Fly Fishing for Big Fish
Fall streamer fishing: possibly the three best words of the year. They’re the words that summon visions of wide-open rivers, morning fog, and massive browns attempting to rip the fly rod from your hand. Fish have the feed bag on in the fall, preparing for a long winter. The browns and brook trout are spawning, and they’ll be aggressively pounding any streamer that successfully imitates a food source or a threat. And, of course, this is the best time of the year to get a shot at a big solitary brown on the move.
Filling Out Your Fly Box
A streamer fisherman’s fly box looks like as if someone tried to stuff a cabaret show from the Vegas Strip down into a tiny box: feathers, marabou, and tinsel come bursting out the moment you pop the lid. Whether you tie your own or pick them up from the local fly shop, there’s endless patterns to choose from. Though we can’t name them all here, some of our favorites include Sex Dungeons and Mini Sex Dungeons, a good old-fashioned Wooley Bugger, Sparkle Minnow, Dirty Hippy, Baby Gonga, Sluggo, and Sculpzilla. We like to keep color variations of each pattern readily available: white (or some other bright color) and a darker version, like green. We’ll fish the dark-colored flies on dark days or in muddier waters and brighter colors on sunny days or clear water.
Streamer Fishing Technique
Many techniques can be used while streamer fishing: dead drifting, stripping, swinging, and everything in between. Minute details can make a big difference in your success as a streamer fisherman—and that’s part of what makes it so fun. For example, you can change your presentation by aggressively retrieving streamers, or you can drift and then strip in a few feet of line and repeat. While your fly is swinging, you can give it a few soft twitching strips for a little action. It’s hard to know what will work until you get out there, so don’t be afraid to change your presentation until you find what’s working on that stretch of water.
Rigging Up for Streamer Fishing
When it comes to the gear you’ll need, there’s a few factors to keep in mind. Let’s talk rigging first. You’ll want to answer a few key questions: What is the water depth you're going to be fishing? Do you need a sinking line or just a weighted streamer? If you’re using a sinking line, do you need a full sinking line or a sink-tip? A short sink tip or a long sink tip? And if you’re going to use a sink-tip, what rate of sinking line do you need? (For example, type 3 sinks three to four inches per second, type 4 sinks four to five inches per second, and so on.) That’s a lot to think about, but a little bit of research into the region you’ll be fishing can set you on the right path. Here in Montana, a short sink tip with a type 5 sink rate that is in the 150 to 175-grain weight range is a good place to start.
Here at Montana Casting Co., we prefer using sinking leaders that easily attach to the loop on the end of your floating fly line. Instead of needing to carry a spare spool with a sinking line, we can throw a few sinking leaders into the fly vest and be ready for just about any fly fishing scenario we’ll run into on the river. This method also allows us to quickly change our sink rate by throwing on a different sinking leader.
Choosing a Streamer Fly Rod
Choosing a fly rod for streamer fishing is a big part of the fun as well. We prefer a strong, fast-action, 7wt rod with a removable fighting butt, like our Dearborn fly rod. This rod in particular is designed to cast well even when overlined—which is essentially what you do by adding a sinking line or a sinking leader to the end of your fly line.
Why a fighting butt? A little extra length behind the reel will help you when doing Spey-style casting, and it will save you pain and suffering when you hook up with a tank. (We’ve witnessed fly fishermen endure said suffering to land a trophy steelhead, but you will be left with some trophy bruises if you don’t use a fighting butt.) Montana Casting Co. 7 through 9 weight fly rods all come with a removable fighting butt—which is an extra perk. If you want to take your 7wt rod nymph fishing, just remove the fighting butt to avoid getting it tangled in your line. If you want even more length behind that reel, remove the fighting butt and throw an even longer, removable fighting butt on in its place. (Hint: we can custom make any size fighting butt you need to fit your rod and casting style.)
With all that said, it’s time to grab your fly rod, select a few outrageous streamers, and get fishing. Have fun out there and remember to send us pictures of your whopper catches!
Don’t forget to catch our fall fly fishing sale! Get up to 20% off select rods and accessories for a limited time!
0 comments