St. Vrain Angler Presents

Helpful Fishing Tips

Fishing tip for April

April is wonderful: Spring is here, plants are budding, most of the rivers are clear of ice and the high lakes are thawing as well. It's a wonderful time to be alive, to make time for some fly fishing. Clocks have moved ahead and there is more daylight in the evening. It's time to fish: let's go!

In the plains, warm water lakes will be heating up and panfish, bass, wipers and so on will become more active. Active fish are hungry fish and an evening or afternoon at a local impoundment will often yield good fishing. Fish the edges of ponds with nymphs such as Prince Nymph or another peacock fly, woolly buggers in black, olive or brown and small poppers. If you have a float tube, try fishing around islands or other cover in shallow water. Look for spawning panfish and pester them for a few minutes, too. They are particularly aggressive and, when released, will return to their beds. The one potential negative for warm water fishing during April is the onset of foul weather, including snowstorms. Cool nights and cold storms will lower water temperatures, temporarily putting fish off the feed. Keep trying. For panfish, use 4-5X tippet; for bass, 2-3X, depending on the outfit you use.

Now, to trout. Streams from an elevation of about 9,000 feet or so and below are open and free of ice. If a stream has a southern exposure, and has been getting sunshine, there's a good chance it may be ice free even higher. Flows are relatively low, but may change due to rain or snowfall and snowmelt. For the most part, the water is pretty clear. While flows are low, it is a nice time to check the structure of some of your larger, favorite streams to get a feel for where fish will hold when the water gets higher. Same is true for smaller streams, of course, but in that case, the fish don't have as many choices.

This is the season of midges, beatis, early brown stones and a few caddis hatches. The fish are hungry, the water temperature is rising, which increases the fish's metabolism, and nature is providing more and larger bugs for the fish to eat. Patterns that imitate the above insects, including blue-winged olive in 16-22, small, dark caddis in 16-20, Griffith's gnats and other midge patterns and the nymph and emerger patterns to complement the adults are all in order. Also, it's always a good idea to have a few attractor patterns such as small (16-20) Parachute Adams, Royal Wulff, Coachman Trude and so on.

When the water is low, fish will find the best holding areas available to them when they aren't feeding. When bugs become active and the trout follow by feeding on them, the fish will move to the area where the concentration of insects is highest - in riffles and runs before hatches, and in the tails of runs and pools as the hatch reaches its peak of activity. (When the bugs start to come off rocks and so on, they will float along with the current until they reach the surface of the stream where they hatch into adults, dry their wings and fly away to molt, before returning to the stream to mate, lay eggs and die. Trout feed on all stages, except the flying part, so watch for the greatest concentration of bugs and fish there.)

One of the keys to catching trout is to find out where they are. Be sure you are wearing your polarized glasses, and get on the side of the stream that offers you the best view into the water. That's the view that has the least glare. If you don't immediately see fish, tie on an attractor rig of a small (16-18) dry fly, such as a Royal Wulff, Coachman Trude, Parachute Adams or Elk Caddis, and attach a dropper (size 16-20; be sure the dry will still float) such as a bead head pheasant tail, hare's ear or other favorite, and begin fishing the water. Fish likely looking spots where the fish have access to depth and cover, such as pockets, drop offs and so on. Watch the dry fly and through the dry fly at the same time. Use the dry as a strike detector for the nymph - if the dry hesitates, gently set the hook - or watch for a flash under the dry, and do likewise. On some days, you'll catch half the fish on the dry and the other half on the nymph (how they recover from this feet, I'll never understand). On other days, you'll catch the majority of the fish on one or the other. If that's the case, try fishing with two of each rather than one of each: it works; or, remove one or the other and fish with one fly only. Warning: when fishing with two flies, remember there are two flies while you land a fish; it is pretty easy to hook yourself with the other fly, which is not all that much fun, and hurts, to boot.

As you walk the banks, watch for flashes that indicate a fish is feeding on nymphs on the bottom, or small rings on the surface of the water that indicate a fish has just taken an insect from the surface. When there are lots of flashing fish, try rigging up with a small nymph - or two - and drift the fly through the areas in which you are seeing nymphing trout. Carry a small net and sample the water to find what the are feeding on. If you see rising fish, try to see what is in the air or on the water to determine what the fish are feeding on and tie on an imitation and try to fool 'em with it.

If the fishing is slow, move fast; if fish are eating your flies, move slowly. When you do figure out what they're on, catch a few, then work on new techniques and flies; try new patterns you've been tying to see if the fish will eat them or not. Look for tougher fish; you know, the one's that are in a tough spot to cast to, or present a difficult drift. Try some new approaches to the same spot, including new casting techniques and fly drifts. In other words, we'd encourage you to give the fish a break if you really get them figured out.

When the area you are fishing is busy - in other words lots of other folks are there fishing, too - try resting the spot you are fishing for a while after each fish you hook and release. Sit on the bank for a moment and observe what is going on around you. Listen to the sounds, appreciate the smell of fresh air mingled with stream, be amazed at the beauty of a trout stream and miracle of life.

If you have any questions about the above information, please give us a call at one of the shops: we'd love to help you!

Thanks for reading!

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