Unlike the main event in June, July and August – where the best action happens when the sun sets below the streamside poplars – early season trout keep gentlemen’s hours.
Late to rise and early to bed.
So instead of waiting for night to begin gathering and the bats to come out, the warmest period of the afternoon is often when the trout, grayling and mountain whitefish become most active.
March and April hatches of bugs like early black stoneflies, waterboatmen or the iconic blue winged olive mayflies – the so called “darling bugs of spring” – can bring the fish up for a short but often exciting rise.
Some rivers like the Crowsnest in southwestern Alberta also have significant midge hatches starting on Chinook-warmed February days where the river’s robust rainbows begin keying on the emerging nymphs. Then switch to emergers and floating adults as the hatch progresses.
Also remember that angling laws of latitude and altitude.
Insect hatches in Alberta tend to progress from south to north and from the lowland brown trout rivers to the headwaters cutthroat trout and Athabascan rainbow streams tucked away in the Rocky Mountain foothills.
So bugs that were hatching on southern rivers like the Waterton or Bow in May and June will be found on northern grayling streams like the House and Freeman or upland drainages such as the Ram or McLeod several weeks later.
Where the “early” season is simply a state of mind.
