Fall fishing signals a drop in water temperatures, a change in scenery, and hungry trout. As trout look to pack on weight for the winter ahead, anything is on the menu. This means bait fish, other trout, and just about anything they can get their mouth around. In anticipation of this, anglers turn from their usual nymphs, midges, and dries for more substantial offerings: enter the streamer. But how do you decide the best trout streamers to throw to move fish?
Streamer patterns are larger fly patterns made to represent bait fish, crayfish, and anything in between. They are typically tied with a mix of synthetic and natural materials, offering anglers a combination of profile, movement, and a little flash. When fished in the fall, these beefy flies can trigger the predatory instinct of trophy-sized trout (check out our guide to streamer fishing HERE to catch your own trophy). Just like any other flies, not all streamers are created equally. After years of guiding and sifting through the seemingly endless streamer patterns out there, here are the best trout streamers for fall fishing.
How We Made Our Picks
As a retired guide and former nymphing enthusiast, streamers often took the back seat. When you’re fishing with clients, catching fish is the name of the game, regardless of size. Yet several years ago, I decided to take the plunge and become a certified streamer junkie. I went all in, fully embracing the dark side, and fished nothing but streamers: different flies, different techniques, and different conditions. I fish streamers whenever given the opportunity. This journey is, in part, a quest to catch the fish of a lifetime and learn more about a technique I had long neglected.
On most days, streamer fishing requires a lot of work and commitment, but watching a 22-plus-inch trout move off the bank and chase a streamer gets the blood pumping. I would argue that moments like these are at the pinnacle of the sport of fly fishing. Right up there with dry flies on the Henry’s Fork or chasing roosters on a beach in Baja. Over the last several years, I’ve refined my streamer fishing techniques and patterns to consistently move big fish.
If you’re not into streamer fishing, you should be, or at least give it a solid chance. Below are my five best streamers every angler should have in their box. Plus, a few things I’ve learned since joining the Dark Side.
5 Streamers for Trout
Articulated Trout Slider
Articulated Trout Slider
Pros:
- Can be fished a variety of ways
- Excellent sculpin imitation
- Fun fly pattern to fish
Cons:
- Hard to tie
- Fished best with sink tip lines
The Trout Slider combines the flash of a Sparkle Minnow, the water-pushing deer hair head, and the movement of a Sex Dungeon. It is a medium-weighted fly, so pair it with a sink-tip fly line. It reaches deeper into the water column than some of the other flies on this list. Like the Sex Dungeon, it is articulated. The flash and sliding side-to-side movement of the articulated body doesn’t leave much room for improvement. It is a phenomenal fly pattern.
What makes the trout slider impressive is that when given hard jerky strips with pauses in between, the slider makes all sorts of erratic motions through the water. Many times, it will slide to the side and completely reverse direction when it comes to a stop, leaving the fly facing anything that is chasing it. This reverse slide will trigger reactionary strikes. It is an excellent streamer to try when you are moving trout but cannot get them to commit to the fly.
Sex Dungeon
Sex Dungeon
Pros:
- Tried and true streamer pattern
- Extremely versatile
- Sinks fast
Cons:
- Can be heavy to cast on lighter rods
The Sex Dungeon is an articulated streamer capable of doing it all. It might be one of the most popular streamers in the American West. When it comes to catching big fish, it’s versatile and effective. I remember being introduced to the Sex Dungeon in 2010 when I floated through a section of the Lower Blue River just outside of Silverthorne, Colorado. Fishing it on a floating line just after run off, the dungeon would quickly get to depth, move erratically, and entice strikes from large rainbows. I fished a natural-colored sex dungeon for the majority of the day, and the results were spectacular.
From that trip onward, on both guided trips and personal fly fishing outings, I always made sure to carry five Sex Dungeons in my streamer box: natural, black, olive, white, and yellow. No matter the conditions or forage items you encounter, if you have Sex Dungeons in these colors, you will have an excellent shot at moving and catching some nice fish.
If I had to choose one fall color for The Sex Dungeon, it would be black. Fishing at night or at dusk in low light conditions is a reliable tactic if you want to target the largest and most nocturnal brown trout in the river system. The Sex Dungeon’s deer hair head, sili legs, marabou, and schlappen hackle all do a fantastic job of displacing large amounts of water. This pattern does an excellent job imitating various forage items: sculpin, crayfish, and the profile of a small trout.
Sparkle Minnow
Sparkle Minnow
Pros:
- Easy to tie
- Unique jigging action
- Great tailwater fly
Cons:
- Single hook pattern
The Sparkle Minnow is a gaudy single hook fly tied with a marabou tail and an excessive amount of gold or copper crystal flash. While many of the flies on this list move side to side or stay high in the water column and flutter, fishing a large sparkle minnow with a heavy tungsten cone head allows you to present a streamer into deeper layers of the water column. It’s a simple fly, but it is effective. While it comes in many colors, the best combination I’ve found success with is gold and pearl or copper and pearl.
I prefer to fish the Sparkle Minnow in tailwaters when water is released from dam gates. Getting flies to depth and into the strike zone can be difficult when river flows are up. The heavy tungsten cone head of the Sparkle Minnow punches through the top layer of the fastest water and gets to depth quickly. The bushy krystal flash body and marabou tail push water and add life-like movement to the fly.
