GreenWeenie wrote:
Large fish that have been in the water a while generally won’t chase a rapidly retrieved fly all over the water – you have to get the fly to them where they can take it. Setting aside nighttime fishing when large fish will cruise looking for food, the majority of large fish tend to stay hidden and ambush unsuspecting prey as they wander by especially during daytime hours.
In low clear water there are two streamer approaches: (1) use a thinly dressed small streamer (size 12-14 along the lines of a black nose dace, mickey finn, gray ghost, small deceiver, maybe even with a little marabou) and fish these streamers like and injured minnow slowly bobbing and floating it near the surface working it along undercuts, trees, brush, etc., or (2) use a fatter “buggier” fly like the woolly bugger or muddler minnow or maybe even a sculpin BUT put enough weight on it so it sinks to the bottom and bottom bounce it slowly like it’s tumbling helplessly downstream.
Also, with the buggier flies sometimes they work best fished upstream like a nymph so they bottom bounce headfirst downstream. Or if fishing downstream use a curve cast so the fly bounces headfirst down and across before starting a headfirst upstream swing. Having the fly bounce headfirst downstream can sometimes mean all the difference between success and no success. I’ve found this to be especially true with buggers.