March Fishing

March begins the awakening of the rivers.  Early-season mayflies begin hatching in earnest.  Anglers will need to keep an eye out for stoneflies but blue quills, Quill Gordons, and Baetis Vagans (BWO) will dominate the fishing. 

                March is a good month to catch trout on dries.  The key is to find the feeding trout.  Watch for signs of trout rising more closely.  The brown stoneflies will produce splashy rises, you may even see the trout come out of the water.  However, the mayflies don’t usually cause splashy rises.  The reason is in the behavior.  Stoneflies are active, fluttering wings and moving on the water.  Trout will rise quickly to this behavior.  Mayflies will tend to drift…sitting still.  When one catches the eyes of a trout, it will leisurely rise to eat the mayfly.  These rises are harder to see and easily overlooked when stoneflies are on the water.  Just the other day the trout were eating blue quills, even though the stoneflies outnumbered the mayflies 3:1.  When I switched to a size 16 blue quill, I caught a trout on the second cast. 

                When fishing dries, grease your leader so the current doesn’t pull it under.  Watch your drag on the fly, you need to have a natural drift and target any rises you see.  Keep an assortment of flies for the early season whenever you are on the water. 

I will always carry these flies with me in March

1.       Quill Gordon  #10 & 12

2.       Blue Quill #16

3.       BWO dark #18

4.       Pheasant tail nymph #16 & 18

5.       Girdle bug brown # 14 & 12

Good fishing