Fly Fishing in April Podcast by Harry Murray
TROUT
Fly fishing in April can be very exciting with the different hatches that occur this month. During the early part of April we have good hatches of the Eperous pleuralis mayflies to which a Mr. Rapidan Parachute Dry size 14 is very effective.
Throughout the month you will see good hatches of Blue Quill Mayflies and the Blue Quill Dry size 16 will help you take many trout during this hatch. About the second week of April the March Brown Mayflies will start hatching and they will continue all month long. The Mr. Rapidan Parachute Dry size 14 and March Brown Dry Fly size 14 is excellent for this hatch.
Since there are so many naturals on the water to feed upon the trout will select what I call primary feeding stations. These are areas that will enable them to capture the greatest number of naturals with the least amount of effort. I go into great detail about these feeding stations in my book Trout Fishing in the Shenandoah National Park on page 31.
BASS
During April I get some of my best smallmouth bass fishing in the protected bank bays along the sides of the rivers. These are open bays 5 to 20 feet deep which are cut back into the river banks by previous flood waters. They may extend from 10 to 20 feet down the river and be from 3 to 5 feet deep. Some of these can be fished by wading down the main part of the river and they are all fishable by floating the river. I allow my fly to sink deeply then swim it out slowly by stripping it 6 inches every 10 seconds. By patiently covering each one thoroughly I often catch several nice bass from each bank bay. The Murray’s Tungsten Cone Head Marauder in Olive size 4, Murray’s Heavy Black Hellgrammite size 4 and Shenk’s White Streamer size 4 are my most effective flies.
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