Mike, those are good waters to try some fall tactics, when big fish are eager to eat things with lots of calories. I use large feather and fur strip flies (up to 6" long) with heavy barbell eyes that I can fish well and deep in the holes without slack. If your local fishing laws allow it, a trailer hook (bare) or a small following streamer (constitutes a double-fly) will catch the short strikers that you never feel otherwise. Depending on your local laws, these bare hooks can be just inside the tail or just beyond the tail. Big fish sneak-attack a large food fish from behind, strike at the tail, then follow up on the wounded prey. It's a saltwater tactic that I grew up with, as gamefish would regualrly bite the fish off and leave the head on the hook, or leave the tail mangled if they missed hooking up. I tried it for river trout and it works. Before I was flyfishing-only (about 25 years ago) I used to fish both spinning and flies. I would fish and routinely catch large trout on the rear hook of oversized rapalas, which clued me in and reminded me of saltwater tactics.
Casting these large weighted (and wet) flies is a challenge and must be practiced, or else expect to hook yourself. If you fish just the streamer, or use an indicator, your casting has to allow for that. You'll be fishing deep in the runs, so your retrieve and cast have to account for a lot of drag on the pick-up. It's a lot like heavy nymph-fishing. DonO ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Bliss To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 1:49 PM Subject: Re: [VFB] Streamer fishing DonO I will be fishing mainly in rivers such as the Provo, Green, Madison, Beaverhead, etc. so most are to some degree tailwaters I guess. When you say oversized streamer what would that be and what is the trailer? A smaller streamer? On 11/30/06, DonO <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Mike, There are many on this list that can help you with specifics, say tailwater streamer tactics, but we must know the type of water you want to fish and the target fish- species and size. Then, there's conventional wisdom (books) vs. unconventional wisdom. An oversized streamer with a small trailer hook catches a lot of fish in certain situations. DonO ----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Bliss To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 12:46 PM Subject: [VFB] Streamer fishing List: I consider myself an above average nymph fisherman, adequate dry fly fisherman and I stink as a streamer fisherman. I have a goal this year to raise that aspect of my flyfishing. Can any of you recommend an excellent book on the subject where I can at least get the concepts more clear in my mind? Thanks. Mike -------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.15.2/559 - Release Date: 11/30/2006 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.15.2/559 - Release Date: 11/30/2006
