6 Flies for Springtime Fishing
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Time to read 7 min
Spring is officially here and most fly anglers are gearing up to get back on the water. It’s been a long offseason for many anglers, as skiing, snowmobiling, ice fishing, and whatever other winter activities have consumed most people’s time. But winter is long gone (well sort of) and things are quickly warming up. So, what better time to talk about the flies that are needed for this season! Normally, we’d do 3 flies for the week and highlight our favorite flies for that specific timeframe. But, we’d like to take this time to talk about flies in a much broader scope since there are many different opportunities during the spring.
Springtime fishing is one of, if not the best time of the year to be on the water. The fish are waking up from their winter slumber, lakes are icing off, warmwater species are moving with the rising water temperatures, rain and snow melt are raising river levels, and more than just one bug is hatching with regularity. I could continue with a long introduction about spring fishing, but I don’t want to hold you up. So let’s get to our top 6 flies for this spring!
#1: Trina’s Squirm - Brown and Pink sz10
The worm. Some love it, some hate it. But, there’s no denying this fly is a flatout fish catcher. I’d like to start off by saying that worms, generally, aren’t best fished in the early spring. Rather, we like to fish worms in mid- to late-spring when our big rains and melting snow begin to swell the rivers. The rivers don’t need to be blown out or discolored by any means, but they do need to be higher than what they were in previous weeks. These conditions are different on all rivers, so just come in and we can set you up at the right time.
The new Trina’s squirm is a gamechanging material. Without going too deep into this fly and the material that’s used to make it, watch our video here:
The realism of this fly and its ability to stay put together longer than other flies is what sets it apart. Picking a color can be difficult, which is why we highlighted two different colors. The first, tan, is best used when fishing tailwaters once water levels begin to rise. Generally speaking, tailwaters, like the South Platte, will stay relatively clear when water levels rise. Therefore, it’s best to try and match the natural worm to our best ability. The clear water and regular heavy fishing pressure is why fishing a tan worm does best. Tailwater fish have been around the block a time or two and have been fooled by red and pink colored worms before, so they likely won’t want to one again. Speaking of pink, we prefer to fish pink worms on our freestone rivers for two reasons. One, is the fish populations in freestones are much lower than tailwaters. Therefore, we need the ability to move fish towards our rigs since running into a fish every few drifts is much less likely. If it still looks like a worm, but the coloration is slightly off, most freestone fish are willing to eat it. Second, freestones tend to get pretty dirty when water starts flushing into them. So having a brighter colored fly will help the fish to actually see your fly.
#2: Jake’s All Season Caddis - Tan sz14 and 16
When caddisflies are hatching it can be some of the most exciting dry fly fishing the west has to offer. There are few hatches that are so enticing to trout that they willingly soar from the water to pursue a flying adult! Typical caddis hatches are thick, blanketing hatches that have every single trout tuned in. Additionally, these thick hatches will last for days due to the longer adult life that most caddis have. We’ve already begun to observe hatching caddis, which isn’t too out-of-the-norm for this time of the year. But this hatch is rarely big enough to be fishable. That said, pay close attention in April and May for multiple species to begin to hatch, including the famous Mother’s Day hatch.
We like this particular dry fly due to its floatability. I would say just about any caddis dry fly will get the job done during any hatch, with the caveat that your size and color are correct. That said, not all of them float well while fishing all day. This pattern is composed of foam, hackle, and CDC which allows for superior floatability while remaining incredibly realistic. This is typically a problem because most “floating flies” aren’t particularly realistic. We recommend having both sizes with you just in case the particular hatch is of a larger or smaller caddis species.
