A 6 million dollar Question?
Call friends or family? Confer?
Like the majority of anglers we started with more conventional methods like dry fly, wet fly, nymphing.
We still use those styles too. It’s hard to beat a beautiful or dramatic take on the dry fly after the patient and exciting stalk of a rising fish.
The most important part is that streamer fishing is the most fun you can have with a fly rod. To witness large fish throw caution to the wind and explode on your fly is extraordinary.
To some degree necessity is also an ingredient. To arrive at the river and find conditions not conducive to other methods. Higher faster water, coloured and windy days are where streamer fishing excells.
Is nymphing an option? Yes, however it tends to pick up a lot of small fish. Fish we would hope to avoid until they have grown bigger.
We want to target larger fish and using streamer tactics can put the odds of encountering a big fish in your favour. Big fish eat smaller fish. We all know this to be true. Why not use that fact to our advantage rather than hoping that a big fish will meet our terms and conditions.
Big fish eat smaller fish. We all know this to be true.
Trial and error, more informed trial and error. Still errors, adjust move on, fail again. Succeed, succeed big!
There are rewards for perseverance, all anglers know it. Honing, finessing, always learning.
Streamers have shown us that big trout play different. They are there, more often than we think. Streamers have given us a way to their world on a more regular basis. Trout that we are now actively pursueing as opposed to catching them as a by product of luck.
Coming from an Irish context where game fishing is well established for trout and salmon and methods have been relatively traditional, streamer fishing has been a deviation from the norm.
Having fished abroad in various places where streamer fishing was a regular part of the approach of many anglers for trout, and seatrout, it was natural to see if these techniques could transfer across .
With a lot of salmon fishing experience under the belt too and familiar with bigger flies and tubes and the good trout/seatrout that were often bycatch in big water it was not a huge leap in imagination for us.
So began a journey of exploration of flies, gear, techniques and attitude.
Streamers have shown us that the big Trout play different. They are there, more often than we think. Streamers have given us a way in to their world on a more regular basis. Trout that are now targeted as opposed to being a by product of luck.
Angling for wild fish is heavily dependant on weather conditions along with a combination of skill and knowledge. It can be tough fishing… Casting, hauling, stripping. Always on the move, hunting, sometimes covering alot of water.
That is one of the reasons that the rewards and sense of achievement are so high.
What started out as an alternative method to use in certain circumstances became so much more.
It became a bonafide standalone method in its own right, especially in the quest for larger trout. It won’t replace other methods like dry fly nor should it as each method in fly fishing has it’s well earned place.
It will inevitably become a more widely accepted and mainstream method in time. We are so convinced of it’s effectiveness and the enjoyment of it as a style that we have started Impact Fly Fishing to share our passion with you and provide products and information that will help you enjoy this wonderful aspect of Fly Fishing.
Is it just a method to use when water is high or coloured? Oh no, it is so much more as the journey has informed us. Start your journey soon if not already on the path.
