Early Spring Trout Fishing

Early spring is a hard time to be a fly-fisherman. Everyone knows that a nice fresh minnow or a big gob of worms is going to catch some trout. A fly, well, it is a bit harder to have the same confidence.

I used to head out on opening day with a pocket full of big Muddlers and an eight-weight outfit. I was excited to be fishing again after the long winter but really, it was mostly casting practice.

I remember fishing opening days with Glenn Parlee when I lived in Queens County. He is the best canoe man I have ever had the pleasure of fishing with. He does have one annoying habit though. He catches big trout.

The worst example of this was one opening day on the Medway River.

He casually maneuvered the canoe through runs and rapids that left me white-knuckled in the bow.

At one point, I flicked my Muddler into a picture perfect little pocket just behind the dump of a small section of rapids. I was so sure I was about to connect that I started to give a play-by-play commentary.

“Dobson places a perfect cast into the pocket and braces for the strike. The crowd falls silent…” that sort of thing, only the strike never came. I tried again and still nothing.

Turning to Glenn, I gently expressed my disbelief that there was not a trout holding there.
He shrugged and picked up his rod then cast a God-awful rubber minnow thing into the spot I had just worked over with the fly.

Ka-boom! Instantly he was into a seriously substantial Brook Trout. I cannot remember the exact measurements of the brute. I mean the trout not Glenn, but it was the biggest Eastern Brook Trout I had ever seen.

The only one close to it I had ever seen Glenn caught opening day the year before.

Like I said, a nice guy with one annoying habit.