Chucking Meat: The Series

The Streamer Game

The best way to learn about different points of streamer fishing is to get out and do it. Everytime you fish you should be learning something new. To make life a little simpler for those of you getting started however, here's a few tidbits of meaty information.

1) First of all fish upstream for craps sake. I can't tell you how many guys I see walking right towards the direction the fish are facing throwing meat (i.e. downstream fishing). Yes, sometimes it works, but 99% of the time your going to want to be fishing upstream. 

2) Be as covert as you can. If you can cast from 20 ft instead of 10 ft...do it. No sense of spooking fish if you don't have to. 

3) Throw streamers in places where you think predatory fish will be lurking...log jams, deep pools, big rocks etc. Also stop walking past skinny water and try fishing it for once; you might be pleasantly surprised. 

4) Try different retrieval methods: try dead drifting, try fast stripping, try long pauses, jerk it, whatever you think might work is worth trying. (If your feeling confident, try this maneuver with the ladies). 

5) The last thing I want you to try as crazy as it sounds, is to think like a big fish. It may sound insane but every time I fish, I think to myself, if I was a lunker, where would I be? Finding out the answers is part of whats streamer fishing is all about.

If you've got the streamer bug, give this sculpin pattern a try. I call it The "Sorority Sister".

Clark Sculpin from Keystone Fly Fishing on Vimeo.

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Chucking Meat: The Series

The Streamer Game


This is going to be a weekly post in 2015, discussing one thing, and one thing only Streamer fishing. To begin, this first post is going to focus on getting your feet wet in the streamer game. You may already be a streamer junkie like myself, and in that case this post is not for you. However, you may be like the majority of people I come across...mainly dryfly and nymph guys. Maybe you're a little curious what the hype's about. Maybe you want to expand your horizon. Maybe you want to catch up on this new craze all these young kids are doing. Why streamer fish you might ask yourself... Have you ever seen a 20' fish come out of hiding like a rocket to smash a 5' long streamer? Enough said.


Ok, so where to begin... You may think you need tons of new gear a new 8wt rod heavy sink tip line and a bunch of other unnecessary crap. Well, the good news is that's simply not the case...so what do you need? Your current rod is fine and you dont need any special line either. I usually suggest a stiff 5wt to throw meat but I use a 3wt and even a 1/2 wt at times. Just know how your rod loads and dont put a 7' streamer on a 3wt. I would suggest getting some mono or flouro in 6lb and 8lb instead of using tippet. I would also suggest buying a few streamers first if your new to tying just to give you an idea. There's tons of info on the web you can use to further your knowledge. So what is this post even telling you you might be wondering...well get out there, get some kind of streamer on the end of your line and let it rip! The rest will be history.



 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay tuned for weekly streamer fishing tips.

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Fall is Here

It is just about the time we have all been waiting for: Fall! This is the time of the year when the temperatures start to drop, and the fish really come out to play. Big bad Leroy Brown is back from his summer vacation and looking to munch on a tasty streamer; Señor Musky is back in the shallows after hanging out in the thermocline; and all the yahoo seasonal fisherman are off the water! What more could you ask for? We've been taking advantage of these conditions, and it has already started to produce fish. These past two weeks Mooser and I have been going after Musky whenever we've had a chance, and boy has it paid off! Mooser stuck his first Musky on the fly after two years of absolute grinding, then three days later proceeded to stick another gorgeous blonde purebred on a fly he tied the night before! Congrats buddy, well deserved fish. I also managed to get myself a low 30s purebred on the big cheesa (pictured below), missed two fish, and had a half dozen follows. Such a nice change of pace. The fish are really starting to get aggressive too. I had a 30"er come clear out of the water to hit my fly only a rod's length away from me! Blew it on a mid air hookset...unreal. Pretty pumped on this last fish but I'm still looking for that 45+er.

Big Cheesa

Clark has been chasing browns lately (pun intended). This past weekend he was out in the rain streamer fishing and it produced very well for him. He was fishing a prototype sculpin he spun up and the browns were loving it...he calls it "I can't believe it's not sculpin." (available in Low Fat). Check out his success below.

Overall, we're all more than excited about what the fall holds. I've got a trip to the Upper Delaware planned with Evan from Sidling Hill Hackle to do some streamer fishing for big browns with Joe Demalderis of Cross Current Guide Service, so that's exciting. Also planning a salmon trip, a couple Musky floats out West and hope to get some bowhunting in between. There's just not enough time in the week! Stay tuned folks. There's going to be some exciting stuff coming up!

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