Early Season Bass Streamers–My 5 Favorite Streamers
Early in the season the bass feed very well on minnows. We can catch them on streamers which match these minnows. In cold water they tend to want those minnows which give them a large mouthful so I use large streamers.
- The Murray’s Magnum Hog Sucker size 4. An exceptionally productive fly when fished in the back eddies and in the deep water below the gravel bar drop-offs. A slow line-hand stripping action of swimming the streamer 6 inches every 10 seconds along the stream bottom will catch many large bass.
- The Murray’s Magnum Creek Chub Streamer size 4. This fly helps me catch many bass in deep pools in the middle of the river. I like to use a 200 grain fast sinking head fly line which sinks at 4 to 8 inches per second with a Murray’s Fluorocarbon 6ft 2X sinking leader to help me swim these Creek Chub Streamers slowly along the stream bottom.
- Murray’s Heavy Shiner Streamer size 6 is one of my most effective minnow imitations early in the season because before the aquatic grass beds form most of the natural shiner minnows live on the gravel bars or close to them. A very effective technique is to wade down the river, well back from the shallow gravel bar, and cast the Heavy Shiner Streamer 40 feet out beyond the gravel bar. After it sinks deeply strip it 4 inches every 6 seconds to swim it slowly up the gravel bar. Wade very slowly when using this method. If the bass are feeding on the shallow edge of the gravel bar they may be very wary. A lady in one of my smallmouth schools caught one of the largest bass of the year using this technique.
- Shenk’s Black Sculpin size 4 is very effective in the hip deep to shoulder deep runs below the riffles. Due to the speed of the current I like to use a S.A. Sinking Tip III WF-7 line with a Murray’s Sinking 6ft 2X Fluorocarbon Leader. A good technique is to cast across stream just below the riffle. When the sculpin sinks into the deep runs below the riffle, strip it 6 inches every 5 seconds as the current swings it downstream. By wading slowly downstream, this ploy is productive for 100 feet downstream.
- The Murray’s Tungsten Olive Marauder size 4. This fly helps me catch many large bass from the deep cuts between the river-crossing ledges. Many of these cuts are 6-7 feet deep and reach from 30 feet out to all the way across the river. Due to the speed of the current I use a fast sinking 200 grain head fly line which sinks from 4 to 8 inches per second with a 6ft 2X Murray’s Fluorocarbon Sinking Leader. Cast across stream and after the streamer sinks deeply, strip it slowly along the stream bottom. I do well with this method by wading or floating downstream from one deep cut to the next.
By being patient with these tactics and early season bass streamers, I usually catch some of my largest bass.