I think my passion for throwing streamers can be linked back to my days of fishing with spinning gear. Ya see, one of the toughest things to master in fly fishing is that whole dry fly delicacy thing. Anyone can get a streamer tight against the bank and strip it in like a mad man; but it takes practice to defy the dynamics of fluid flow. I sort of stumbled upon this epiphany the morning I clipped off a Light Cahill in favor of a yellow Zoo Cougar a few miles downstream of the Mio on the Au Sable River.
Hours earlier, I caught my first trout on a fly during the early stages of a Sulpher hatch. To this day, it’s still probably one of the most epic Sulpher hatches I’ve ever experienced. The bugs just wouldn’t stop popping. I waded into a side channel on the back side of a small island and for reasons I didn’t understand at the time, there were no bugs. On a whim, I tied the Zoo Cougar on and found out the hard way that my casting skills weren’t what they needed to be to cast it. So to compensate for my shortcomings, I stood at the top of the channel and stripped every inch of my fly line out. Once the current pulled the entire length of line and the fly tight, I started stripping line back in. On the first pass up the channel, I saw three fish charge the fly before backing out at the last second. Again, I let the full length of fly line straighten out from the top of the channel, then after stripping in about 40′ of line, everything tightened up and I had adrenaline shooting out my ears.
I can still picture my left hand struggling to cradle the fish while my right held my fly rod up to it to guesstimate how big it was. My dry fly fishing days were over only hours after they began. Don’t get me wrong, I still fish dry flies. I’d even go so far as to say I have fun matching hatches. But for me, catching trout through finesse pales in comparison to pissing them off.
This mindset applies to all of the other fish I pursue- except steelhead. For some reason I still prefer to catch them under a bobber than on the swing. I often laugh about this with Shaq over at The Anglers Net. He’s just the opposite. For him, when it comes to chasing migratory fish, the tug is the drug. Yet for the most part when trout fishing, he’ll only toss a streamer when there are no bugs coming off.
So since the streamer bite is on fire right now on rivers all across the country, I thought I’d share a few of my favorites.
The Zoo Cougar
Hook: 4XL or 3XL Streamer Hook
Tail: Marabou
Body: Sparkle Braid
Underwing: Calf Tail
Wing: Mallard Flank
Collar/Head: Deer Body Hair
EP Fiber Baitfish
Hook: Streamer Hook
Body: EP Fibers
Colors: Grab some markers and go!
Eyes: Doll Eyes
Butt Monkey
Tail: Marabou
Body: Sparkle Braid
Rib: Medium Wire
Wing: Rabbit Strip
Collar: Duck Flank
Head: Wool or Glo Bug Yarn clipped to shaped
Muddler Minnow
Hook: 3XL Streamer Hook
Tail: Turkey
Body: Tinsel
Wing: Turkey
Collar/Head: Deer Body Hair
Conrad’s Sculpin
Hooks: 2 Streamer hooks
Body: Palmered Marabou
Joint: Mono- use a few beads to help prevent fouling and also give the fly some sound
Head: Deer Body Hair
Eyes: Dumbell Eyes
23 Responses
Alex, I agree. For me, there is nothing that compares to a fish smashing a streamer!
Posted on May 1st, 2009 at 2:56 pm
EP Fiber baitfish rock fo sho.
Posted on May 1st, 2009 at 2:58 pm
One of the best things about streamers is that for the most part, any streamer will work for just about any species of fish. I can take any of the flies above and catch trout, bass, pike, stripers, etc. That means if I'm smart about color combos, etc., can have a single fly box to worry about, that will produce anywhere I go.
Posted on May 1st, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Truth. I use variants of the same few streamer patterns for non-trout fresh and salt to great effect. I'm lazy like that.
Posted on May 1st, 2009 at 3:19 pm
I think Henry Ford said something like- if you want to figure out the most efficient way to do something, put a lazy man on the job.
Posted on May 1st, 2009 at 3:30 pm
I can tie my love of streamers to my earliest fly fishing successes. Once I started catching fish on them, I began reading about the history of many of the patterns. Something about catching fish on a classic pattern that hooked me. Anyone drawn to tying and fishing them should join us at The Streamer List — http://streamerlist.ning.com/
Posted on May 1st, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Great to see you join the conversation, Chris. The article you wrote on classic streamers in the premier issue of Hatches was probably the best article I've ever seen on the subject.
Posted on May 1st, 2009 at 3:56 pm
Aww, shucks. Twern't nuthin'.
Thanks ~ CD
Posted on May 1st, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Adopt a zoo cougar today!
Posted on May 1st, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Agreed. And the couple of Galloup patterns mentioned above are seriously hot (gotta love the Cougar, in white as well). I would also throw in the McCune's sculpin as another great pattern that I've been relying on heavily.
Posted on May 1st, 2009 at 8:50 pm
No doubt about it Alex, pissin fish off is a good time. My streamer addiction is Bull Trout and 8" flies. Serious fun! Nice post.
Posted on May 2nd, 2009 at 5:13 am
Loving the streamers, muddler heads have worked there way into my UK still water box, I enjoy spinning deer hair, but I have never thrown a streamer at a UK river. I think it's stiff upper lip traditionilsm stopping me because I'm sure that our bigger trout take baitfish, it just doesn't feel right.
Perhaps I need to break the chains of traditionalism and see if it works!!!
Posted on May 2nd, 2009 at 12:19 pm
got a pic, Bruce?
Posted on May 4th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
http://orders.montanaflyfishing.com/p-640-sculpin...
Posted on May 4th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Thanks, Bruce! Kinda reminds me a little bit of a Nutcracker.
http://www.hawkinsflyfishing.com/Nutcracker.php
Posted on May 4th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Yeah, that's good looking too. Another reliable pattern I'd put on my list is Gartside's streamer. Simple to tie with easily found materials and has great action in the water:
http://www.jackgartside.com/step_sh_streamer.htm
Posted on May 4th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Nice! Like most Gartside patterns, I bet that one would work for just about anything, anywhere.
Posted on May 4th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Ahhhhh the McCune also affectionately know as the SHF.
http://hatchless.com/shf/
http://hatchless.com/nggallery/page-4/album-1/gal...
Posted on May 7th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
My favorite all time streamer is the Zoo Cougar! Nice article. I do want to make one comment regarding the Circus Peanut…the photo and recipe you have here is NOT a Circus Peanut. The closest that pattern comes to is the Articulated Zoo Cougar AKA Heifer Groomer or Fat Head…your just missing the Mallard Flank.
This is the Circus Peanut: http://www.slideinn.com/store/popup_image.php?pID...
I'm a big fan of Kelly Galloups.
Posted on May 7th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Is that your site, caulfield? Looks good!
Posted on May 7th, 2009 at 4:42 pm
Yeah. We just launched it a few weeks ago. Group effort. We need CONTENT!
Posted on May 7th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
You're right Mato,
The pattern pictured above is called a Conrad's Sculpin- I don't know what I was thinking
It's kind of a cross between the ZC and the CP
Posted on May 7th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Fishing with streamers is great. I love to fish for pike with them. 15 years ago I tied large streamers with a lot of marabou in the hookbend in hacklestyle. I lot of copperwire as tying thread to protect the feathers against the tiny teeth of pike, large beads as eyes in the front. I called them freggels named after the animated Fraggle Rock series. Pike still love them but it is a hell to cast them. Fortunately it is in Holland not necessary to cast far in the polder. I'm sure pike-like fish in USA take them
Posted on May 17th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
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