Streamer Junkies?

[Canoetripper]

Does anyone fish with muddler minnows, or consider them to be streamers like a wooly buggers? I have caught a lot of trout in the past with this fly and am thinking about using them now to give trout a different look given how popular wooly buggers are, and I include myself as a wooly bugger fisherman.

 

[tomgamber]

Does anyone fish with muddler minnows, or consider them to be streamers like a wooly buggers? I have caught a lot of trout in the past with this fly and am thinking about using them now to give trout a different look given how popular wooly buggers are, and I include myself as a wooly bugger fisherman.

I used to tie a few but I weighted them. Was more trouble to tie than it was worth after a while.

 

[silverfox]

Does anyone fish with muddler minnows, or consider them to be streamers like a wooly buggers? I have caught a lot of trout in the past with this fly and am thinking about using them now to give trout a different look given how popular wooly buggers are, and I include myself as a wooly bugger fisherman.

I used to hate muddlers. Then I forced myself to use them and now I love them. I usually fish em with a pretty big splitshot (up to BB) about 6-7 inches above the fly.

 

[tjsingle]

Streamer fishing is my favorite way to fish. I've caught my biggest brook trout on one, large browns, etc.

I like how you can cover lots of water, and have the ability to dictate the movement of the streamer rather than focusing on a drag free drift when fishing nymphs and dries. To me, sometimes nymphing and dry flies get boring.

While it is my favorite, I don't see it as the most effective all the time. The way I fish typically in Pennsylvania unless I am casting larger streamers, is use a 5WT and fish whatever is the most effective in that moment.

 

[jifigz]

Unlike in better water temps, winter is basically tighlining (perhaps with a swing).

Depending on the fish that day you can often swim a streamer aggressively in the winter, too. It isn't all low and slow or tight lining it.

Each day is different.

 

[Solitariolupo]

I’ll fish streamers all the time except for when I’m trout fishing. Caught a lot of nice size bass on my Muskie streamers.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

I used to hate muddlers. Then I forced myself to use them and now I love them. I usually fish em with a pretty big splitshot (up to BB) about 6-7 inches above the fly.

I still hate the muddler minnow... though I never fished one. Always found it too buoyant but I guess you are getting it down with that shot. I am curious as to what drew you to the fly. Experimentation?

 

[silverfox]

I still hate the muddler minnow... though I never fished one. Always found it too buoyant but I guess you are getting it down with that shot. I am curious as to what drew you to the fly. Experimentation?

The brook trout's affinity for sculpins and the fly's resemblance of them.

I think how you fish them is equally important. Get them to the bottom as fast as possible (hence BB's) by slamming the fly into the water as hard as possible, and then quick pops up through the water column. i.e. jigging. Like a sculpin shooting off the bottom.

 

[Silent Ocelot]

I am not a streamer junkie. Streamers are probably my least fished out of the three main styles of FF (nymphs, dries, streamers). I need to get into fishing streamers more. I do toss a tandem nymph into one of my local ponds when going to fish for bluegills and strip it as you would a streamer. Not sure I would call that streamer fishing as I am not fishing a fly labeled as a streamer. I do think streamer fishing is the most engaging way to fish. I will try and force myself to streamer fish more this year.

 

[zenherper]

There are a lot of interesting perspectives, and a lot of good points. I guess I’ll have to give it more of a chance this year. I like the idea of moving big browns. 😁

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Depending on the fish that day you can often swim a streamer aggressively in the winter, too. It isn't all low and slow or tight lining it.

Each day is different.

Def true. I think I was referring to my jig streamer fishing to replace nymphing midges in the winter. I used to fish Rapalas all winter in my younger days and you can def move fish on the right days

 

[Prospector]

You and I must fish streamers differently, because I cannot really say this fits my streamer fishing/results. This only happens on days when fish are short striking and not really interested, and those days are not that common.

This is very consistent for me. My 2 theories of how the low hookup rate comes to be…..

1) I believe a trout tries to strike the head of the minnow and not the tail. This leaves the hook point outside of the mouth and you miss many on the hook set. A streamer with the name Joe Fly (popular on Erie tribs, photo attached) is tied on a very short shank hook and it may perform better with the hook basically in the head of the fly. I have the materials but I have not tied many of these flies. To summarize, the miss is caused by where the fish’s aim point is.

2) similar to the point above, small trout will hit a large fly and some amount of misses are strictly the result of the trout not having a big enough mouth.

 

[jifigz]

This is very consistent for me. My 2 theories of how the low hookup rate comes to be…..

1) I believe a trout tries to strike the head of the minnow and not the tail. This leaves the hook point outside of the mouth and you miss many on the hook set. A streamer with the name Joe Fly (popular on Erie tribs, photo attached) is tied on a very short shank hook and it may perform better with the hook basically in the head of the fly. I have the materials but I have not tied many of these flies. To summarize, the miss is caused by where the fish’s aim point is.

