I was Reminded Recently: Vary How You Retrieve a Streamer!

Recently, I fished a couple of farm ponds for some largemouth bass.  With the water temperatures cooling, I figured that the healthy population (or overpopulation in some cases) of bass would be ready to feed up due to increased metabolism.  There wasn't much wind on this particular day and I dedicated myself to only throwing a fly rod.  I also dedicated myself to throwing a white game changer as I had not yet fished this color in farm ponds for bass yet.  What I was expecting was to catch 100 bass on this fly.  What I got was a lesson in humility and problem solving.

The first pond that I went to didn't produce a single fish.  I had one take but missed it.  I decided that maybe the fish in this pond were...less than motivated to strike.  Rather than changing flies, I decided to change ponds.  I seriously considered changing flies but I really wanted to see if it was the pond or the fly so rather than changing two variables (changing flies and ponds), I just picked one.  I fully appreciate the luxury that is afforded to me by having multiple fishing locations to fish.  I also wanted to take advantage of the situation as well.

At the first pond, I almost exclusively used an hand over hand retrieve.  I cast out the fly, let it sink as I adjusted my hands, and began my hand over hand retrieve which gave the game changer an outstanding swimming motion.  When I arrived at the second pond, there was one spot that looked like it had everything that a bass needed.  There was structure, cover, a change in depth, and shade.  I decided to use the exact same retrieve as I had previously used.  This did not produce a single strike.  That's when I decided that it was not the location to blame.  It dawned on me that it could have been the fly itself that was to blame for not inducing a strike, or it could have been the retrieve.  The minute I switched to a retrieve that was erratic and with some pauses, that's when I started to catch fish!

I caught 6-7 fish while standing in one spot.  I missed about 4 more that I should have caught.  I then visited another nearby pond.  I caught two more fish there by using an erratic retrieve rather than one where the fly was in constant motion.  The moral of this story is if you are fishing a streamer, switch things up and let the fish communicate to you what they are wanting on that particular day.  I wish I would have been more flexible at the start of the day but sometimes you just have to learn or be reminded "the hard way".  Hopefully you can learn from my experience and have some good days on the water with a streamer as a result.