April 29, 2016
Let the games begin. Ice covered lakes and ponds are a thing of the past. Now we are just looking at record cold with morning temperatures in the 20’s every day this week, a chilly start to the season. Thoughts of earlier that normal hatches were just a dream. Unless it gets real warm and stays that way, that’s not going to materialize.
So for now it’s business as usual. Smelt are running in a number of places and have started in the bigger river like the Moose. Fish will be stacked at the mouth of the Moose River during the day the in the evening they’ll fill the river with salmon and lake trout in tow.
It’s time to swing a big streamer on your fastest sinking line. Use a short leader and get it down. Fish aren’t looking up so if you can see your fly it probably won’t get a lot of attention. Give it plenty of action. This time of season fish are feeding hard and will chase a fly all the way across the river to get it.
In the rivers its not just streamer fishing. Put together your nymphing rig and bang some bugs along the bottom. Nothing has hatched so every bug is down there crawling around. This time of season you’ll likely catch fish on almost anything. There are bright green caddis lava getting ready to pupate. A good place to start is with any small chartreuse nymph like a copper john or bright green caddis lava.
Eddy lines leading into a pool is a good place to start.
Keep your sinking line on for early season pond fishing. Use a dragon fly nymph or small woolly bugger. Fish the shore along the sunny side of any trout pond. Allow your fly to sink close to the bottom. Make long slow strips so your bug will stay as close to bottom as possible. Trout are searching shore line for dragon fly nymphs crawling around feeding of mayfly nymphs. If it’s a warm day midges will likely begin hatching in the afternoon. You’ll see fish feeding on the surface but can’t see any bugs and can’t catch any of them. Your only hope of catching‘em is thinking tiny. It’s going to take a size 22 something. A Griffith’s Gnat would be a good choice. It will take a tippet of 6X. Make a long cast and allow your fly to get wet so it ‘s just under the surface. Again it’s a long slow strip so you can keep a tight line to the fly. When you feel the take gently lift the rod. Tiny flies only catch a bit of flesh so it’s easy to break a fish off if you’re the least bit heavy handed. The gentlest take may turn into the biggest fish.
There are lots of windows of opportunity you can take advantage of this time of season. Fishing is just going to get better and better as the water begins to warm.
May the fish Gods be good to us all.
Our fly shop will open for the season Saturday April 30th. Stop by on your way through.