This week’s picture is brought to you by David.
Elbow deep in Putah Creek, CA, David managed to bring this nice beauty to the surface.

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For most of us the Spring is here or trying to get here and this is great news. Like everything else trout seem to awaken and start feeding and performing other functions vital to their existence. For rainbow trout, including steelhead, this means starting to make their way to spawning sites upstream or finishing the trek they started in the Fall or Winter.

Some of us that don’t live on the West coast or in the Great Lakes region might not have access to actual steelhead but we do generally have access to lake-run rainbow trout. These are essentially copies of their ocean-going brothers, genetically there is no difference in most cases, and they can be almost as big and fun to catch.

Find a good rainbow trout lake with a decent tributary stream in your area and chances are that you can find running fish in March and April. Doing a little research and exploring can really pay off here. Check regulations to make sure that your lake’s tributaries are open. Some streams are closed during the spawn.

When you find a good tributary it is often best to sight fish where possible. Sometimes these fish are spread out, but by careful observation you can often see them. When you find fish, depending on the lake they come from, they can be almost as big and bright as true steelhead so spotting them is easier than spotting smaller resident trout.

Use standard steelhead techniques and flies for these fish. Swing wet flies or streamers for the more aggressive fish or drift steelhead or other bright attractor nymphs for fish that are deep or not willing to chase streamers. Fish that have been in lakes are generally far less selective than resident fish that have developed feeding patterns specific to that stream so visible, strike inducing attractors are often more effective than hatch matching patterns on these particular fish.

Give steelhead or semi steelhead fishing a try this Spring for some large fish and wild fights. Hope to see you on the river.

This week’s picture is brought to you by Kelly.
Shake the winter off with this chilly catch at No Tellum Spring Creek, Idaho.

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One of the best ways to search for fish when there isn’t a hatch or to cover all of the stages of a hatch is to use muliple flies at once. Most seasoned fly anglers have used a big dry fly with a dropper nymph but several other variations on the multiple fly rig also work very well.

For fishing deep runs or pools where fish may feed at several different levels one good set up is to use 2 or 3 nymphs, where legal of course, to cover these different depths. This can best be accomplished by using a heavy nymph like a tungsten wired prince, tung teaser, or other tungsten bead nymph in size 10, 12, or 14 tied onto the point of the leader. Then tie one or two unweighted or small beaded nymphs like ghost nymphs, hares ears, bird’s nests, or other appropriate flies for your river off of droppers spaced anywhere from 12 to 24 inches apart going up the leader. The heavy fly should drift along the bottom while the lighter fly or flies will cover the other depths. Fish this either under a strike indicator or Polish style.

Another set up that anglers overlook is the multiple dry fly rig. This works in several different scenarios. One good way to do this is to use a large bright dry fly for visibility and a hatch matching dry fly 12 to 20 inches behind it. Also, it sometimes pays to use 2 or even 3 hatch matching dries to figure out what exactly the fish want. Then you can switch to just a single fly of the variety that seems to work best or, even though it sounds a little funny, put on 2 or 3 of the same dry fly in slightly different sizes or hues to further refine your offering. Once you have it dialed in throw 2 or even 3, where legal, of the exact same fly. Create your own mini-hatch.

These are just a couple of the ways you can rig multiple flies. Think about what the fish are doing and you can probably come up with several other multiple fly rigs that are appropriate for your situation. Good luck and see you on the water.

This week’s picture is brought to you by Sam.
This giant brown was caught and released on a 5wt. rod and size 8 chernobyl ant near the Makarora River on the last day of a five day trip to the Cedar Lodge in New Zealand.

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As I mentioned last week I recently relocated to a new state. It’s been kind of tough on me because I had become a bit of an expert (or at least I didn’t get lost mumbling too often) on the waters where I was and now I’m having to learn all new water and learning new water is coming with some lumps and fishless excursions. I think I figured out how to accelerate the learning process though - attend local club meetings.

I was surprised by the turnout at the local fly fishing club’s monthly meeting this week. Probably about 150 people there and they were largely like me - river bums! They have excursions, fishing reports, instructional events, service projects to help the local waters, informational materials, and mostly just good folks willing to share at least a few of their favorite spots and fish tales.

Joining your local fly fishing club is a great chance to give something to this sport we all love and to get the help of a good fly fishing network. Even if you aren’t new to your area I really suggest joining and participating in your local club. If there isn’t one or if it isn’t really rolling then do your part to get it going. The benefits far outweigh the effort you may have to put in and when you do good stuff for the fishing and anglers in your area I do believe that you get more out of it in return and more enjoyment from your own fishing in the areas you help to improve.