prolly around 19 on various color slumpbusters at the end of a riffle going into a hole .. Hooked one about every other swing .now the slumpbuster has a permenant spot in my streamer box

[Fishsomemore]

My stories are similar and yet different. In the Spring I hit the Big Flatbrook and had an olive colored wooly on got some nice action but nothing really big. I think I caught 9, a mix of Browns and Bows. A guy downstream from me was using a variety of nymphs and streamers and landed over 50 fish. It was so much fun he said no way he was moving from that hole.

But this past fall while using a golden stone and a midge dropper I noticed a feeding frenzy with trout going nuts everywhere. Big ones and little ones alike. Then I noticed what was happening and put on a trout bead that closely resembled what they were feeding on. Basically, everytime the bead hit the water (all within 10 feet or less of my feet & some fish almost touching my feet) I either had a fish on or had a hit and missed it. This went on for about an hour or more. One after another with the biggest being over 20" to the point where I lost count of how many I caught. So much for the spook the fish theory but these were mostly stocked fish. There might be some natural fish there as well and a couple of them were Brookies. Mostly caught Rainbows and I saw some Browns but did not land any of them.

The common point here is that you should never use only one type of fly or technique in my opinion. You have to change up a lot and throw everything you have at them sometimes if you want different results. How does that saying go? The definition of insanity by Einstein is "doing the same thing over and over again while expecting different results".

The last one is on a hot July day, water crystal clear and the fish are stacked 10' away from me and I can't get one to bite for nothing so I'm ready to leave. But before I go I decide it's either a woolly bugger or muddler. I put the muddler on and a female Bow comes shooting out from under the bank and slams it. She was about 5+ lbs and over 23". That made my day and work well worth the learning experience.

[DrBob]

I have been successfully using white crystal woolly buggers all winter long on sea run browns. Been either swinging them if there is current or stripping them. Used white ones with the thought of imitating killies although there are no white killies! DUH, but it seems to be working! I'd love to try them on the WB.

[RedHookStreamer]

Sometime in the last few days I ran across a video on YouTube with this fellow wading on the WB and spin casting top water jerk-baits and catching beautiful browns doing so. That reminded me that this post was out there and got me back thinking about articulated streamers and wonder if he would have had the same luck. Point being, when big browns are present, I would not hesitate to throw your big stuff. There are some very traditional, technical dry fly fisherman that love the WB but how can you resist throwing a #2 something and hooking up with the bad boys! That's on my to-do list for 2012: an awesome streamer day on the WB.

I wouldn't rule out rainbows on streamers. I posted a similar question about 3 months ago here and some really nice suggestions came in for brighter color streamers being more appealing to 'bows. I actually picked up a few streamers this winter that look like little rainbow trout with some pink and white in them. Everyone seems to do well out west for the 'bows on streamers.

Good stories guys. Funny how much the woolly bugger still comes up, I guess they work, huh?

RHS

[Lonewolve]

Can't say just a single day, but several different days have made me a streamer believer, One day in may on the Lehigh River was the first i was fishing from a friends driftboat an there was no activity on top, so i cut back my leader to what i thought was 3-4x and tied on Kenny Mead's Copperhead, stated pounding the banks and got a few strikes, covered about 150 yrds an then as i was strippin into the boat this Big Brown come out of nowhere an rolled on the fly an took off damn near yanked the rod out of my hand an the fight was on, seemed like an hour was propbaly 15 minutes tops, got the brown next to the boat an saw it was a beautiful Kyped jaw male fly believe it or not was in the beak , i thought i had him in the scissors.weighed a lil over 10 pounds...unbelieveable.
Later on that morning i was gettin no where so i added approx 16" of 4 x an tied on a hares ear flymph an i was on the fish after fish till the dry fly action started an they seemed to want flys that way,s i switched.never forget that day, an i have had many more days wading where the big browns, brookies,and bows have been on the fish menu,but that day locally sticks in my mind.
the other two times i have had great streamer fishing were up in Maine, i don't know what it is but when i am in maine i fish feather wing streamers more than anything, I have a Gloomis Trout Spey an i use it alot now on big water, up there it is almost the only rod i use period.I had a week in Rangeley fishing the Raid River from Uppah Damn,Middle Dam, and Lowah Dam using ghosts an my favorite Herb Welch's Black Ghost, biggest brookies i have ever had in the lower 48.
I then spent a week in Moosehead an fished the East Outlet of the Kennebec and the Moose rivers using the Black Ghost an caught myfour largest Land Locked Salmon not to mention having multiple high number days, not all on streamers but all my big fish have come on streamers.BTW the average weight of the four LL salmon was 5 pounds,an i landed em on 5 x flouro with maixma butt.I enjoy streamer fishing it is a bit of work but it can pay off huge dividends.
Tight Wraps & Tight Lines
Rick Wallace

[fishngun]

I guess I'll come clean. I have been known to fish the WB with spinning gear and jerk baits. I don't think I will ever stop. The biggest trout I have ever caught, a 28" brown, nailed a rapala after dark one April. I have seen the biggest trout of my life raised, missed, and caught on 7" pieces of metal, wood, and plastic. I have seen fish that looked more like salmon than trout nail rapalas and toss them into the air after tail walking 15 feet downstream. I have watched a buddy hook into a very large fish, only to have it take off downstream at a rapid rate and break him off as if he were fishing 2lb test instead of 8. Most of these were encounters with browns but there were a few rainbows tossed into the mix as well. We fished last April, in conditions that would have made casting any type of fly a real chore if not impossilbe. The wind blew aat 30 MPH all day with gusts up to 50 MPH and it poured. We landed a dozen or so really nice fish and missed just as many while mother nature tried to beat the snot out of us. We have also had poor days where nothing really happened. But that can happen with any gear on any water. It's called fishing and not cathcing for a reason. Could many of these fish have been caught on flies. Absolutely! Some, no way, but most probably would have hit a streamer fished in the right manner. My point is, the WB is definately streamer water. Yes, it is definatley dry fly water too, but streamers have by far shown me more bigger fish than any dry fly I have ever cast. I am big believer in the big bait big fish theory. I truly believe that streamers will allow me to catch more bigger fish on a fly rod than anything else. I also think that any water that holds big browns is streamer water. I have seen plenty of pictures of large rainbows with gobs of feathers and fur stuck in their jaws to know that they will eat streamers too. The same goes for brookies and cutts as well. The only way to make it happen is to fish those streames. Sometimes they want big ones, sometimes smaller ones, and sometimes none. But if you fish them, they will come.

[RedHookStreamer]

Holy cow there are some big fish in this thread! Lonewolve, you participated in a piece of history - featherwing streamers in Rangeley, ME, wow what could be more "throwback"... Some of those patterns are so beautiful. They are always part of fly fishing decor anytime you see shirts or coffee mugs or something. I guess they catch some fish too, huh?

Fishngun, no need to explain yourself or come clean. Anybody that fishes lawfully and treats the fish respectfully before, during, and after the catch is ok in my book, spinning or not. You sound like a die-hard, hats off for sticking out weather like that.