I posted a while ago, somewhere on the outer edges of the forum where somebody might admit to using a streamer for wild brownies, that I did this. I however always detect cynacism from some quarters; perhaps inferred. However just in case I made a little You Tube informercial.


Regards Jon.

Great video
I really like the river and the fish

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Save the Softmouth
The ancient noble trout of Montenegro

Nutritionally advantages!
Ace!

Nice one John, nice troot!

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Thanks for that . I still havent tried streamers yet and wouldnt have thought of trying them on that type of river. I'd imagine there are many more like me!

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Irish by birth, Munster by the grace of God.

I encourage anglers to explore the use of streamers and streamer fly tying. Check this site out for the real deal.
The Streamer List - Streamers & Bucktails: The Big Fish Flies

We here in the USA and Canada have a long standing history of streamer fishing. Most of us would view the video here as jig fishing and the fly does not making it to the status of streamer.
Does jig fishing work? Yap! No argument there! To refer to other methods of fishing streamers as “lazy”….I suspect there is quite a bit you are simply unaware of, Jon and that may be do to the lack of familiarity with streamer fishing on your side of the pond which is understandable.
I do however encourage all anglers to take a look at the web site and see and perhaps learn a bit more about streamer flies and streamer fly fishing.

Great filming, Jon! I hope you do more on streamer fishing.
I do however wish somehow we can separate the type of fly presented here from the designation of streamer as the line is crossed here and in the process the art of streamer fly tying which is on a par with the Atlantic salmon fly tying is reduced to something else entirely.

I don’t mean to be a wet blanket but there is more to the art of streamer tying and fishing than demonstrated. I felt compelled to share that web site as serious streamer fly tying is discussed and displayed. My intention is to add to the knowledge base not confrontation.

Tight lines!

Bobby

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"Tight lines from Vermont where the winters are long the fish are wild and the women are good looking."

As Kype correctly points out, the objections that UK anglers seem to come up with in regard to streamer fishing are generally born out of a lack of experience with fishing for wild fish in their natural habitat.

The fact of the matter is that as they grow to larger sizes, wild trout tend to focus more and more of their energy on eating large meals of meat rather than tiny insect snacks. When you look at the anglers who are consistently catching large trout, they are almost always doing it by fishing large streamer patterns.

The idea that streamer fishing requires less skill than dry fly fishing is complete cobblers. Dry fly fishing is actually the lowest on the skill totem pole, nymphing is infinitely more difficult to do well, and streamer fishing is just behind nymphing in terms of skill requirements.

Grouse

Grouse

I have what I believe is an interesting idea you may ponder. In steams that are not prolific with insects hatches trout turn to feeding on bait fish. Often they will grab large bait late in the hatch. They move up under the surface feeding fish suspended in the gut of the pool and when the smaller fish have done all the work of collecting the available insects the large fish simply tip up and suck in the smaller fish with little or no surface disturbance at all! Two meals in one bite!

I had a big brown sip a 10 inch fall fish which I hooked with a dry fly one evening and all there was, was a dimple as the fall fish was sucked down! I have seen this twice. I bet others have had similar experiences and I would love to hear the stories!

It would make sense then to fish un-weighted bucktails cast downstream and fished slowly in the current back up river allowing them to swing from side to side very late in the hatch in the manner of feeding baitfish. I have done this successfully.

We use this approach frequently along the shore edge in the spring time as bait fish swim at mid depth and near the surface as they migrate up river to spawn. At that time we use a sink tip line. Streamers were intended to be fished shallow and not very deep for a good reason. Late spring the bait are moving back down river and this is very exciting fast moving up and across fishing with a great deal of rod action applied to the swinging streamer fly. Strikes are explosive and I have had the rod nearly pulled from my hand.
As you point out there is a great deal to streamer fishing which seems to be slipping away lost to bottom bouncing techniques.

Woolly B-gers, and various jigs were intended to be fished as the fly tied in this thread is being fished and Jon is fishing it well but it isn't really streamer fishing, though it is very useful information and well executed.

Bobby

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"Tight lines from Vermont where the winters are long the fish are wild and the women are good looking."

Nice video Jon - shame about the hat!

I wonder whether the lack of use of the technique is in part down to fishery rules - I have a Bolton Abbey season ticket and the rules say "Use of lures or reservoir flies is prohibited". Would such a streamer - if our transatlantic members will permit me to call it a streamer - normally be considered a lure or a fly? Another example, the river we'll be fishing in the next NSFF test (if you're coming down for it) is "fly only"?

Stuart

It has often puzzled me; my largest and best wild brown trout have been taken accidentally, while fishing for sea trout at night, on inch tubes in silver and black etc - why would I choose not to fish a streamer? I don't know, but I will give it a go.

Thanks for posting the vid

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Time is a stream I go fishing in.

Fishing with streamers does appear to be popular in the USA, particularly on the east coast it seems. I have often wondered how streamers would work here and why they are not as popular. Thanks for sharing the video, you have encouraged me to try it and see for myself!

This is also quite a good American blog that features streamer fishing if you scroll through:

Small Stream Reflections