Your best day w/ Streamers

[RedHookStreamer]

Question to the group: What is your most memorable day with streamers? Is your day remembered because you took a surprise big buck of a brown trout and a nice photo or was your day because they "turned on" to what you were throwing and you were catching them on streamers like you could do no wrong? Also interested in the time of year if you can remember that as well.

RHS

[SherpaB]

About 5-6 years ago...Willamantic River in CT. two days before Christmas...sunny bright day and lower water levels. I just stopped by on my way back from a business trip. Not much going on so I put on a white gartside soft hackle streamer because my leader wallet was 100 miles away and I had an abused leader on my line...cut it back until it was about 4 ft long...tore 'em up..totally shocking because I was not expecting a damn thing just wanted to throw a few casts and continue on my way back home. It started getting blustery and spitting snow but the action was on...stayed until dark...probably landed a dozen and had twice that many strikes all in about 2-3 hours. Nothing huge just a really solid day from an semi marginal river at that time of year. As I was reeling in a young guy came out of the woods heading back to his car, we chatted...he did well too on...a white shenks rabbit streamer...hmmm coincidental??? Both flys were fairly large about 3 inches long. Fish were probably gorging in anticipation of a long winter ahead.

[frankm]

I had just finished nymphing a run at the Esopus creek and managed a few decent fish. Once I arrived at the top I decided to switch over to streamers and fish my way back down the same run. To my suprise I was able to land a couple more nice browns and got a couple more to chase it. I never thought it would happened since I had just fished the same run minutes before. My lesson for that day was never think just because you or someone else just fished an area that the fish can't be taken right afterwards by tyring different methods!

[RedHookStreamer]

Cool stories. Thanks guys. I'm interested to see how many "numbers" stories comes out of this post. That's a nice story about CT - man you just never know! Good call with the short leader that day... how ironic that two big white streamers were the ticket in probably what - 40 degree water?

And on the Esopus, yeah, that's a paradise. I think because of the chronic water clarity issue there you can really fish a stretch twice with just the spooking factor of just once. A streamer gives them good visibility there; I actually picked up a few #4s and #2s streamers just recently. This spring I want to err on the big side of streamers just to try something different. There's a few holes that I know are going to hold a big bow.

RHS

[frankm]

I'm not sure of the accuracy but I heard that bows don't really chase streamers. Anyone know if this is true?

[Shook2323]

Bows will chase them, at least the stocked ones will...

One afternoon in early May I hit a nice spot on the Farmington. As I was pulling in, two guys were just leaving and not happy. "These dry fly purists" (their words) were incredibly frustrated. They fished through the Hendrickson hatch, to watch duns float down and fish come up and look at them, only to go back to the depths. These were fairly freshly stocked fish that just weren't on the hatch (yet). Sz 6 olive wolly bugger went on and I just kinda jigged it through the top of the run, and about the third time I moved it, bam. The first strike startled me, you know hearing how bad the fishing was from others doesn't exactly think you're going to hook up on the first cast... But then it happened on the second, and third, and probably by the fourth I had one bow to the net.

They turned off the bugger after a bit, but then up next was the gray ghost which they went nuts for. The fast I stripped, the harder they hit. Most of these were stocked browns and bows, with some holdover browns mixed in. I didn't count the number caught, but it was over 10 in 1.5 hours with several hits missed. As I fish that spot a lot, I stopped as I had my fill.

I'll never forget those two "dry fly purists", how they didn't have any success because they were one dimensional. Maybe they value the experience more than the catching, maybe they just wanted to throw dries (I get like that from time to time), but they weren't too happy leaving the stream that day. Lesson learned.

[davechina]

I had left my house at 2AM on a Friday to go from Jackson NJ to Deposit NY and when I got there the WB Delaware was like light coffee due to heavy releases from Cannonville reservoir - first time I had experienced this. I was so disappointed that I had traveled 3.5 hours for nothing after anticipating the trip for weeks. I was brand new to fly fishing so it didn't occur to me immediately that I should stay there and try streamers. Then luckily I remembered reading about how the baitfish get washed over the dam with those high releases and trout shift their attention to them, almost exclusively. I tied on one of two white streamers I had with me and - holy cow - I was treated to hours and hours of hog-sized trout slamming my bait. I landed some of the biggest fish I've caught to date and couldn't believe how agressive they were, rolling on and slamming my streamers. Turned out to be a great day.

[RedHookStreamer]

Sweet stories... this is one of my goals this year in 2012 is to have at least one gang-busters streamers day like these. I got away from streamers the last year or so because I had some consistent luck indicator nymphing. My best streamer day was also on the Esopus, believe it or not it was a larger (#6?) muddler minnow that proved to be an awesome day just busting the banks and pocket water on a sunny June day. What a relaxing, tangle free day that was. I'm going to dedicate probably 50% of my season back to streamers again; might offset some catch rate but I might get a few more larger fish. I really hated last fall after Irene - it stole the fall streamer season (fall everything season in some cases). Keep the stories coming. RHS

[catskill flyman]

the esopus is my home river (10 mins down the road) i never did any real streamer fishing but i did toy around with a CH mudler minnow one day and had a couple hook ups but no fish to the net. the fall was completely blown out but i got out once with decent water conditions and had a few fish bump the same CH mudler but only one rainbow caught on a pheasant tail

[frankm]

The Esopus is streamer paradise. Those browns hammer them! I have been doing alot of experimenting last year on matching up leader systems that enable me to Euro nymph and throw on a medium size streamer say 3 inches or so without changing rods or leaders , it really does add a few more fish to the net and it's alot of fun! I always thought streamers were best used in high off colored water. I have learned that even in skinny water on bright sunny days it is an effective method. It really dosen't mater what the water type, tie one on and have some fun!