The mayfly hatches are excellent in the mountain trout streams in the mid Atlantic area. The stream levels are ideal, the water temperatures are excellent and the hatches of aquatic insects are outstanding.
Epeorus pleuralis
During the first half of April the Epeorus pleuralis hatch is exceptionally heavy. One early April evening as I was hiking out of a remote stream there was a hatch of duns and a spinner return that I’ll never forget. As I looked west over a long canyon below me, I have no doubt there were over 1000 duns and spinners before me. The Mr. Rapidan Parachute Dry size 14 is an excellent match for the dun and the Mr. Rapidan Spinner size 14 is a perfect match for the spinners. I fish both of these on a Classic 9ft 5X Leader.
Blue Quill Mayfly
The little Blue Quill Mayfly is on from early April until the last of the month. This is well matched with a Blue Quill Dry size 16. This is a fragile little mayfly and on cool days you’ll often see many of them shunted to the back eddies where they struggle to fly off the stream.
March Brown Mayfly
The March Brown Mayflies are on from early April through the end of April . The trout take the Mr. Rapidan Parachute Dry size 14 readily throughout this hatch. At this time you will usually find the largest trout in each pool holding on the lip of the pool to feed on these 3 mayflies.
Murray’s Mountain Trout Fly Rod Outfit complete with 6’10” 3-weight 3pc fly rod, case, lifetime warranty, fly reel, fly line and backing at a special price.
Listen to the rest of my podcast to hear about the other hatches happening this month.
Bass Fishing in April
This is the time of the year I head to my favorite bank bays because they hold some large smallmouth bass. These areas seldom let me down. What I call bank bays are those indentations which high spring floods cut back into the river banks. They may be carved 10 to 15 feet back into the bank. I believe the appeal of these areas is because the makeup blocks the full force of the current off the bass. Plus these areas hold large populations of minnows.
My favorite streamers for fishing these bank bays include Magnum Hogsucker, Magnum Darter and Shenk’s White Streamer all in size 4.
Interested in learning more? Check out Harry’s article “Mountain Trout Fishing“
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