My man Charlie getting it done on the Mile with the low and slow streamer method!
From January to the end of February the tailwaters of the Miracle Mile & Grey’s Reef has some awesome streamer fishing. Low & slow is the key here. Pounding the banks with quick retrieves is not how I usually go about this. Positioning the boat on the sides of deeper water, whether that be a run or hole and retrieving your streamer slowly while maintaining contact with the bottom of the river is the technique that usually crushes it in the winter. This method is not rocket science but it does take some practice. I do this on Grey’s Reef & the Miracle Mile all winter, and I have become convinced it is the way to go!
Anglers and the rower must be in sync! The rower has to row the boat like he/her is rowing a bobber drift. The anglers should cast slightly upstream of where they normal would & allow their streamer to sink to the bottom. Once the streamer has sunk the rower ideally wants to start chasing the drift/retrieve just like your trying to get a long nymph drift. A slight downstream curve or bow on your line keeps the fly deep & gives the angler the ability to feel even the lightest of takes on this tight line. The biggest obstacle for anglers learning this method is figuring out how to fish and feel the bottom of the river without getting snagged on the bottom. Once again this isn’t rocket science but it does take a bit of practice.
The takes are usually very light! While sometimes you get fish to hammer it, the cold water temperatures having fish more on the lethargic side, so hitting the fish in the face with this low & slow method is usually what gets those fish to eat a streamer! Differentiating between bottom and eats can be a little tedious at first but once you get the hang of fishing deep & slow with a tight line it becomes easy to tell. While learning this you will get a lot of pump fakes from the bottom. Im always amazed how often after being hung on the bottom for a moment and getting the streamer moving slowly again you will get eats. This leads to a lot of “I think I got one!…Wait never mind.” Then two strips later BOOM theres a fish.
Keep in mind we are usually not casting to the banks, but there are exceptions like at outhouse hole where we have our boat left of “the trough” and casting as far as we can to the right. So while the streamer lands near the bank, I’m usually expecting an eat more in the middle of the river, with the first ten feet of the drift just being used to get my streamer on the bottom as much as possible.
It can almost seem like your czech nymphing streamers through the “nymphing water”. Keeping that line tight is crucial. If your stripping to fast you might go over a fish or simply be offer a presentation that requires these cold fish too much effort to eat. We usually use intermediate sinking lines (lines that sink, but only 1 to 2 IPS…inches per second). With these intermediate lines
Craig with a great brown trout on the stream taken in Outhouse Hole with the slow and low method!