Fly Fishing

kory_k · Location: New York, NY

As it is the beginning of the fall season, large brown trout are beginning to migrate up rivers from lakes and out of the deeper holes of major rivers. This is only one of my favorite reasons to fish this time of the year. Trophy size brown trout are largely inaccessible to the fly angler for most of the year until the urge to spawn forces them to move from deeper water into more accessible areas for anglers. Of course, when they are in full spawn they become very obvious but prior to that there is some mystery to their behavior. That is the time for me that they are most desirable as they are very active and fight incredibly hard prior to being in full spawn mode. They may not be as easy to catch on a fly when they are spread out and not as easy to target, but they are a lot of fun when you do figure it out. I have had some very good success throwing streamers at this time but it can be hit or miss. Some days are on fire and others you work very hard for a few fish. You can also nymph for these fish and it can be very good or hit and miss. If you find salmon spawning like what occurs in the great lakes tributaries, brown trout are frequently right behind them eating eggs. What about right before they end up finding the eggs? Where are they? What tactics have you guys found productive? Has anyone had success fishing the estuaries or creek mouths at this time? What techniques have worked for you for trophy fall brown trout?

joey · Location: Colorado

Streamers are my go to box this time of year. Like you kory I find that one day you can really do well and others are hit or miss. But, when looking for BIG MOE.... streamers do the trick. Although stripping these big nasties is much more fun out of a boat (IMO) wading into small creeks and employing the same tactics have worked well for me in the past. I like to fish two as well. I trail a smaller bugger behind a big bunny leech both in different colors (yellow trailed by olive have been working for me). What also is fun for me when streamer fishing are the amount of fish that you see chase or flash at your flies. Nothing is better when you are screaming at a giant lurking behind your bugs "eat it c'mon eat it you bastard." happy fall to all.

kory_k · Location: New York, NY

Love throwing streamers out of the boat myself. It can be fun on foot, but out of a boat allows you to cover so much more water which can be essential to your success. Joey, your comment about which streamers got me thinking about fly color. You mention yellow which I frequently hear. I have never done great on yellow, but many people love it and I know it works. Probably just a confidence thing for me. I do feel like color though is one of the most important factors and some days fish will be all over a white pattern whereas the next day they only want the black. There is that age old adage of dark day dark fly and bright day bright fly and sometimes that works but sometimes it is the exact opposite. I have done a lot of experimenting with color and once you figure out what color they want it can get you consistently into the fish. I always find it interesting to change colors on days when you are really getting into fish to see if it actually makes that much difference and I think it definitely does. I will try to be more confident in the yellow and spend more time fishing it. One of the weirdest colors that has been very effective for me is pink. In a salmon situation where there is flesh, this makes sense but I have hammered them on pink on rivers with no sign of salmon and even on lakes. Who knows why they like that color, but I always enjoy catching them on exotic colors. I have also done well with red and orange. I like seeing the fish eat weird colors and especially love fishing bright streamers so you can watch the fly and watch the fish follow and slash and hammer it!

gilly09 · Posted: Mon 11/23/09 8:51 pm Post subject:

Meaty streamers of the articulated kind.

JeremyK · Location: Montana

Love fishing with streamers as well for the big browns. Kory mentioned pink being a color that surprisingly works for him, PEACH is that color for me. I try to chase the browns in the fall and I find that peach is really a fishy looking color in the water. I have used peach and brown, peach and black and just straight peach very successfully. I think that color and size of flies can make a difference, but weather is also a huge factor when I decide to chase those browns in the fall. Every great day I have had in the fall for browns is always on an overcast or day that the weather (pressure) has changed. I am a true believer that this effects the lateral lines of those fish and it triggers them to want to feed more. When this happens I don't think that color or size really matters, they just want to eat!