Early Patterns For Trout Lakes

Streamlined shadows slide through the shallows during low-light periods under the ice. When the ice breaks up, the pattern stocked and naturalized trout have followed for months continues unabated. Things begin to change, for rainbows, as the spawning period approaches. (Brown and brook trout spawn in fall.) The insect hatches begin. Then the water warms. In a nutshell, those are the three most significant events for trout fishermen to consider when approaching lakes from ice-out through early summer.

Each event or stage in seasonal progression brings with it a distinct change in the behavioral patterns trout follow. These changes are easily defined and recognized, and as certain coast-to-coast as the next sunrise. Water temperatures tend to quickly approach 40°F at ice-out, the lengthening days and sudden sunlight on the water causing the surface to mix with the dense 39°F layer that has been at the bottom of the water column all winter. Cold fronts can begin to reverse that process, and temperatures as low as 34°F might be found after boats can be launched, but 40°F or close tends to be the norm right after ice-out—which means rainbow trout are already preparing to spawn, and entering the first major pattern of the three-stage process.

Stage One

Stocked rainbows return to the stocking site at this point, looking for their ancestral river, which is up to 2,000 miles away and probably on the wrong side of the Rockies. Naturalized rainbows, born into the lake system through successful spawning activity, might begin staging near creek mouths or might already be running up larger streams that enter the lake. Browns and brookies continue doing what they did under the ice, cruising the same shallow flats looking for food. Forage, at this point, tends to be made up of small minnows (if still available) or invertebrates like mayfly nymphs and caddisfly larvae. The best fishing tends to occur between the bank and depths of 6 to 8 feet.

Matt Smiley works for Eagle Claw, but when not in the office he’s chasing something with fins, usually a trout because he lives in Colorado. (He once held the record for the biggest gamefish of any kind ever caught in Colorado, a 44-pound 5-ounce laker; but I told him that fish was too big and ostentatious for us to mention.) On trout lakes, Smiley applies different methods during each of the four stages trout go through between ice-out and early summer. “Fly, spin, troll, or bait,” he says. “Whatever it takes.

“Ice-out is the best time for tagging a trophy trout from shore. The window lasts for two or three weeks. Rock-face dams, rocky flats, and rock points are best, and bait is hard to beat at ice-out,” Smiley says. “Nothing is hatching yet. Spinning gear, using salmon eggs on bottom in netting [spawn bags], is probably the odds-on favorite. Nitro Premium Dough works almost as well. Side by side, with the folks using salmon eggs, it’s almost 50-50. Nitro Premium is certainly effective enough to use if you can’t procure salmon eggs and in some cases it excels. Salmon eggs can get lost down on bottom in rock cover or detritus, though trout pick them up off a clean bottom. Nitro Premium Dough floats, keeping the bait up where the fish can see it. It also can be added to spawn bags, creating a floating presentation with twice the appeal.