The Deep Dive on Jig Streamers

Streamer Fishing has undergone a continuous evolution over the last 50 years. From the popularization of sink tip lines, to articulated flies, widespread use of tungsten, and European nymphing and associated gear, “streamer fishing” can mean many different things today. I’m writing this post to share insights I have gained and to explain why the vast majority of my streamer fishing uses a floating line and a single jig‑style fly. It doesn’t take much time browsing my website to tell that I have a real inclination toward balanced tungsten flies. They work miraculously well in a wide variety of situations. It's my belief that you can usually catch more fish on a single jig streamer fished properly on a floating line than you would with any other streamer setup. 

Alright, that’s a big claim. So, Why?

Advantages of Jig Streamers

Jig streamers give a skilled angler far more control over the depth that they are fishing than other flies do, especially with sinking lines. When I am floating a river, I can quickly pull an Impossible Meat over the top of an 18” deep flat, and when the fly reaches the drop off, throw a stack mend on top of it and get my fly to six feet deep within seconds. Being able to manipulate the depth of a presentation independent of retrieve speed is something that sink tip lines and articulated flies really struggle to do. 

Jig streamers also snag bottom substantially less due to their upward facing hook points, and the way the leader is angled toward the surface. When you tap bottom on a jig fly with a floating line, the tension pulls the fly upward and out of danger. When you hit bottom with a weighted streamer on a sink tip line, the line tends to pull the point firmly into the obstruction. This gets frustrating and expensive quickly. I do not like losing flies, yet fishing near the bottom is usually the most effective way to catch a lot of fish. 

If you set your leader up properly (More on that below), your jig streamer will fall to the bottom quickly when you give it slack. Trout and other predatory fish are excited when their prey attempts to flee- and a heavy tungsten Deep Dive diving to the bottom adds this unique directional element in your quiver. I actually think most of the fish I have ever caught on jig streamers are on the drop- and you simply cannot mimic that dive with other streamer setups. 

From an efficiency standpoint, jig streamers that sink quickly present obvious advantages in water over two feet deep. You simply don’t waste as much time letting your fly and line sink into the zone, and you can keep it there throughout your presentation compared to conventional streamer tactics. Alternatively, you can drop your fly into a precise holding lie, give a couple twitches, and keep hunting. Either way, the jig streamer angler covers water a lot more efficiently and deliberately than a sink tip and articulated fly ever will. 

Limitations of Jig Streamers

Although I have played with quite a few designs over the years, I haven't ever found articulated jig flies to be that effective. If I want to fish a fly over 5" long, its going to be an articulated streamer without a jig hook. Additionally, there are times and places where fish just want a fly fished mid column. when getting deep isn't a priority, jig flies don't provide much of an advantage. If your fish want to come up to eat a fly or they want something big, jigs probably aren't the answer.

Equipment Strategies for Fishing Jig Streamers

I focus on setting a jig streamer presentation up with a full floating fly line. It works well, it’s simple, and you’ve already got all the tools you need to do it. 

Rods and Fly Line

I like 6 weight rods because they are soft enough to smoothly load with a heavy fly. They’re good for fighting the nice fish that you’re going to catch. Moderate action rods are better than super fast ones. Your cast needs to have a horizontal parabolic component to it so you don’t break your rod or knock yourself out with a heavy fly. Any floating line you like will probably be fine. It can sometimes be beneficial to use a heavy, short taper line to neutralize the weight of the fly and make casting easier. 

Leader Setups

I am going to let you in on one of the biggest secrets of finding success with jig streamers. Don’t ever use tapered leaders when streamer fishing. You need a leader that doesn’t slow your fly down on its descent. A thick, 40lb butt section in excess of three feet like you will find on tapered leaders will prevent your fly from working the way fish want it to. So here is what you should do. Start with a 3-4’ piece of 15 lb butt section. I prefer Maxima Ultragreen when fishing clear water when fish are spooky, and when they aren’t, I like to use fluorescent red or green 15lb Amnesia. In off color water, the Amnesia provides the benefit of allowing you to see the angle of your line into the water column and often aids strike detection. Below the butt section- attach a small swivel. I like size 8 rolling swivels. The primary advantage of the swivel is an easy retie point for your tippet. On the terminal end of the swivel, attach 3-7’ of 2-4x fluorocarbon tippet.

Presentation Strategies

Bobbers

With the leader described above, it's easy to incorporate a bobber if you want to dead drift, suspend, or bottom bounce your fly. I find that bobbers with streamers are usually best in winter, when water is cold and fish don’t necessarily want to chase. It can be super advantageous to suspend a Balanced Leech or Balanced Baitfish and give it small twitches or sloooowly pull it to entice a strike. Using a bobber is a great way to reduce fly loss in super snaggy zones. It can be so deadly. If you are looking for an easy place to start, this is it. 

