This past week I was lucky enough to play hooky for a day and float a glorious 10-mile stretch of my favorite river with a good friend. We went with the intention of fishing dry flies.
Specifically Blue Winged Olives. While there was sporadic activity with those dainty little mayflies the real star of the show were streamers. Nothing fancy, gaudy or large. A simple black woolly bugger with a bead head must have moved 100 fish over the course of the day and a number of them were hooked.
Fishing streamers from a boat has to be one of my favorite ways to fish, but it can bit a bit intimidating when you first start. As I sat here thinking about all the tips and tricks I could try and list here I remembered my friend Simon Gawesworth (brand manager at RIO products) who’s a far superior angler than me produced an excellent video a few years ago that gives the subject a much more in-depth explanation then I could. Also, here’s a tip that TU’s Chris Hunt just picked up from a guide on the South Fork of the Snake earlier this month.
While we’re getting on in the year fishing-wise there are still a few more weeks of potentially excellent streamer fishing, especially if you can find the right weather windows.
Enjoy the tips, and maybe we’ll see you out on the water.