A heavy snow squall laid a blanket of snow along the banks of Silver Creek in north central Arizona on this mid-April afternoon. Virgil Bradford, Brian Williams and I arrived at the stream at midday to fish over rainbow trout planted just the day before. As we assembled our gear at streamside we saw trout rising to a little blue-winged olive dun. Although recently stocked, these trout already began feeding on these naturals. All three of us tied on a size 20 Little Blue-winged Olive pattern to match the hatch and began catching trout immediately. That hatch continued under adverse conditions for more than two hours that day and the three of us continued to catch trout until the hatch ended. What a day! What an early season hatch!.

That same story, with the very same hatch, is played out across the country, in the spring. Hatches of this same little blue-winged olive can be found on many of the trout streams across the United States—especially in April and May. But that’s not the only early season hatch you’ll see.

I eagerly look forward to springtime fly fishing. Why? Only in spring can you fish in full daylight—usually in the middle of the afternoon—over one of several spectacular hatches like the little blue-winged olive, quill gordon, blue quill, hendrickson and black quill in the East and Midwest. Western anglers will find little blue-winged olives and western March browns appearing on early season afternoons.

When I give talks on fly-fishing around the country I usually show slides of all these early season hatches and ask what they have in common. If you look at the back of the body all of these different mayfly hatches you’ll see one common color on all aquatic insects (even stoneflies and caddisflies). That color, gray, matches the color of the trees at that time of the year. Look closely at the trees and rocks near the stream and you’ll see the predominant color of gray.

What hatches other than mayflies can you expect to see in April and May? Downwings or caddisflies and stoneflies are often important to copy. I’ve seen plenty of occasions where I’ve had to match an early season grannom hatch. This common caddisfly appears on many of our better streams and rivers across the United States. The size of the grannom varies from stream to stream so be prepared to carry patterns in sizes 12 to 16. Great hatches appear on the Delaware River and the Beaverkill in New York, and on Big Fishing Creek in Central Pennsylvania. Huge grannoms appear on Penns Creek in central Pennsylvania around the third week in April. Grannoms also appear on western waters like the Bitterroot in Montana and Washington’s Yakima River most often in mid-May.. Because of the time grannoms appear in the West local fly-fishers refer to the hatch as the 'Mothers Day hatch.' I’ll never forget that float trip on the Yakima River with the famous fly-fisher Dave Engerbrettson. We were taping a segment on fly fishing central Washington and we hit a spectacular grannom caddisfly hatch.

If you’ve fished these great early gray hatches on the Beaverkill or Delaware in New York; or Fishing Creek in central Pennsylvania; New Jersey’s South Branch of the Raritan River; or central Oregon’s Metolius River for any period of time you’ve probably run into a problem—multiple hatches. I’ve often seen three and four hatches appear on the same afternoon in April and May. In Pennsylvania on the Carson Flats section of Little Pine Creek, and Slate and Cedar Runs, I’ve fished over trout first rising to Blue Quills, then quill gordons and finally hendricksons.

Big Fishing Creek in central Pennsylvania at this time of year holds at least four hatches. I’ve fished over trout rising in one afternoon to blue quills, quill gordons, hendricksons and grannoms. On central Oregon’s Metolius River in late May on an overcast miserable day I saw little blue-winged olives, blue-winged olives and pale morning duns appear together for more than four hours. Be prepared on these multiple hatch days to change patterns quickly and often..

  When can you expect to see most of these hatches? Hatches most often appear the most pleasant time of the day in April and early May--in the middle of the afternoon. I have hit great hendrickson hatches on the Lackawaxen and Delaware Rivers in northeastern Pennsylvania and the nearby Beaverkill in New York in late April under less than pleasant weather conditions. On several occasions I’ve seen thousands of these mayflies appear and never saw one trout take a mayfly. Probably the hatch on the Lackawaxen was the heaviest hendrickson that I’ve ever encountered. I stood in the water for more than an hour and never saw a trout rise. Why? These early emergers appeared in water temperatures near 48 degrees. Finally, I had enough and tied on a dark hendrickson nymph three feet behind the Hendrickson dry fly as a dropper. That tandem saved that day from being a total disaster.

Michigan rivers like the AuSable, Manistee and others also boast great early season hatches. Some of the finest matching the hatch experiences have occurred with me in early May on these rivers with hendrickson hatches. In the Midwest the hendrickson appears a couple weeks later than it does in the Northeast.

I stated earlier that I’ve hit hendrickson hatches on dismal, dreary days. If water temperatures are above 50 degrees, you can take advantage of these cool overcast drizzly early spring days when you’re fishing the hatches. I’ve seen many hatches appear under less than ideal conditions and dozens of trout fed on the surface. The cold air temperatures and light rainfall often slow the escape of mayflies and make them readily available to trout for an extended period. If you experience one of these miserable days when early season hatches can’t escape from the surface you’ll never forget it.

In mid-May a transformation takes place with the hatches. Anglers begin seeing other hatches the March brown and the sulphur in the East and Midwest and the pale morning dun in the West. Contrasted with the gray hatches of April all three are cream to yellow insects. Hatches at this time also begin appearing at times other than the afternoon. Sulphurs often appear just as dusk approaches.



Don’t forget get to try wet flies at that time of year. Just think for a moment what happens to all the dazed duns floating past you. After riding on the surface through several pools and riffles many of these dazed duns go under the surface and are taken underneath by trout. Classic wet fly patterns copying these hatches often work well.

Do you want to see some early season hatches? Then look for them in April and May most often in the afternoon. Be prepared with gray patterns in sizes from 12 to 18 to match those appearing in April and early May and use cream and pale yellow patterns in sizes 12 to 16 to match the hatches that appear later in May. Above all if you’re fishing when two or more hatches appear simultaneously check to see which hatch the trout your're fishing over are feeding on. Remember some of the greatest hatches and best matching-the-hatch opportunities appear at this time of year. And those opportunities to match great early season hatches can occur on streams and rivers in the Southwest, West, Midwest or East.

Visit our books section for a list of publications written by Charle R. Meck.