TRIP INTEL: Swinging Streamers on the Colorado River

Learning to fly fish isn’t always easy. With the Trip Intel series, you can learn from the collective failures of the No Kype team.

We’ll be talking about trips we’ve taken (no specific spots will be named), the conditions on the water, and the knowledge we gained while fishing throughout the day.

Come learn with us! Together, we’ll all figure this shit out eventually.

Conditions

MONTH: March

LOCATION: Colorado River (somewhere between Granby & Newcastle), Colorado

WEATHER: A cold, cloudy start turned into a gorgeous day. The wind picked up right after noon and didn’t stop blowing all day long. When fishing some of the more open stretches of river, a strong gust would roll through every half hour that could nearly knock you down. The temperatures (sans wind chill) hit the mid-50’s as a high and the constant sunshine kept it relatively warm for a spring day in the Rockies.

BUG ACTIVITY: For the last day of March, there was surprisingly minimal bug activity. The sunshine and the warmth of the afternoon just seemed to make for buggier conditions. Although, upon further thought, the strong winds probably played a factor. During the short periods of time throughout the day when the wind was not an issue, the trout were readily feeding on adult midges. Their sizes fell into the #18-#20 range. Little trout could be seen jumping clear out of the water for them. A few small baetis were also flying around, likely BWO’s in the #20-#24 size range. The trout did not seem nearly as interested in the baetis, but would still sip them on occasion. Baitfish could be seen swimming around, but not in high numbers.

KEY TACTIC

Swinging Streamers

When you think of swinging flies, the first thing that comes to mind is likely spey. For good reason; the world of spey is where the swinging technique originated.

Swinging flies the traditional way includes a long spey rod, a running line, and the use of different spey-style heads for different sink rates an'd casting applications. Not everyone has those things, so what this articles refers to is a single-hand swing with a standard 8’-9’ fly rod.

THE OUTFIT:

  • 8’6” 6wt. Fly Rod (Fast Action for Turning Over Streamers of All Sizes)

  • Lamson Guru Reel (Decent Drag in Case a Giant Trout Eats)

  • Scientific Anglers Amplitude Infinity Fly Line (WF6F)

  • RIO Products Trout VersiLeader (7’; 5ips)

  • Scientific Anglers Absolute Trout Tippet (3X)

The key to the entire setup is the VersiLeader. If you’re swinging streamers with a floating fly line, the current is naturally going to want to push your line and flies toward the surface. Which is fine if you’re swinging in shallow water or trying to catch risers on soft hackles. But for this particular trip to the Colorado River, every streamer pattern needed to get down and stay down in the swift currents. The weight is especially important with lighter streamers like the Dirty Hippy and the Mini Sex Dungeon, which will otherwise swing right over the heads of hungry trout if not pushed down.

IMAGE: Weekender Media

IMAGE: Weekender Media

Pretty simple, right? Good - the setup was the most difficult part. The actual fishing technique is easy.

Use the picture above as a reference. The angler is standing upstream of the target zone on a sandbar next to a long, wide, deep run that ends in a tailout. The ideal cast is a double haul or a single hand snap-T, placing the streamer as close to the opposite bank as possible. Keep your rod tip down and keep your line tight as the streamer swings across the current and into the pool at the bottom end of the run. Slack is OK at the beginning of your swing, but only to let the streamer sink before it enters the run. But once it gets moving, keep that line tight.

If you’re doing everything right, you’ll feel the weight of the VersiLeader and the streamer as they pull in the current. If your fly bounces off rocks and the riverbed, you’ll feel that too. You find out pretty quickly what every subtle jerk and tug feels like; but at the beginning, it’s easy to sink a hook into a submerged log because your streamer bumped it in a way that felt… fishy.

When a fish does eat, you’ll know immediately. The rod will jerk erratically and you’ll feel the fish begin to shake its head in anger. 9 times out of 10, strikes on a swung streamer are not subtle.

When the fish does eat, don’t lift your rod tip for a traditional trout set. Keep the rod tip low and pull straight back gently, allowing the hook to bury in the trout’s jaw without snatching the fly from his mouth.

Then just loosen that drag knob a little and let them take off. Downstream hooksets are not always the most reliable, so don’t try to horse the trout (especially bigger ones) unless you absolutely have to.

Swinging streamers is a simple, straightforward method for catching trout. Nothing complicated, yet fun and entertaining. What’s not to love?

Fly Box

Streamers

Mini Sex Dungeon: black/purple

Baby Gonga: rust OR black

Heisenberg: white (pictured below)

Slumpbuster: rust OR black

Dirty Hippy: brown

Sex Dungeon: black OR white

Lesson Learned

This might be more of a theory than a lesson, but regardless…

It seems as though the trout residing in Colorado’s freestone rivers emerge from the bitter cold of winter with a ravenous appetite. Their hunger makes them aggressive and territorial. Their desire for food also makes them crave a larger meal in addition to the bugs upon which they already gorge: baitfish.

Western freestones like the Colorado River are known to fish well with streamers during the summer and fall. Autumn is that magical time of year when the big brown trout get really nasty as they begin to prepare to spawn. These are the seasons that get all the attention, which means the spring “baitfish hatch” flies under the radar. If you don’t have a boat, the pre-runoff season can be wade fishing prime time.

IMAGE: Weekender Media

IMAGE: Weekender Media

You may not see a ton of baitfish swimming around, but they are almost always there. While you can match the hatch by looking at the adult insects on the surface or their offspring hidden under the river rocks, it can be difficult to match the baitfish hatch. And if you’re seeing so many bugs, why not fish bugs?

Sometimes you have to read the context of the river instead of just the content. The content would be things like flows, hatches, physical attributes of the river, etc. The context includes notions like: “The weather is just now warming up from a long, cold winter that froze major portions of this river. These trout have got to be starving.” Sometimes the gamble pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. But if your gut is telling you something on the water, it’s worthwhile to roll the dice.

So here are the 2 key takeaways:

#1: Test your gut instincts. If you think the fish are extra hungry, try feeding them a bigger meal.

#2: Swinging streamers is an effective, exhilarating method for catching trout.

Fly FishLarkin WilsonTacticsComment