Spring Brook Trout

[Guest debruyne97]

I am hoping to get out this weekend and if so what are the best flies to use? and what would be the set up to use?

[Squaretail 38]

Streamer or a stonefly nympth works good at ice out as stones are one of the earliest hatch. A subtle minnow imitation can also prove effective. Fish low and slow. I assume your fishing stocker lakes. In a post a while back "pastor norm" mentioned a dragonfly imitation that sounds intriguing fished as a wet fly trolled behind the boat. I think it was a root beer leech. Once you find the depth there feeding at any wet fly would be effective. Brookies are one species that depth proves to be the most crucial when trying to entice a strike. Good luck.

[AB 98]

Backswimmers are active in the shallows, tiny ant patterns can work well to.

On the otherhand sometimes they want the groceries, take some olive and black wooly buggers.

Stay dry and Good Luck!

iceman

[Guest mud trout]

Brookies don't feed well in running water until there is enough insect activity to get them excited and rising. This spring, that may take a while. I wouldn't expect good action on rivers and creeks yet. You may be able to catch a few using nymphs down deep. Iceman mentioned tiny ant patterns, this is one of the few insects that Brookies rise to early. with spring run off many ants get washed into rivers and lakes. The earlies spring brookie I caught one year was full of ants and the only dry i have taken them on very early has been an ant pattern. But, I agree with the others, small streamers and nyphs, and fish the streamer slow, very slow.

You would likely have better success in still water this early since they seem to wake up much earlier in lakes, if yuo can find a lake with ice out.

Have fun!

[brookiebuster 117]

I tend to favor using streamers for brookies in the spring and save the dries for the summer. Like others have said not much insect activity and the fish are looking for something beefy. If you have access to a boat or canoe, trolling a minnow or leech imitation past shallow structure like beaver houses, fallen trees, rocks etc can be effective. I usually don't start fishing till late may. In the spring theres really no need for a sinking line/sinktip imo because most fish will be in shallow water (less than 10ft). Past few years at a natural brookie lake I fish Ive done really well trolling sculpin and leech patterns (size 6-8) past a beaver house in about 8fow. When you hook a brookie trolling streamers like this you will defiantly know when you hook one because they are agressive. Also casting to productive structure and slowly stripping the fly back works just as well. Good luck and post your results.