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Streamer-Fly Fishing: A Practical Guide to the Best Patterns and Methods
Streamers are the big-fish fly, and this compact, thoughtful, and practical handbook on streamer and bucktail fishing covers the best patterns and best techniques for this important method of fishing. Merwin presents the history of these colorful flies, as well as detailed information tackle and gear; how to pick the right streamer; techniques for casting and retrieving; fishing in small streams, large streams, and still water. Streamer-Fly Fishing is bound to help you catch more fish - especially the largest ones that can be caught on a fly. (6 X 9, 96 pages, b&w photos)
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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August 29, 2025
I can't bring myself to give Merwin's fine book a five-star rating, simply because, to invoke Merwin's own feelings about the "mechanical artifices" involved in fishing with spinning lures (p. 24), it seems to me that fishing with streamers is "vaguely immoral" (ibid.). And this not only because of how doing so stacks the deck against the fish; more importantly, to my mind, fishing with streamers sends the angler down the path of obsessing over fish size (i.e., "to work all uncleanness with greediness").
Nonetheless, Merwin is a top-notch fishing writer. Just consider the range of these passages:
"Older fly-fishing books described streamer rods of split bamboo as long, heavy-line rods with a slow action. The Orvis Battenkills and heavier Paul Young Parabolic models are a couple of examples, the former having been a favorite of the late Joe Brooks, who did much to popularize streamer fishing from the 1950s through the early 1970s. One of Brooks's pet streamer rods was an eight-and-a-half-foot Battenkill for an 8-weight line, which I also owned and fished for number of years. The deep, powerful flex of this rod helped me to throw a big Muddler for a remarkable distance over big water. Its action was so slow that I often felt as if I had time for a sip of coffee while waiting for the cast to straighten over a deep and distant riffle" (p. 10).
"A waterlogged streamer fly holds *lots* of water and will rust faster than a North-Country pickup truck" (p. 20).
"The low hills of northern Quebec glowed with the fall colors of their alpine shrubs; Labrador tea and lowbush blueberries showing bright orange and green and red on a pale background of caribou moss and lichen and granite. I had waded gingerly through a back-water dotted with car-size boulders to the edge of a huge pool that swirled and eddied black at the bottom of a whitewater chute. It was a perfect setting for really big trout on a streamer fly" (p. 21).
This is exactly the sort of writing you want when you're thinking about fly fishing.
Nonetheless, Merwin is a top-notch fishing writer. Just consider the range of these passages:
"Older fly-fishing books described streamer rods of split bamboo as long, heavy-line rods with a slow action. The Orvis Battenkills and heavier Paul Young Parabolic models are a couple of examples, the former having been a favorite of the late Joe Brooks, who did much to popularize streamer fishing from the 1950s through the early 1970s. One of Brooks's pet streamer rods was an eight-and-a-half-foot Battenkill for an 8-weight line, which I also owned and fished for number of years. The deep, powerful flex of this rod helped me to throw a big Muddler for a remarkable distance over big water. Its action was so slow that I often felt as if I had time for a sip of coffee while waiting for the cast to straighten over a deep and distant riffle" (p. 10).
"A waterlogged streamer fly holds *lots* of water and will rust faster than a North-Country pickup truck" (p. 20).
"The low hills of northern Quebec glowed with the fall colors of their alpine shrubs; Labrador tea and lowbush blueberries showing bright orange and green and red on a pale background of caribou moss and lichen and granite. I had waded gingerly through a back-water dotted with car-size boulders to the edge of a huge pool that swirled and eddied black at the bottom of a whitewater chute. It was a perfect setting for really big trout on a streamer fly" (p. 21).
This is exactly the sort of writing you want when you're thinking about fly fishing.
Displaying 1 of 1 review