Fly Fishing in April

Fly fishing for trout and smallmouth bass

Fly fishing in April is wonderful on the mountain trout streams as the water levels and hatches are ideal. We have good hatches of Quill Gordons, Blue Quill, and March Browns. All three of these start hatching about mid-day and continue until dusk. The spinners return at dusk. This means the last two hours of the day will have the greatest dry fly fishing.

Fly fishing with Quill Gordon
Blue Quill hatch chart
The Blue Quill is one of the major mayfly hatches that occurs in the East

Fly Fishing for Smallmouth Bass

We are on the early edge of the smallmouth bass season but we picking up a few nice smallmouth. A dependable area to catch some large smallmouth is a seventy foot long ledge lying perpendicular to the flow of the river with a five foot deep cut right downstream of it. This deep cut extends sixty feet down the river and holds great numbers of bass that feed heavily on sculpins and hellgrammites. I start at the downstream end of this pool and fish a Murray’s Heavy Black Hellgrammite size 6 across stream with a swing nymph tactic which swims my flies right along the stream bottom. I can spend two hours in these areas. By studying the river closely, you will be pleased with how many of these spots you find.

Learn to Fly Fish — Summer 2024 Fly Fishing Schools at Murray’s Fly Shop