Lake Fishing For Trout

Pounding the bottom with weighted March Brown Nymph flies can provide constant action from mid-morning into the early stages of the hatch.  The March Brown Nymph in sizes #12 & #14 will be your bread and butter fly.  However nymphal color tends to adapt to the color of the stream bed.  Most March Brown nymphs are dark, some are nearly black.  The #12200 nymph is often the ticket to success.  Sometimes your catch will increase if you thin out the legs with your leader clipper and color them with a black felt marker. Fishing two flies at once will increase your odds of hooking up.  Usually two different colors or sizes are used.  Gold Rib Hares Ear and Olive Hares Ears are valuable flies to have with you and will some times out fish the more realistic patterns.  Most March Brown Nymphs are fairly skinny #14's, but slightly larger flies can also work.  March Brown nymphs live in riffles and fast, rocky runs.  As the nymphs near maturity, they migrate to slower water. During the migration, they can loose their grip and drift in the current.  For this reason trout will congregate in places where fast riffles start to slow down and on the seams between the fast and slow water.  Fish your nymphs where the current changes speed.  Approach the water carefully.  Start by fishing the slower water first with flies that are lightly weighted.  Your flies will be most effective if they are perfectly dead drift.  Cast them slightly upstream and mend a little slack into you presentation.  As you work your way out into the faster current, add lead shot to keep your flies near the bottom.
  
As the water warms at mid-day the nymph rise toward the surface to hatch.  Some of these nymphs are intercepted by trout during this upward migration.  Try tying a March Brown Soft Hackle to a dropper 3' above your nymphs. This technique can pay extra dividends.

Best tackle to fish a March Browns is a 9' #4 or #5 weight rod with an action that works easiest at the 20' to 50' cast range.  I prefer a weight forward line that is a little on the heavy side, is a moderate color and is very clean so that it easily shoots smoothly at all ranges.  The standard 9'-5X trout leader is good starting point.  You might go to 4X if you get brutalized by big fish.  Remember the best fly is the one that is perfectly placed in a risers feeding lane. 
Have a great spring!

March Brown Nymph
Pounding the bottom with weighted March Brown Nymph flies can provide constant action from mid-morning into the early stages of the hatch.  The March Brown Nymph in sizes #12 & #14 will be your bread and butter fly for March Browns.  As stated above, you can chop & thin, color and texture your fly to most match the naturals.  You can capture naturals with a kick-screen.

March Brown Cripple
You can fish the cripple like a dry fly by itself or it can be very effective if you add March Brown Cripple to a dropper 1' to 3' from your dry fly and fish both flies dead drift.  A Bob Quigley pattern.