This Spring especially has been a finicky one for all of the things out of our control. Torrential downpours, low elevation snow melt, surprise flow changes out of our dams, spurts of hot weather, etc. have thrown not only us as anglers for a loop, but the fish we are chasing, and the bugs they eat. As a result, this has the insects and fish behaving differently. To be successful on the water, we must change our approach too.
There are plenty of Spring bugs historically, but with the river conditions this year, they are a little more difficult to come by. If you know when and where to be, you can do exceptionally well. High, turbulent water are not ideal conditions for insects to hatch. When insects first emerge, they are soft and delicate. If an emerging insect’s wings get too wet, they will drown. With our high water right now, insects are holding off on emerging. If they are, they are doing so in long glassy glides where it is safer to do so. Fish key in on this and feed opportunistically when and where this is happening. This is precisely why if you time things right you can do very well in a Spring like we are having.
March Browns are the stars of the show currently. Everyone waits anxiously each year for the hatch to hit full swing. We still are waiting for the big boom of bugs, but we have been seeing them intermittently. Blue Winged Olives (AKA Olives, Baetis, or BWOs) are also a big deal, and have been more abundant. They can tolerate less desirable weather, and love a cool, overcast, rainy day to emerge. Winter Stoneflies (Nemora sp.) are also around, fish will take a dry, but are more likely to key in on nymphs. Brannon Caddis (Mother’s Day Caddis) are beginning to stage in desirable water for emergence. We still are a bit out, but you will start seeing them in the lower river on warm days. Bigger stones are making their appearance too. We’ve had reports of skwalas, and salmon flies on our rivers. Fish are keying in on large nymphs, and on warm days will let their guard down for a chubby.
The most reliable method to employ on the water given the current circumstances is to search using nymphs. In high water fish pod up in current breaks in areas where they are both protected, and do not need to work terribly hard to hold their position. This often is behind obstacles, along a seam, and especially in high water towards the bank. Run a single or double nymph rig adjusting the depth until you start dragging on the bottom, from there lose 6-12 inches of depth, and your flies will be in the right zone. Note in shallower water this means to use lighter nymphs. This is something I often do in the winter which is counterintuitive. We did get some new nymphs in shop, I’ve tested several and these are my favorite new ones for high water: Jigged Mega Prince, Jigged Possie Bugger, Goodspeed Private Stock Stonefly, or Olsen’s Straggle Stone. Some other options include: Yardley’s Low Hole, Olsen’s Blowtorch, Weiss’ Possum Anchor, Croston’s Full Metal Jacket, Sexy Walt’s Worm, or a Roza’s Jigged Pink Pheasant Tail. These flies will cover all of the hatches, and immature nymphs moving around subsurface. Generally as the water clears up and drops, it is wise to begin sizing down both your flies and tippet.
Next up would be swinging wet flies. This means soft hackles and streamers. Cast across upstream of where you suspect fish are feeding and holding. Throw in a few upstream mends to let your flies sink, then allow you fly line to get a bend in it and swing your flies through the target area. March Browns are the most well known hatch locally known for having phenomenal wet fly fishing on the swing, with the grannom caddis hatch right behind it. Some long time shop favorite March Brown wets are: Beadhead March Brown Emerger, March Brown Wet Fly, or try March Brown Soft Hackle Spider. For BWOs these make fantastic options if they arrest picking up your larger March Brown wet: Drymerger Baetis, Harrop’s Soft Hackle Thorax Bead, Soft Emerger BWO. You can employ the same tactics with streamer fishing by swinging. Stripping a fly downstream to mimic a distressed fish frantically looking for cover can also entice some big eats. Here are a few great spring streamers: Conehead Slump Buster, Conehead Kiwi Muddler, or a smaller Sculpzilla Jr.
Dry fly fishing currently is sporadic, but can be great given the right window. When water levels calm down wither when runoff runs out of snow, or if cooler weather slows the melt, there will certainly be bugs. This last warm spell we had triggered some salmonflies to emerge and I had 4-6 fish get silly for a chubby. If it’s warm, search using the following with a nymph below to mimic salmonflies and skwalas: Chubby Chernobyl, Water Walker, or a Double Stack Chubby Chernobyl. For the March Brown adults, here are some favorites in sizes 12-14: Hi and Dry Western March Brown, Keegan’s March Brown Kripple, or a Harrop’s CDC March Brown. For overcast days with lots of BWO’s here are out best sized 16-18: Tactical Blue Winged Olive, Hatch Matcher Blue Winged Olive, or a Blue Winged Olive Ext. Body. Winter stone and grannom caddis dries can be interchangeable, here are some that work for both in sizes 14-16 : Peacock Caddis, Elk Hair Caddis Black, or a J’s Black Hi-Tie Caddis.
Keep an eye out for the weather as ti is always changing in the spring, where you fished last time on your day off, it could be interiorly different. Warmer calm days will have better fishing, especially on the surface. On really warm days, search the shallows with a chubby and see who will play. Having a nymph below allows you to read the area on two and subsurface. Keep an eye on the weather and look for breaks in the rain and from the hot days. This will help mitigate river flow swellings and allow for more dry fly fishing opportunities. The secret to a good day fishing dries too is a low cloud ceiling with overcast conditions. This insulates the air temp from changing too much, this keeps the conditions for emergence in shape for a longer period of time during the day. If the rivers are really in awful shape, you may want to get on the spring Smallie jam. Our Stillwater guide Adison Rook wrote a fantastic article on it. Click here to read. He also is at the monthly fly fishing nights, and that’s a great time to pick his brain on Spring stillwater valley opportunities.
One thing you don’t want to leave home with is a few sizes of Oros Strike Indicators. Scientific Anglers is doing BOGO for the whole month of April with all absolute products. Meaning all tippet and leaders are buy one get one free. So whether you need more or not, it is a good time to stock up. For nymphing you’ll be using between 3-5x Absolute Trout Fluorocarbon most frequently. For dries the same 3-5x range is a good size to stock in Absolute Trout Tippet Material. The same goes for Absolute Trout Leader & Absolute Fluorocarbon Tapered Leaders from Scientific Anglers. If dries are on you definitely want some floating such as: Aquel or Shimazaki Dry Shake or both. Lastly for drying your flies off before you hit it with desiccant powder, I am a firm believer in Amadou patches. One other thing is a Fishpond puck to hold a few select flies while swapping so that you don’t have to open and close your bag all day: Shallow Magpad Fly Puck or Shallow Fly Puck.
Spring is a fantastic time to get out. Personally, it is one of my favorite times of the year, and each year I catch loads of very large trout. Big trout put on the feed bag in preparation for their spring spawn, so if you can locate them, you will be rewarded. Have fun out there and be careful where you step in the high water!
-Simon
