Spring is a fantastic reawakening. Midges and Blue-winged Olives (Baetis), aroused by the calender, and their instinctive desire to reproduce, migrate to the surface, and the trout are there to intercept them.
Where I fish, in the Rocky Mountains, it's not only the first chance chance of year the year to fish dry flies, it's the best time. I watch the weather forecasts, keep my fingers crossed for lousy weather, and when it snows or rains, I take a day off and head to the South Platte, the Poudre, or pack my truck for a road-trip to the San Juan.
Spring hatches can be tricky, though. Sometimes the wind blows too hard, scattering the newly hatched duns across the water, and discouraging the fish. Sometimes the hatch just doesn't happen. Sometimes, conditions are perfect, trout are feeding greedily, and you still can't get a break. Fish keyed in on these small flies can be extremely selective, and many anglers find themselves in fly-fishing purgatory, rather than the dry-fly Nirvana they planned for.
Getting a nearly perfect presentation to the fish is critical, but after you've done that, it boils down to just the trout and your fly. Does it look like the real thing?
Far too many people use flies that are too fat and/or too bushy, and wonder why they are getting refusals. Take a look at the flies in your box, and compare them with actual insects. Fly size isn't just the length of the hook compared to the length of the insect. Fly size is also about matching the body profile of your fly pattern to the profile of the insect. A #18 Pheasant Tail nymph may or may not match the Baetis nymphs on your local waters--depending on how it is tied. Most of the Pheasant Tails I see in fly shops are great attractor patterns, but just tied too fat to fool finicky fish during a heavy hatch. That's why A.K. Best's quill-body flies are so deadly compared with a lot of dubbed-body dry flies. Most mayflies are slender, delicate creatures, and you need to duplicate those traits if you want to make the most of every presentation.
My favorite spring patterns for Midge and Blue-winged Olive hatches are slim-bodied patterns that are easy to tie. A great fly isn't a great fly if it takes me 10 minutes to tie.
Like many people, I use a Griffith's Gnat for midge hatches when I can get away with it. Most of the time, however, I find trout that are taking individual midge adults, and they won't even consider a big bushy wad of peacock herl and grizzly hackle. My adult midge pattern has fooled a lot of big San Juan River rainbows, and unlike most other adult midge patterns, it's easy to see.
Blue-wing Olive
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When the midge hatch is heavy, and there are relatively few fish rising, I know they are gorging themselves in the riffles. There are dozens of effective midge pupa imitations out there that are perfect for this situation, and the Foam-wing Midge Pupa is just one of them. Midge pupae can be tied with a variety of materials and colors. The important thing is that they have the same slender body as the naturals.
Later in the spring, when the midge hatches have just reaching their peak, the first mayflies of the year appear and the real fun begins. My favorite Blue-winged Olive pattern over the years has been my own Thread-body Baetis. It's nothing fancy, just a tail, wing, and hackle. What makes this fly special is that it's quick and easy to tie, and just as effective as a fly you might put twice the effort into. Using only thread for the abdomen and thorax eliminates at least one step, and makes it easy to build a slim, perfectly tapered body.
Two other patterns I've grown fond of are Chris Karl's parachute and thorax Baetis adults. He uses McLean's Quill Body material on his flies, and gets beautiful results.
When the fish are not taking the Olives on top, I go to the Big Bear Baetis. This is another mostly-thread fly pattern that is very easy to tie.
The patterns shown here are proven fish-catchers, but only a sample of what your spring-time patterns should look like. Keep them slim, keep them simple, and you'll have less frustration both on the stream, and at the vise.
Rick Takahashi lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. He is a frequent contributor to the Virtual Flyshop.
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