Spring trout ?'s

Hey guys I'm new to the forum and am pretty green to world of fly fishing so I hope you can help me out a little.

I am living in NE North Dakota right now and will be fishing a smaller river for some rainbows. I have heard that the anglers have been using minnow presentations with some luck.

What is a good minnow presentation? The water is moving moderately fast and is a little dirty, but no too bad. What would you guys recommend for some flies to bring along? I have a 5 wt rod that I am going to take along and it has worked well in the past.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

wooley buggers, clouser minnows, muddler minnows, zonkers, matukas - those are some good minnow patterns. put some split shot on your leader in front of the fly to get it down. strip the fly through fishy spots and hope for strikes.

For a visual, here are some streamers:

[url=http://www.hillsdiscountflies.com/cgi-bin/miva?Merchant2/merchant.mv+Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=streamers:d0 c9d]Hills Discount Flies[/url:d0c9d]

I'm partial to muddler minnows (including marabou muddlers... or muddlers with some silver flash in them), but without any weight in the fly, they have a tendency to stay relatively buoyant (the deer hair floats). Also wooly buggers.

Fishing streams like the one you have described can be very simple in the spring, because fish are agressive and hungry. Any large streamers or buggers should suffice, use black while the streams are muddy. Salt water hooks might be good for your flies so they don't corrode too much, its a little trick i have for the streams up here. tie some:


*******wooly buggers*******
clouser minnows
zonkers
deceivers....


i hope you get the drift (and the pun), use lots of weight on all of these, or a sinking line

RL

Hi Strand,

With the runoff in early Spring, trout will be found in slower water. Look for them in pools, where the water deepens and slows down. They'll be at the head (where the water enters) and at the tail (where the water starts to get shallower and picks up speed) of the pool. They'll generally be down deep - right on the bottom.

If the stream is pretty narrow (20') across, stand in the faster water below the tail (look first so you don't spook any fish there!) and cast so your fly drifts down to the tail. You can then move upstream and fish the head of the pool. Smaller streams are generally shallower (even in the pools), so you don't usually need a heavily weighted streamer. Try to gently pull the line toward you so you don't end up with puddles of line hanging off the tip of your rod - you'll never feel the strike or be able to set the hook.

On a little larger stream, stand at the side of the pool, cast across the stream and let the fly drift down the pool toward the tail. If the stream is bigger, the pools will be deeper and you'll need a weighted fly to get down to the fish. Ask at the flyshop if they have any weighted streamers.

Even with the high and muddy water, the fish won't like it if you wade like a water buffalo - especially in the pools where the water slows down. Don't stand in the parts of the stream you want to fish!

Tight lines!

Karl



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Bach Trout

Wishin' I were fishin' . . . .