Direct

This method involves keeping your fly line, leader, and fly in a straight line, rod tip touching the surface of the water. In order to actually achieve a direct presentation, you need to be in no current, very little current or be moving perfectly with uniform current in a boat. With a direct presentation, you’ll greatly benefit from strip setting when you get a strike. Whenever I bass fish, I strive to achieve a direct presentation, because they’re so good at quickly spitting flies out that I miss a ton of fish unless I have a straight line to the fish and nail them with a quick strip set. Another strength of the direct presentation is that you can force the fly to make rapid direction changes. This is great when water is warm and fish need more erratic movement to be triggered. Using a heavy fly like the Extra Heavy Deep Dive or Impossible Meat is really effective with this method, because the weight of the fly makes it easier to stay tight and the 6.4mm tungsten bead still sinks well even under tension. Try a frantic, staccato retrieve. To make your fly really dance and shudder, take a full arm length strip, but do it in 2” bursts as quickly as you can. 

Indirect

A lot of the time, having a direct connection with your fly just isn’t possible- and really, this is where jig streamers shine the brightest. With a full floating line, you can mend and manipulate the entire line without dramatically interfering with the movement of the fly. Having an intentional downstream arc in your fly line allows you to swim your fly along a stream contour. That could be fishing a fast seam from shallow water from a wading position, or a slow seam from a moving boat. In both cases, the heavy jig streamer presentation once again provides an efficiency advantage over a traditional cast and strip streamer strategy.

I have found a lot of success when fishing from a boat by casting toward the bank or whatever structure is holding fish, and closely paying attention to what my butt section does. Whenever my leader starts to really slow down, I throw a downstream mend. This works because the bottom current is slower than the surface- your fly will start to drag upstream as it nears bottom. By mending downstream, the fly will hop vertically and dart downstream. It’s an enticing way to show vulnerable prey behavior to fish. The Balanced Crayfish imitates juvenile crayfish that don’t attempt to fight current in their effort to escape. I get a ton of strikes right after a mend- the line darts upstream. To set the hook, swing the rod downstream horizontally. You will usually have a bunch of slack, and it's imperative to keep your line on the water to maintain tension. Setting the hook straight up in the air or strip setting are much less effective in this context.

Once a downstream belly is established in your line, you can drop your rod tip to the water and incorporate different stripping or rod jerk movements into your retrieve as well. Sometimes fish like it when you let the fly drop to the bottom and accelerate steadily in speed, sometimes they like slow, tiny twitches. Play with your retrieve a lot until something starts to produce. There are a huge variety of ways you can get a fly to swim within this framework. 

Another strategic component to indirect jig streamer fishing is swinging down and across. To effectively swing, you need to be stationary or moving downstream substantially slower than the current. Swinging a jig streamer allows you to get deeper much more quickly at the beginning of your presentation compared to other setups, and you’re far less likely to hang the fly up at the end of your swing as it settles into slower water. I like to feed a few feet of slack with a big mend a few times throughout the swing to get the fly near the bottom and provide enticing action. 

Picking the Right Jig Fly

I will admit- I am a big fan of balanced flies- but using balanced flies doesn’t always provide an advantage. My Balanced Baitfish, Balanced Leech, and Balanced Crayfish are top picks whenever I am fishing slow or still water. They excel on finesse based, slow retrieves. When you dead drift them under an indicator, they usually outperform unbalanced flies. The disadvantage of balanced flies is that they tend to be a little harder to cast due to the way they resist being pulled out of the water. My new Deep Fake Leeches provide the best of both worlds by utilizing a precisely sized offset tungsten bead that balances them perfectly but doesn’t stick out far in front of the hook. 

An important consideration when fishing jig flies is fall rate. Generally speaking, trout metabolism and willingness to chase increases with warmer water. During summer and fall, when temps are over 55°F, I generally reach for the Extra Heavy Deep Dive and Impossible Meat. When temps are lower than 50°F , the slower cadence provided by the regular Deep Dive is usually more favorable except for situations where getting extremely deep is important. The Seamless Minnow and Balanced Baitfish excel when you’re fishing slower. These more imitative patterns produce when fish are selectively feeding on baitfish. On the opposite end of the spectrum- I find the Impossible Meat does a great job at generating reaction strikes from fish, especially Brown Trout. They don’t have to be feeding- you just dance it in front of them, and they can’t help but smack it with all that flash and movement.

As far as picking colors- here is my take. I find that Rainbow and Cutthroat typically love olive flies. Brown Trout are more nuanced and their color preferences can dramatically vary from place to place, but they generally like flashy, brighter flies. My go to when fishing Balanced Crayfish is Pale Olive. With Impossible Meat, I like Gold in murkier water, and Silver when it's clearer- but Platinum is my favorite. I find myself reaching for the Grizzly Deep Dive most often. With Balanced Leeches and Deep Fake Leeches, Black is a top pick for me- but color preferences seem to vary so widely on leeches that it's hard to make too many generalizations. Fish what looks good to you. 

You may have noticed that I drop a lot of limited edition colors in these standard patterns. I am obsessed with tinkering, and these unique colors have been a ton of fun. It has been interesting to see how big of a difference color can make, and throwing something at fish that they have definitely never seen is a great way to increase your catch rate. Subscribe to my newsletter if you want access to limited edition flies by clicking here. A lot of my limited edition batches sell out within the first day of release.

Thanks for reading along!  I love fishing jig streamers, because they're simple, adaptable, and effective. I hope this blog has been insightful for you.

Cheers,

Kyle Glass