#3: Rowley’s Balanced Leech - Watermelon Red sz10
Spring means ice-off on our local and not too far away reservoir fisheries. Places like Spinney, Antero, and Chatfield (yes, you read that right) offer incredible chances to target trophy trout. There are many stillwater flies that are in our fly boxes, but few are as productive on a consistent basis than a balanced leech. Black, brown, and even red are some of our top colors, but olive is generally our first color to tie on. The watermelon colorway offers a ton of contrast that creates a natural look that trout can’t refuse. In addition to resembling a leech, many balanced leech patterns do a fine job at doubling as a baitfish/minnow. This offers the opportunity to catch some “bycatch” species, such as pike, walleye, bass, and whatever else swims in the water that likes minnows and leeches.
#4: Krueger’s Clear Choice May - Baetis sz18
An ultra-realistic mayfly pattern that catches fish left and right, the clear choice may is the clear choice in your mayfly nymph selection. Jokes aside, this pattern flat out works. The extended body on this fly is what separates itself from the pack. And as many of us know, fishing our local waters requires realism beyond belief. So why not take advantage of this pattern? There are numerous colorways offered in this pattern, but the baetis version would be the best choice for the spring as BWO’s are hatching. Keep in mind that this fly is fairly durable, but as much in comparison to a standard bodied fly. If you can’t tell, the clear choice may is tied with an extended body similar to mayfly dry fly patterns. And much like the dries, this nymph doesn't handle abuse the best. That said, it’ll certainly catch quite a few fish!
#5: Keller’s Montana Humdinger - White sz6
There’s no such thing as streamer season!! Many people automatically tie fall fishing and streamer fishing together, but this is far from the truth. In fact, spring time offers much better streamer fishing than the fall. The reason is simple, rising water temperatures and levels. As the days warm, so do the rivers, which makes the trout more active. Extra activity requires more calorie consumption, therefore many fish will look to eat big, especially after the long winter where food was sparse. Additionally, it’s hard for many of the larger trout to pass up big meals in the spring because they’re more prevalent than what they’ve been seeing. Much like trout, small minnows and crawdads are much more active in the spring, which inevitably makes them more susceptible to predation. To add off of this, rising water temperatures will displace these minnows and crawdads so frequently that it’s relatively easy to eat bigger meals. So to wrap up, fish want to eat bigger meals right now due to the combination of rising water temperatures, long winter with food scarcity, minnow/crawdad activity, and rising water levels making it easy to eat.
So, the pattern we recommend tossing (if we had to pick one) is the Montana humdinger. This pattern is built almost entirely with natural materials which makes it swim incredibly well, flowing and pulsing with each movement it makes. This pattern is hard for trout to pass up, particularly the white colorway in the spring when baitfish are getting knocked around and hatching. We spoke on rising water temperatures, but it’s still relatively cold so we can’t fish ultra aggressively like we can in the summer. Thus, we can’t have flies that push water and create a ton of disturbance like those with deer hair heads. Instead, we need flowy and streamlined patterns, which this pattern perfectly fits the mold of.
#6: Hipster Dufus - Yellow Butt Brown
This one is for you carp junkies or those who are curious about jumping in the carp world. It’s not necessarily done in pretty places, but it’s close to home, the fish fight hard, and it’s 100% sight fishing. For all these reasons, it’s hard not to fly fish for carp, especially in the Denver metro where they’re virtually everywhere. Plus during runoff there's only so many places to fish that aren’t tailwaters, so carp offer a good mixup when the rivers are too high to fish.
The hipster dufus is tied by local angler Daryl Eakins, and is an absolute crusher when fishing the endless ponds in the area. In general, when fishing ponds and lakes it’s best to fish small flies with beadchain eyes so they sink at a slow, natural rate. Not only is this fly equipped with the right weight system, but it also has a unique dubbing configuration to help its sink rate, in addition to grabbing the feeding carp’s attention with its wide profile.
Thanks everyone for reading along and we hope these fly recommendations are able to pick up some fish for you this spring! All six of these flies are available on our website and in both of our shops.
Xavier Puls
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to Xavier on email at xavier@goldenflyshop.com, or call the shop at 303-330-1292. Thank you!