Fishing in late winter and early spring, before runoff kicks in, can be pretty tricky, given short windows for dry-fly action, the likelihood that, even though the calendar reads April, an out-of-nowhere snow squall is certainly possible and the general finicky nature of cold-water trout.
The solution, as Garrison Doctor of Rep Your Water describes below, is to bring two fly rods.
Trout Tips | Bring two rods from Trout Unlimited on Vimeo.
Yes, this adds some complexity to your time on the water, but if you have a rod rigged for nymphs, and a sporadic hatch starts to come off, you’ll be ready to simply switch rods and start casting to rising trout. And winter hatches are fleeting… sometimes they last just a few minutes, and sometimes they last all day.
Either way, with that second rod, you’ll be ready.
— Chris Hunt