Continuing our series on streamers…..

Yesterday we talked about the absolute key of giving your target fish the very best view of your streamer you can, a broadside view, for the longest period of time possible.

Maximizing the broadside view of streamer is really pretty easy - it requires a series of simple mends through the entire drift until the fly completes its swing. 

Cast quartering upstream with an upstream reach cast and keep the fly drifting broadside by mending upstream until the fly starts to pass downstream of your location.

As the fly passes below you, start mending downstream.  Keep mending line away from the fly until it comes to rest directly below you.  Let it hang in the current for a 7 or 8 seconds before picking it up as trout will sometimes follow the streamer though the drift and hit after it stops.

Make sure to keep enough belly in the line to keep the fly swimming,and mend to keep solid contact, but not too tight to deflect the streamer’s path.   Experiment a bit, you’ll find you can control the speed of the fly by the amount of mend you put in the line.

We know that most of the readers of this blog already know all about this, but it sure made a huge difference for us when we finally understood the concept - you’ll never just cast down and across, let it swing, and retrieve again…..

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