Last week, I spent a couple of days fly-fishing for trout on several streams here in central Pennsylvania with my friend Todd Justus of Chapel Hill, N.C.

On our first morning together, we fished nymphs on a wonderful stretch of pocket water with a pair of my favorite nymph patterns, the Walt’s Worm and one of my personal variations of the venerable Pheasant Tail Nymph. In a couple of hours, Todd was able to coax more than a dozen colorful browns and rainbows from their fast-water hiding places with those flies.

After lunch, we moved to a different stream, this one flowing through an open meadow with deeper pools and mostly slower water. Todd caught a big rainbow from one of my favorite pools there on the first cast, but things became much tougher after that. We changed fly patterns several times over the next hour or so, but the fish remained unimpressed by any of our offerings. Finally, my friend pulled out one of his fly boxes and announced he was going to try a Clouser Minnow.

Of course, the Clouser Minnow is an extremely effective fly pattern for just about any fish that will take an artificial fly, but I wasn’t sure how well it would work under the conditions we were facing that afternoon. This was before the heavy rains that came at the end of last week, so the water was still a little on the low side. My personal preference for fishing a Clouser Minnow or other streamer-type patterns that imitate baitfish and similar creatures tends to be in higher water, when the bigger fish that prey on the smaller fish are more likely to be on the prowl during the middle of the day. But Todd exuded confidence in his choice of the Clouser as he adjusted his leader and tied on the fly, and I learned long ago never to doubt the value of the “confidence factor” when it comes to fishing any lure or fly.

He cast the Clouser across the stream and fished it by stripping the fly quickly through a swift run and around some large rocks. I watched as he methodically covered the pool with a series of casts, and as the fly swung across the tail of the pool, a large swirl indicated a good fish had chased the Clouser but stopped short of striking it. Encouraged by the first bit of positive response, Todd continued exploring the next pool with his black-and brown Clouser Minnow and those efforts were finally rewarded when an 18-inch rainbow clobbered the fly.

Fishing a Clouser Minnow, Woolly Bugger or other streamer fly won’t always yield the most trout on any given day, but those kind of minnow-imitating patterns such will often produce bigger fish, and the strikes can be violent and exciting. One of the most thrilling incidents that afternoon came when Todd pitched his Clouser into a deep pocket at the base of an overhanging multiflora rose bush. It was one of those places where you just knew a big trout lived. The cast was on the money, and a huge fish slashed at the fly almost as soon as it hit the water. We both moaned in unison as the trout evaded the hook, and several more casts to the spot failed to tempt the fish again.

That episode reminded me of another reason to fish streamers in low water – to locate big trout. Some days, trout seem more inclined to chase streamers rather than eat them. But having a big trout betray its location by rushing a streamer is always good reconnaissance. Many times I have failed to hook a big trout that followed a streamer, only to go back and catch it on a subsequent outing. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to tempt that big one Todd missed by drifting a Walt’s Worm through it lie sometime in the next week or two.

Maybe the best lesson learned from that afternoon is that it never hurts to experiment or try a different fly or technique. I would have been content to have stayed with fishing nymphs that afternoon, mostly because I I simply prefer that method and can almost always move enough fish to keep me amused.

But watching my friend work with his Clousers was not only enjoyable but also enlightening. And it gives me a great excuse to tie up a batch of trout-sized Clouser Minnows. I might even go back and try for that monster trout with one of those instead of a Walt’s Worm.