Swingers With Stingers
/More and more now I am tying my streamers for swinging on my Switch rod with a stinger hook attached to them. When swinging flies downstream many fish will chase your fly across the current into the edges and hit your fly from behind, most streamer patterns these days have longer marabou and rabbit style tails to create movement and life likeness which trout will sometimes nip at so having a stinger hook set well back towards the end of the tail helps increase your hook up rate.
Below are some pictures of a few of my favorite patterns that have worked extremely well this winter on the Clutha river. The stinger hook is attached to the hook with 30lb mono and the hooks I have been using vary in size from #4-10 .
Berry's fish mover has a bulky profile and some colour which helps it stand out when the riveris running higher and is a little coloured. When the river conditions are lower and extremely clear Ive tended to use smaller more natural streamers fished on longer lighter tippet.