Tip of the Week--Double Down in Brown Town

I'm certainly not the first person to do this but last year on the Yellowstone, I noticed a lot of fish chasing but not committing to the streamer. We tried different colors and different presentations by either slowing it down or speeding it up but nothing would get them to eat. So I put the brightest and biggest streamer I could find on and trailed it with a little olive bugger. Immediately, my luck changed. It was almost as if the bigger bug got their attention but when they saw the little bugger they were like, "Yeah, I can do that one."

Like I said, it's not anything new or incredibly innovative as we've been talking about doing it on the Missouri for a while now but we don't seem to get around to it. One of the conversations evoked a theory that a brown would see another trout chasing bait fish and because they are territorial, they would eat the second streamer to get it out of their feeding grounds. However, with it working just as well, if not better, trailing a little bugger behind a big streamer, that really doesn't make sense. Besides, I think that gives brown trout a little too much credit for actually thinking. Personally, I think it just ads enough chaos to the presentation to trigger a strike response from a predator. I don't believe they think at all but they see a number of things moving and it triggers them.

Regardless of why they eat it, they most certainly do and if you can cast two big bugs like that, you should try doubling down when throwing streamers. However, if it's too much to cast and it compromises putting your bugs in the right spot or you're spending time plucking #4's out of your noggin, then you might be better off just chucking the singles.

Keep 'em where they live...