Davidson Report 1/6/06

[scflyfisher]

Hey everybody,

Fished yesterday for about 3 hours. There was a pretty decent amount of flow, but it was definitely fishable and mostly clear. I have hardly ever fished streamers in my FF career, and therefore I am a terrible streamer fisherman. Because I am a terrible streamer fisherman I never want to practice my streamer fishing. It's a vicious cycle that I decided yesterday needed to be broken. Call it my New Year's resolution: Learn to fish streamers. I knew getting the practice I need would mean risking catching no fish, but I have to learn sometime. I fished a zonker with some shot to get it down. I would high-stick it like a nymph and then let it swing at the end of the drift and strip it a little. Had three strikes that were all nice fish b/c I saw them when I set the hook, but missed them all. My ability to detect strikes was bad since I haven't fished this way much, therefore my hook sets were pathetic and had almost no chance of sticking a fish. I would say all fish were in the 12-14" range and all strikes came on the dead drift. I went home with no fish to hand, but it felt good to make a step in the direction of learning this type of fishing.

I'm open to any advice/ideas since I want to improve with streamers. Please don't hesitate to respond.

Matt

[Jswitow]

SC,
You might try letting a little belly form in the line, then try to control it, so the belly is consistant. This will give you a fairly good connection to feel the takes. In addition to this the tight line in the belly situation will nearly hook the fish for you. It will at least buy you a second or two to feel and then set the hook. Use the flow and the belly to set the hook, pull back at a 90 degree to the point where the line enters the water. Keep trying them in high water, the fish a fewer but typically larger.
I have thought (but have not done it) of tying on a stinger hook on streamers because often, particularly on the upstream strips that fish will short strike from directly behind. I have wondered if they expect the minnow they have bitten to then drift back into their waiting mouths? I never get to that, I see it feel it, .............. and set the hook! No fish! I watched a nice brown 17-20" fish do this three times last summer toward dark in clear water. After the 3rd hit he disappeared.
Anyway, hope this helps, others may set me straight, but it works with some regularity.
Best,
John

[fishlicker]

Hi. Also, make sure you try different retrieve speeds and actions during the day( or the hour, however long you may have to fish). Some days they want it nearly dead-drift; while other days you can't shake-wiggle-jiggle them enough!
I like to cast to the far side and downstream a bit on most streams( unless the water is really fast, in which case you'll have to cast a bit upstream to give it time to sink - or use 3 bb shot! :) ) and let the fly work over to the middle of the stream on it's own - with just a little twitch maybe every three or four seconds. Then, as it swings out and across, I hold the rod-tip low to the water, the line in my hand(ready for the hook-set) and just wiggle the rod tip back and forth pretty rapidly(but gently), to give it a quivering, darting motion. Hits at the end of the swing can be HARD, so be ready to set the hook, or simply hang on and keep the line tight as the fish sets it himself with his aggressive chomp on your fly.

Don't just use streamers on large streams either - I've caught a few really nice fish in some small, small water using squirrel hair streamers or gray ghosts.

good luck!