When nymphing, we often don’t see fish react to our presentations. When dry fly fishing we often see refusals but usually have a pretty good idea why the fish refused — drag, a visible tippet or a fly that isn’t an ideal match for the bugs the trout are keying on..

With streamers it might not be as simple. Much of the time we’re not trying to fool fish that are actively feeding. We’re simply trying to elicit reaction strikes from predators that are lying in wait for something tasty to happen along.