Don’t burn me at the angling stake for the title of this episode!
(If anything, you’ll find that I’m guilty of being slightly misleading.)
In a day and age where big, heavy, articulated streamers get a lot of publicity, it is important to remember that there are similar flies that accomplish slightly different tasks. There are a number of fish and fishing situations that benefit from or necessitate using weightless streamers.
Today I walk through four main reasons why you should have some bead-less and cone-less baitfish imitations in your fly box.
Listen to the episode below, or on your favorite podcast app.
Episode Recommendation: Redington Landing Pad
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Agree weightless is the ticket…
I tie a sculpin pattern of my own creation that incorporates a flattened top and bottom, wide at the sides, dubbed brownish fur head with a dyed brown/olive pheasant rump collar. Brownish griz hen feathers going down over the back matuka style, over a pearl ice dubbed body, with a small amount of barred brownish marabou between the two matuka feathers in the tail. No weight. Anyway, I bend the hook up a little where the head meets the collar. What happens is, when you strip it in, because of the bend it will rise up and dimple the surface with a good strip, then sink back down some after the strip. Big trout seem to love the heck out of this action… Rising up, dimple, then sinking, etc… It looks like a sculpin that was stirred up off the bottom trying to escape. Very lifelike!
Then there are streamers like the Galloup Zoo Cougar. This is also unweighted but has a semi diving action the way the head is trimmed specifically to be fished erratically in a darting fashion.
Can also use a sinking line to take care of any depth requirement.
Thanks for the pattern and the “story,” Andrew!