The streamer rig

What it's for

Bigger, predatory trout, salmon and char that hunt other fish. A streamer is a larger fly, tied to imitate a baitfish, a leech or a crayfish, and you fish it by moving it through the water so it looks like fleeing prey. Where a dry fly or nymph imitates an insect a fish sips, a streamer triggers a chase and a grab, so it tends to bring fewer but bigger fish. It is the rig for the predatory rainbows and browns that eat smaller fish, for char, and for salmon that will move to a swung fly. It comes into its own in higher, coloured water when fish cannot see small flies, on big rivers and lakes where prey fish hold, and at first and last light when predators hunt the margins. It is also the way to cover a lot of water and find the aggressive fish quickly.

The rig at a glance

Read from the rod end to the fly, the way it fishes through the water. The fly line does the casting; for the shallow version it is a floating line, for the deep version a sink tip or a sinking poly leader looped to the front. To the fly line you join the leader, loop to loop. For a streamer the leader is short and stout, not the long fine taper of a dry fly: about 1.8 to 2.7 m (6 to 9 ft) of heavier line, ending in a strong tippet of 0X to 2X (roughly 4.5 to 7 kg). Short and stout because a heavy, wind-resistant fly needs a strong, stiff leader to turn it over, and because you are moving the fly, not drifting it dead, so fine tippet is not needed and would only break on the take. At the tip is the single streamer, tied on with a non-slip loop knot: an open loop at the eye, not a tight knot, so the fly can swing, jig and dart freely instead of being held rigid. For deep water, swap the floating line for a sink tip or loop a sinking poly leader to the front and keep the leader short, 1.2 to 1.5 m, so the fly stays down near the bottom rather than riding up.

The leader system, explained

A streamer leader is the opposite of a dry fly leader, and it is worth understanding why. A dry fly leader is long and finely tapered so a near-weightless fly lands softly and drifts free. A streamer leader is short and stout because the job is different: turn over a big, heavy, air-resistant fly, and stay strong enough to move it and take a hard grab from a big fish. So you trade the long fine taper for a shorter, heavier, less tapered leader, often just a length of stout level tippet off a short butt, ending at 0X to 2X.

The join to the fly line is the same loop-to-loop system as the other fly rigs: a perfection loop in the leader butt through the fly line's tip loop, which also lets you loop on a sinking poly leader for depth and swap it back out when you want to fish shallow. The one piece that defines the streamer rig is the knot at the fly: a non-slip loop, not a tight clinch, so the fly is held by an open loop and is free to move. A fly tied tight to a stout leader swims stiffly; the same fly on an open loop comes alive.

How to build it

1. Set up the fly line for the depth. For shallow water, use a floating line as it comes. To fish deep, either use a sink tip line, or loop a sinking poly leader to the front of a floating line: tie a perfection loop in the poly leader if it has none, and join it loop to loop to the fly line's tip loop. The sink tip or poly leader takes the fly down.
2. Join the short stout leader. Tie a perfection loop in the butt of the leader and join it loop to loop to the fly line (or to the sink tip / poly leader). Build the leader short and stout: about 1.8 to 2.7 m on a floating line, or 1.2 to 1.5 m on a sink tip so the fly stays deep. If you build the leader from sections, join them with a surgeon's knot or a blood knot. End at a strong tippet, 0X to 2X.
3. Tie on the streamer with an open loop. Tie the streamer to the tippet with a non-slip loop knot. This leaves an open loop at the fly's eye instead of cinching tight, so the fly is free to swing, jig and dart as you move it. This is the detail that makes the streamer come alive. (If you prefer a fixed tie, an improved clinch knot holds, but the fly will swim stiffer.)
4. Check the action. Give the rod a short pull and watch the fly. On the open loop it should kick and dart, not track stiff and straight. If it spins or twists the leader, the fly may be unbalanced or the loop too large; retie. A streamer that darts and pauses naturally is what draws the chase.

How to fish it

Move the fly so it looks like a fleeing or wounded baitfish, and cover the water to find the aggressive fish. The standard method is the strip: cast across or down and across, let the fly sink to the depth you want, then retrieve it in pulls of the line, a strip and a pause, varying the speed and length until you find what the fish want. Most takes come on the pause, as the fly drops, so stay in contact and be ready. The swing is the other method, especially for salmon and in current: cast down and across and let the fly swing round on a tight line, the current giving it life, then strip it back at the end. Vary the depth with the sink tip and the weight of fly, and the speed with your retrieve. Fish the likely holding water: undercut banks, drop-offs, the heads and tails of pools, and the margins at first and last light when predators hunt. A take on a streamer is often a hard, sudden grab, so do not over-strike; a firm strip-strike, pulling with the line hand, sets the hook better than lifting the rod. Cover water quickly. The streamer is a search method, so keep moving until you find a fish that wants to chase.

Where this rig works

As the atlas grows, the trout, salmon and char waters that fish a streamer will link to this same page. The waters lined up for it are the Kenai River in Alaska, where big native rainbows take streamers in autumn; the Bighorn River in Montana, a tailwater whose larger browns chase streamers in higher water; Lake Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains, brown, rainbow and brook trout off the shore at dawn and dusk; Þingvallavatn in Iceland, where you wade for trout and large char; Arthurs Lake in Tasmania for wild brown trout; the Soča in Slovenia for its predatory native marble trout; and Campbell River in British Columbia, where salmon take a swung fly. Each guide will tell you when to reach for the streamer by season, water height and time of day.

Streamer rig questions