Don't Show the Trout Your Fly's Rear End

The long awaited, real January thaw is going to commence tomorrow. Most days in the long term forecast, almost all of them actually, are above freezing. That means two things: I have half the month to get my monthly dry fly trout (January always gives me a run for my money), and it's time to streamer fish for lunker wild brown trout.

Something that a lot of anglers do when streamer fishing, all year but definitely more so in the colder months, is swinging streamers for trout as though the are fishing for salmon or steelhead. I don't really see the point of this. It isn't the best way to get a fly deep in the water column, it isn't a natural baitfish, crayfish or leech presentation, and it doesn't result in the best hookup ratios. Yes, you can fish streamers with a down and across, salmon, wet fly style swing and catch trout. But it is not the best way. I think it was Kelly Galloup that put it something like this: a baitfish doesn't just swim in front of a predator and stick its tail in his face. That is not a direct quote, I can't find the original, but it is close.

He's right. Just because it's cold doesn't mean baitfish completely change their actions around predators. They do pretty much the same thing, but they do it significantly slower. Instead of just swinging your streamers because it's cold and the trout are slow, use heavier flies with a vertical jigging action, continue to fish them casting up and across or straight across, and slow everything down. If the trout dictate that the retrieve be slow. They don't always want that, even when the water's just above freezing. Give them a food item acting like a food item, not a weird food item shaped thing waving it's tail in their faces. That may get the some fish but it probably won't get many of the really big, smart, wild browns.

The Pipster

So things have melted some. I'm about tired of working, so it's time to ice fish, hunt down that January dry fly trout, and not stick my fly's ass in big brown's faces.