2) similar to the point above, small trout will hit a large fly and some amount of misses are strictly the result of the trout not having a big enough mouth.View attachment 1641228764

I'll say that a basic bucktail streamer like that will catch ANY FISH. Sometimes simple is best.

 

[GANGGREEN]

I've rarely fished streamers over the years. Nothing against it and I have some friends that catch lots of big fish on them each and every year, it's just never been my thing. Probably 90% of the "streamer fishing" that I've done has been dead drifting or swinging a wooly bugger and I could probably count ALL of the actual streamer stripping that I've done within a few hours time in my entire life.

That said, I was out with a buddy the other day. We had helped the DNR stock trout in a delayed harvest area and went to another delayed harvest area to fish because we didn't choose to fish over those trout that we had just dumped in. Shortly after we got to the other area, the trout truck came and dumped fish right in on top of us at the new area, which we didn't know was going to happen. We thought there was a fair to good likelihood that the fish wouldn't bite in the short term and we didn't intend to be there for long, so we continued to fish anyway. In 5 or 10 minutes the fish began to bite a little bit on our nymph presentations and we caught a handful of fish, some of them pretty nice spent breeders.

I was satisfied and ready to go, but my buddy insisted that he tie on and try a streamer before we did so. He got chased and had a vicious take on his first cast and turned to me and shouted, "you'd better put on a streamer, really". I didn't have anything with me other than a box of wooly buggers, so I tied on a chartreuse crystal bugger or something like that and proceeded to catch a bunch of big fish in the next 30 minutes or so. Aside from the fact that beating up on trout that were in a truck an hour earlier isn't really my cup of tea, neither is streamer fishing, but I admit that this was fun for 20 or 30 minutes before I had enough.

I have had my very best streamer fishing in the last two or three trips that I actually tried it, so maybe I'll actually start doing it on purpose at times.

 

[zenherper]

I've rarely fished streamers over the years. Nothing against it and I have some friends that catch lots of big fish on them each and every year, it's just never been my thing. Probably 90% of the "streamer fishing" that I've done has been dead drifting or swinging a wooly bugger and I could probably count ALL of the actual streamer stripping that I've done within a few hours time in my entire life.

This is pretty much my experience as well. I think I need to give them more time this year, especially when my other tactics aren’t working. I guess the problem is, I always believe I will catch fish nymphing. And if fish are rising, I’m throwing dries or emergers. This leaves little room to try anything else, unless it’s truly a slow day. Having said all that, I know I’m leaving some of the larger fish behind, and I do like big browns.

 

[GANGGREEN]

This is pretty much my experience as well. I think I need to give them more time this year, especially when my other tactics aren’t working. I guess the problem is, I always believe I will catch fish nymphing. And if fish are rising, I’m throwing dries or emergers. This leaves little room to try anything else, unless it’s truly a slow day. Having said all that, I know I’m leaving some of the larger fish behind, and I do like big browns.

The biggest issue for me is that I typically fish a 3 weight, a 4 weight and often they're bamboo rods, so those rigs just aren't ideal for streamer fishing. I'd have to really plan on dedicated streamer fishing all day to drag along a rod/reel/line that's better suited to that style of fishing and I just don't see that happening very often at all.

 

[jifigz]

The biggest issue for me is that I typically fish a 3 weight, a 4 weight and often they're bamboo rods, so those rigs just aren't ideal for streamer fishing. I'd have to really plan on dedicated streamer fishing all day to drag along a rod/reel/line that's better suited to that style of fishing and I just don't see that happening very often at all.

I don't fish bamboo and I never have, but on a fiberglass or graphite 4 weight streamer fishing works fine. If I was specifically going to chuck streamers all day or had a more specific plan I'd take a 6, but 99% of my trout fishing is with a 4. It's my do-all.

 

[GANGGREEN]

I don't fish bamboo and I never have, but on a fiberglass or graphite 4 weight streamer fishing works fine. If I was specifically going to chuck streamers all day or had a more specific plan I'd take a 6, but 99% of my trout fishing is with a 4. It's my do-all.

Yeah, I've done it for sure. Just don't think it's ideal and especially not for big flies and big fish. I was using a 4/5 weight bamboo rod on the day that I described above and it handled a larger wooly bugger and decent trout up to 20" just fine, although I admit to having been a bit nervous about it since I just built the rod a few months ago.

 

[coyoterahn]

I’m interested to know what your leader set up is for streamers for typical trout fishing? Anyone use poly leaders or just a typical leader with 3x mono or Fluro? I use a poly leader but I’m not fishing streamers very often.

 

[tjsingle]

I’m interested to know what your leader set up is for streamers for typical trout fishing? Anyone use poly leaders or just a typical leader with 3x mono or Fluro? I use a poly leader but I’m not fishing streamers very often.

My typical setup is just old 4X 7.5' leaders that have become too short for nymphing and dries. Ideally a 4-5' length.