It’s the season to get into some really big wild brown trout. They are setting up for the spawn right now, and this is some of my favorite fishing of the entire year. If you do things right, you could land the biggest trout of your life, . . .
Read Morestreamers
Video: How to Tie the Soft Hackle Streamer
The lifelike movement of the Chickabou and soft hackle feathers attracts all manner of fishes.
Of his Soft Hackle Streamer, Jack Gartside wrote that it was his favorite small streamer for all species of fish, in salt or fresh water. An enemy or orthodoxy of any kind, he was adamant that. . .
Read MoreVideo: How to Tie the Sparrow
Famed fly-tier, angler, and cab-driver Jack Gartside wrote that he came up with the Sparrow pattern out of sheer laziness, while camping on the Madison river in the 1980s: . . .
Read MoreVideo: How to Tie a Pearl Zonker Streamer
The Zonker streamer has been around since the mid 1970s, when Colorado fly-shop owner Dan Byford came up with the pattern, based on some unconventional streamers coming out of New Zealand at the time. Like many streamers, the Zonker can be tied in a. . .
Read MoreVideo: How to Tie the Picket Pin
This variation features a beard and leaves off the ostrich-herl collar
The Picket Pin was developed by Missoula, Montana-based fly tier (and saloon owner) Jack Boehme, whose career spanned the 1910s to the ’40s. He was pals and partners with Norman Means, who created the Bunyan Bug, of A River Runs Through It fame. The original Picket Pin featured a. . .
Read MoreVideo: How to Tie Two Great Night-Fishing Patterns
Tim Flagler, of Tightline Productions, sent us something a little bit different this week: a great video (above) of a pair of anglers night-fishing on the South Branch of the Raritan River. I love the way it captures all. . .
Read MoreVideo: How to Tie the Black Ghost Marabou Streamer
The addition of marabou gives this fly more lifelike action than the Carrie Stevens’s pattern.
I cut my teeth fly-fishing on Maine’s Rapid River for landlocked salmon and brook trout, and it was on that steep, tumbling freestoner that I first fell in love with traditional streamer patterns. Of course, the Rapid begins at Middle Dam, just a lake’s length from Upper Dam, the spot where Carrie Stevens invented her famous. . .
Read MoreVideo: Streamer Madness in Alberta and Montana
Here’s a cool video from Dave Brown Outfitters that celebrates chucking meat for big trout. Fishing streamers from a drift boat is one of my favorite pastimes in spring and fall.
Read MoreTuesday Fly-Fishing Tips: Tom’s Streamer Basics
See All Orvis Learning Center Fly Fishing Video Lessons
With Opening Day right around the corner in much of the country, and many rivers high from snow runoff, there will be a lot of opportunities to fish streamers. Knowing when to use these large subsurface patterns, as well as how to choose from the wide array of choices, can be baffling for those not accustomed to streamers. So here are. . .
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