Photo by Louis Cahill
By Justin Pickett
We all have to deal with rejection, but not from a fish.
Undoubtedly, there have been numerous occasions where you’ve been stripping streamers and had that big brown trout emerge from the bank, only to give your streamer a curious look and then give you the fin. This scenario is exciting, but in the end all you have is an empty net. So what can you do about it? Throw a little extra meat into the equation!
Now, I’m not talking about tying on two huge articulated streamers. That would be insane and something that I would never do!…. OK maybe I did it once…
Next time you’re throwing big, meaty streamers and getting refusals, try tying a smaller streamer, or even a nymph, off of the back of your rig. It’s like a little snack. That big streamer might have been enough to move that pig from his lie, but sometimes it’s the trailing fly that makes him eat. Try a woolly bugger, a muddler minnow, or a stonefly nymph. Heck, you might even try drowning a stimi behind it, wink wink. Have fun with it and experiment!
This can get tricky with articulated patterns, so be sure to tie on something considerably smaller so that it doesn’t affect the action too much. I typically don’t go larger than a #8 or #10 behind my biggest streamers. When casting these combo rigs, remember to open up those loops and be aware of the all mighty wind!
I hope this helps next time you encounter those non-committal trout on your waters!
Learn more!
Tandem Streamer Rigs Catch More Trout
13 Proven Streamer Patterns For Trout
Justin Pickett Gink & Gasoline www.ginkandgasoline.com hookups@ginkandgasoline.com Sign Up For Our Weekly Newsletter!
I once fished with a guide on The Bighorn to led with a light, or even white streamer or bugger, followed by a dark olive or black bugger. Both standard sized. It works. His theory the white one attracted trout, the tailing darker one got the most hits.
I found a Zoo Cougar dropped off the back of an articulated steamer does well because it is light, and moves with the tail not restricting the articulated streamer ahead. I did catch on of my largest browns by dropping a DD behind a bottoms up though… that was a lot of meat.
In runoff conditions guiding in Montana my go to setup is a smallish streamer like a wooly bugger or jj’s special or a zonker with a San Juan off the back. We call it sloppy rigging. It’s sloppy to cast and you can fish it sloppy. I fish it on a true dead drift some of the time but more often I have my client throw a downstream mend so as to pull the streamer, especially doing this as it is dragging off drop offs. Then an occasional upstream to make the whole rig pause and dive in the water. There is no right or wrong way to do it. This all from a boat. Some of my largest fish to the net came on those rigs. Yes I use an indicator for this and have to go large as it’s a heavy rig. Basically it creates a party of big fish catching forage.
Nailed it. Except we like coffees sparkle minnows in various size (1/0-4) behind dungeons, cheech leeches… Straight up madness.
Consultation prize fishing… it’s a good thing! 🙂
I have similar luck with a two fly setup while fishing streamers. I like the big meaty articulated one up front, and then behind it I’ll change colors and size, like a smaller crystal bugger and a lot of times, just like you said, they’ll see the big fly and crash it but not eat it, and then come back and bite on the smaller trailer fly.
In lakes, I bet 90% of the fish I catch with a streamer/wooly bugger in the front and a Zug Bug trailing is on the Zug Bug. Has also worked in rivers, but since I don’t streamer fish much, not a lot of data. Will have to try it next time I do pitch the big ones.