Retrieved with fast or medium strips and a brief pause, the Sparkle Minnow will jig its way back to you in a climbing and falling motion. A jig retrieve will pull fish off the bottom of the river that other flies will miss. As the fly begins to swing downstream, lift the rod tip high into the air and bring the fly into a swimming motion. This swings the fly up through the water column and to just below the river’s surface. Swim the fly near boulders, brush piles, and any other structure for a reaction strike.
Flatliner
Flatliner
Pros:
- Unique side-to-side action
- Consistently fools large trout
- Fishes near the surface for explosive strikes
Cons:
- Requires a sink tip to get down
The Flatliner is a large streamer pattern that imitates an injured or dying fish and is one of my favorite patterns to fish. Tied weightless and with a side profile, it performs similarly to a conventional glide bait. It can be fished with a sinking or floating fly line, but I prefer to fish it with a medium-weight sink-tip line. The added weight in the fly line helps the fly settle and gain depth in the water column. Regardless of what fly line you fish, the Flat Liner typically rides high near the river’s surface.
This side profile of the pattern allows it to glide side-to-side and hang in the water. A limp, neutrally buoyant bait, momentarily hanging still, imitates an injured or dying fish. Large trout are opportunistic apex predators. Nothing attracts strikes like the vulnerability of a large easy-to-catch, dying fish.
To fish the pattern effectively, cast the streamer to banks or cover. As the fly settles below the surface, initiate long, fast, and aggressive pulls on the fly line. The fly will swim erratically and eventually glide into a sideways position. The marabou wings and long deceiver tail add an insane amount of natural movement. The violent stripping action, combined with the fast to slow movement of the fly and its inevitable hang high in the water column, invites explosive strikes similar to how largemouth bass hit a glide bait.
Game Changer
Game Changer
Pros:
- Can be fished with various retrieves
- Incredibly lifelike
- Comes in a variety of sizes and colors
Cons:
- Can be heavy to cast
True innovation is rare, moments in our sport when a new idea challenges the status quo. Blane Chocklett changed the streamer game when he invented the Game Changer. Tied with a multi-segmented wire body, known as articulated fish spine, and wrapped with Blane’s signature chenille body, the Game Changer swims in a realistic side-to-side motion. The Game Changer can be found in all shapes and sizes, from micro changers to gargantuan feather changers.
The profile of the Game Changer and its thick chenille body push a huge amount of water, matching the signature of a small sculpin or trout. This is critical for targeting large predatory brown trout, which utilize their lateral lines to find prey. The swimming movement of the Game Changer is so realistic that it’s sometimes hard to distinguish the fly from a real fish. This fly is the fly fishing version of a swim bait and should be fished in a similar manner.
The Game Changer can be presented to banks, structures, and drop-off ambush points. It has always performed best for me around downed timber. It doesn’t sink very quickly, so casting it to log jams and swimming it over structure will pull fish from cover. Small, fast strips with sideways rod tip manipulation get the fly swimming like a conventional swim bait. Fast strips with a pause bring similar results to the Flat Liner. The erratic swimming motion of the Game Changer, followed by a momentary hang, will trigger aggressive strikes.
Why Fish Streamers in The Fall?
While year-round streamer fishing is a productive technique, fall offers some of the best streamer fishing in all four seasons. During September, October, and November, dynamic changes occur in both the river and trout. Most hatches are over, brown trout are preparing for the spawn, and it’s a sprint to find those last large-calorie meals before winter arrives. All of these factors converge to create ideal conditions for targeting large predatory trout with streamer flies.
Big Fish Eat Big Flies
Most trout eat insects for the majority of their lives. For fish lucky enough to reach larger sizes (twenty-plus inches), a change in diet occurs. Trout of this size are statistical outliers; they stop eating insects and become fish-eating predators. Aquatic insects can no longer meet their metabolic and dietary needs.
Trout that eat other fish are called piscivores. It is more efficient for them to consume a single high-calorie parr trout than to wait for hatches and search for aquatic insects. Giant trout are opportunistic feeders, so presenting a large streamer pattern is the most effective way to imitate this change in diet. Injured, dead, or dying fish make easy targets. Large streamer patterns imitating the aforementioned behaviors of baitfish and small trout are effective at fooling large trout.
Final Thoughts
No matter what fly fishing technique you are using, you have to have confidence in your fly pattern. This is especially true when fishing large streamers. On many days, stripping big flies can be monotonous, and results can be few and far between. Fishing large streamers takes commitment and a different mentality. I have to be fully committed to the grind. I start the day knowing that I might only catch one fish and, on many days, none at all. When using large streamers in the fall, I am specifically targeting one special fish, a statistical outlier that only eats other fish.
If you’re looking for a true fish of a lifetime, give my picks for the best trout streamers on this list a try and fish them with confidence. Sometimes, flies are so big it is hard to believe that a trout would eat such a fly. They will eat it, and having confidence and the right mentality is critical to keeping your head in the game and fishing with purpose.
