Breaking Down Streamer Presentations

Troutbitten

While fishing a streamer, we’re trying to make it look alive. That's the difference. Because, while fly fishing other styles, we spend so much of our time dead drifting dry flies and nymphs and trying to impart no motion, that switching to streamers is a relief. It’s liberating. It’s fun.

And so many presentations — so many looks to the streamer — can be attractive and convincing. Because everything works sometimes.
But day to day, some retrieves and presentations just work better. And there’s no question about it. Sometimes, hammering the banks with a fast jerk-strip brings the big trout out to play. And other days it’s a soft crossover technique that really turns on those same trout.
The joy of streamer fishing is that so many things can work. And trying them all is a great way to spend our time on the water.
On a dry fly, I’ll tell you what they want: It’s a dead drift. On a nymph? Same thing. And the closer you can get to that pure, unaltered drift, the more convincing your fly presentation will be.
But on streamers? Show them a slow slide or a head flip. Give them a speed lead, a touch-and-go or an endless retrieve. See what works.
That’s the fun of streamer fishing. Make the fly look alive in the water. It’s not dead drifting anymore — it’s swimming a living baitfish that can do a bunch of predictable and unpredictable things.
Sometimes it seems like the trout are looking for one kind of action on the fly — or at least that’s what turns them on most. Other times, many of these presentations seem to work. But the point is to make that fly swim. Give life to the streamer. Convince the trout that they’re looking at a living, swimming creature.
And that's what this podcast conversation is about -- breaking down streamer presentations. How do we move the fly with the line hand and the rod tip, with strips, jigs, twitches and more?
This discussion, with four of my best fishing friends, is about what makes each presentations to the fly unique. How does what we do on our end of the line affect what happens at the other end?
We Discuss the Following

• Stripping and hand twisting
• Line hand motion vs rod tip motion
• Rod position upon fly entry
• Contact vs slack
• Jig, jerks, twitches, pulses, strips
• Head position
• Depth
• Speed
• Holding seams vs crossing seams
• Natural vs attractive presentations
• Make it easy or make them chase

Resources

READ: Troutbitten | Category | Streamers
READ: Troutbitten | Modern Streamers -- Too Much Motion?
READ: Troutbitten | Streamers as an Easy Meal -- The Old School Streamer Thing
READ: Troutbitten | Streamer Presentations -- The Death Drift
READ: Troutbitten | Streamer Presentations -- The Deadly Slow Slide

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