November 8, 2021 Davis James

ON OUR MINDS: Fall Streamer Fishing & Redfish on the Fly

As we creep through fall and progress into winter, there's generally only two things on our minds: Rocky Mountain streamer fishing and Gulf Coast Redfish on the fly. With Golden Fly Shop, you can do both!

FALL STREAMER CAMP:

Last weekend we hosted the first annual Fall Streamer Camp out of Glenwood Springs, CO. After a Friday night presentation consisting of best practices on reading water, fly and gear selection, presentation, and retrieve we took to the water Saturday and Sunday to put these tactics to the test.

The shop and guide crews took to the water on Friday to pre-fish the intended sections of water that were to be fished during Camp. Guide Brandon Vazquez and shop Manager Kevin Le made sure not to miss a single piece of productive water.

Golden Fly Guide Gus Gustason found himself on the bow of his own boat for a change and fooled this beautiful rainbow on a dead drifted black wooly bugger.

On Saturday morning we kicked off Day 1 of 2 with air temps around 35 degrees and 3 boats filled with anglers eager to get flies in the water. It wasn't long before we found a few fish willing to nail a properly presented white articulated streamer close to the bank on the first few strips of the fly.

Client Eric C. managed to land his personal best Brown Trout less than 30 minutes into Day 1 with Davis James on the sticks and Kevin Le on the net job.

Needless to say, client Eric C. had a high morale throughout the entirety of Streamer Camp. The initial plan was to start the day off with modest sized white streamers so that anglers could track their fly and receive feedback. However, with water temps in the 45 degree range we felt that bumping up the profile of the fly could yield more reactions...We weren't wrong and after the 22'' Brown hit the net, several more fish followed.

Anglers John S. and John K. managed to double up on these cut-bows with guidance from Golden Fly Shop guide Brandon Vazquez. Both fish were fooled with a Mini Peanut Envy in both Black and Olive.

When it comes to fly design and the action engineered within, most flies fit into one of these 4 categories: Swim style fly, jig style fly, injured, and static. Swim flies consist of streamers that swim like the real thing and generally have a blanced design. Game-changers, Sex Dungeons, Peanut Envys, Heisenburgs, and Cheech Leeches all fall under this category. These flies are often used to target fish in shallow to medium structure where fish will ambush baitfish. Jig flies differ from swimming style flies in construction with the majority of the weight near the head of the fly, designed to drop quickly into pocket water and vertically jig when manipulated by the angler. Flies like slumpbusters, crayfish, Gongas and Sculpzilla's are all great examples.

Fly selection when streamer fishing can be a daunting task but if you become familiar with fly design and the characteristics of each streamer in your box picking the correct fly for the task at hand shouldn't be too difficult.

'Injured' flies can produce some exciting eats as well. These flies are designed so that when an abrupt strip is applied the fly will 'kick' side to side, emulating an injured baitfish that is easy for the taking. Tommy Lynch's D&D and Galloup's Zoo Cougar are some of the best flies on the market to replicate this injured movement. Finally, we have 'static' flies. By using the word static we don't necessarily mean that they lack movement but rather less movement than the other 3 categories. Balanced Leeches, buggers and unweighted wet flies make up this category. These flies are versatile by design and can be fished in still-water under an indicator, stripped in river's or swung down and across.

Never underestimate the classics. This fish found its way into the net with a beadhead black wooly bugger presented with a slow static drift style retrieve.

This bruiser was not what we were targeting but this Sucker managed to eat an articulated fly in the middle of the river, straight to the corner of the mouth.

Keep your eyes peeled for our next on the water learning experience. Our classes are designed to be fun, informative, and present real world situations for anglers to learn from! If you're interested in booking a float trip with our excellent guide staff CLICK HERE!

REDFISH ON THE FLY:

If saltwater fly fishing is on your list but you're not sure where to get started, look no further.

Redfish are a great target to pursue with a fly rod for numerous reasons. They eat well, they are easy to see and the maximum casting distance for these fish is generally around +-40 feet.

Conor hoists a healthy Redfish taken from the Bow of a skiff in Louisiana using a 9wt fly rod

An additional perk of chasing Louisiana Redfish is that the price point for the entire trip is much more affordable and less of a hassle compared to Mexico, Belize or other saltwater destinations. Generally speaking you can book round trip flights for less than $500, add a rental car for a few days plus a hotel and still have money left in the bank for several days of fishing.