The fishing at Six Lakes has been good this March. We have had a good number of fishermen come out the last two weeks and they have reported catching lots of nice trout.  April should see spectacular fishing with the warm afternoons and lots of nice insect hatches.  Here are some great techniques to use when fishing the Six Lakes Fishing Preserve in the early spring months. 

During the early spring trout spend a majority of their time down along the bottom of the lake in the mild water that is insulated and a little warmer than the surface water. There is also plenty of food on the bottom of the lake and trout cruise the bottom of the lake feeding on bloodworms, small crayfish, and insect larvae.  Getting your fly down near the bottom of the lake in the early spring months is important. Using a sinking line and a weighted streamer pattern is a great way to get your fly down quickly and working it slowly will keep it near the bottom of the lake. Dropping a red wire worm or copper john off the back of your streamer about 24 inches will also help attract trout that are targeting blood worms or insect larvae. 

In the warm afternoons in April midge hatches will happen in the late afternoon and evening. These midge hatches will get trout to move up in the water column and feed on emerging midges.  A great technique for imitating these emerging midges is to drop chironomids and midges off a strike indicator and cast toward feeding fish.  A technique that we like is to drop a larger chironomid off the strike indicator about 3 to 4 feet and a smaller midge pattern off the large chironomid another 3 feet. A sno cone chironomid or a red chironomid in size 14 are great chironomid patterns to use as a top fly and a zebra midge or crystal midge in size 20 are great terminal midge patterns.  Both chironomids and midge patterns can be effective in April depending on what is hatching that day. 

April and May are great months to be at Six Lakes Fishing Preserve to catch some great trout and enjoy the mild spring weather!