If you're flyfishing for trout early in the year here's what to expect in the type of food available for trout.

Early in the year there's not much food out there. Mostly the trout are eating leeches, tiny little water bugs (pindot shrimp, daphnia and others) and some chronies. I suspect the bulk of the chronies available are bloodworms close to the bottom and not pupa. One thing to key on to catch trout early in the year is to fish the warmer areas of the lake. Those areas will have food concentrations first. Find the food and you find the trout.

Later on the primary food source is chronies. Around April 85% of what trout eat is chrones, either pupa or bloodworms.... some adults thrown in, but most of the time it's the subadult stages.

You need flats and mud in order to have chronies. They don't live in rocks, nor in marginal territory, like steep shorelines. Also, steep shorelines are usually rocks.

Couplea other early season food sources Zen didn't mention
are Snails and Dragonfly nymphs.
Dragonfly nymphs go through 4-5 instars and most live as nymphs
for 2 or more years before hatching, so some are present year around.
Trouble is they are not that prolific except for in a couplea lakes I know
of (which I'm keeping under my belt) that have lots of woody stuff in
the water. But still always worth an early season try.

Snails on the other hand are one of the commonest of food sources and
are present in nearly every lake I know of. They are NOT widely imitated
by flyfishermen and that's a mistake. The trout relish snails year
around, but by early spring mainly large adults are still alive and they tend
to be toooooo big.....gives a normal sized trout baaaaad constipation.
But still, they are worth fishing in early spring and trout will eat them
in the smaller sizes even if no small ones present.

I'll agree with you about snails being present, eaten by fish and underutilized by fishermen... but dragonflies... might differ (based on my own experiences). I don't normally see those in early season stomach samples and when I am catching fish on those, usually it's about the same time I'm also catching fish on chronies.

Don't know why I don't see dragonfly nymphs early, maybe they're still hibernating in the bottom. Maybe they only come out when there's a food source for them and that early food source is emerging chronies.

Burke Lake is a good one for fishing large green dragonfly nymphs on the bottom.

Hey all,
I heard you mention Daphnia, and I recalled a pattern I'd once heard of.
You simply take an orange-ish to brownish Mohair Leech a dap the fibers with fingernail polish. Pretty cool huh?
I also just found another pattern that might be of use. It imitates the individual rahter than the group. Henk Verhaar ties it. You take a "really" small hook and tie in a bunch of CDC under the eye(Henk reccomends brown) and then slide and superglue in an orange glass bead. Wah la! Daphnia ala Carte.
Anyway, hope this helps a bit.
Larry

Recently posted: The Frugal Fly Fisherman's article on early season fly fishing. Check that out too.

Hmmm, in the lakes I know of here with strong hatches of Daphnia they
are GREEN, often nearly lime green????? Don't remember seeing
brown ones, but probably there are as lotsa these creatures are
chamelions. I've heard of a mass daphnia pattern of green fuzz w/ darker
painted in Dots. He never claimed it worked though. Unfishable in my opinion.

Dragons are not often eaten by early season trout because they
are well camoflaged and creep around in the bottom muck. They
become "trout bait" more frequently in June-August when they
are emerging into adults.
But for some reason in a couple a lakes I know, I catch many trout
right off the edge of the melting ice with Dragonfly nymphs. These
are Dragonfly lakes with few leeches in them so it's no mistake they
are eating the fly for a Dragon.
Don't ask my WHY?? But it's true.

I saw that "daphnia swarm" fly a couple of years ago and decided I didn't want to try that fly. Didn't seem like flyfishing. Thought I'd stick with powerbait instead (threw that in for you, Ron).

One trick I came up with 20+ years ago was a Lee Wulff method of giving them something different. When the swarms came on I'd offer the fish a large #8 3xl damselfly nymph and they'd smack that. Figured they'd get tired of eating "pindots" and want to go for a pizza... and about 1 in 10 do. Makes for a fun day.