Algonquin Park spring fishing

[My Self Reliance]

I'm new to the forum, so please excuse me if I missed any discussions on this topic. I'm also new to fly fishing, and I'm looking for advice on flies for ice-out brook trout in Algonquin Park.
I assume streamers would work well, but can I expect any insect hatches at that time of year? Or is there a pattern that works in any event? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Dozer]

Honestly - most things will work for them during the Spring feed bag. Opened up a couple bellies on small ones and they were full of white tiny shrimp like buggers, the medium sized one had dragon fly larvae and other bugs ... larger fish had crayfish. I'm not a fly guy but have caught them on wooly buggers and saw a couple guys angling them with zoo cougars.

Hopefully MFG can chime in here, hes pretty good one those back lakes with a fly rod in hand.

 

[My Self Reliance]

Honestly - most things will work for them during the Spring feed bag. Opened up a couple bellies on small ones and they were full of white tiny shrimp like buggers, the medium sized one had dragon fly larvae and other bugs ... larger fish had crayfish. I'm not a fly guy but have caught them on wooly buggers and saw a couple guys angling them with zoo cougars.

Hopefully MFG can chime in here, hes pretty good one those back lakes with a fly rod in hand.

Thanks, that's a good starting point. I wish I had checked the stomach contents last spring. In late summer, they were full of minnows and one had a god sized mouse.

 

[GuitarBuildingAngler]

Honestly - most things will work for them during the Spring feed bag. Opened up a couple bellies on small ones and they were full of white tiny shrimp like buggers, the medium sized one had dragon fly larvae and other bugs ... larger fish had crayfish. I'm not a fly guy but have caught them on wooly buggers and saw a couple guys angling them with zoo cougars.

Hopefully MFG can chime in here, hes pretty good one those back lakes with a fly rod in hand.

I am not sure how much MFG follows these threads anymore (super busy with school) but I will try and help.

In all honesty, black or olive wooly buggers will get you into fish. Really small ones, size 14 up to size 6 large ones will all work. During spring, the fish will easily go after those patterns. Best thing to do (what Madoc and I would do all the time) is tie on a sink tip. After the sink tip, go to something like 5 feet of 4-6lb flouro. Just troll up and down close to shoals or rock beds. The trout will be anywhere from 5-20ft down in the cold water and will readily swim up to hit the wooly bugger. You want to move at a relatively slow speed. A speed that will allow your sink tip to get 10-20 ft down. Madoc and I would let out our lines (about all 100ft of fly line) and troll. We let out that amount of line because we were usually paddling as well and wanted to have a nice buffer between us paddling and the trailing trout. Be on high alert though. The bite will be extremely light and you are more than likely to miss 3/4 of the bites during these times.

I hope that helps, good luck!

 

[Snaggy]

I'll be there on opener. Only have and only ever used floating line. Most likely I will be using the spinning setup most of the day. However, Ill be bringing the fly rod for the creeks and streams between lakes, as well as with the shorelines at night. Best of luck!

 

[My Self Reliance]

I'll be there on opener. Only have and only ever used floating line. Most likely I will be using the spinning setup most of the day. However, Ill be bringing the fly rod for the creeks and streams between lakes, as well as with the shorelines at night. Best of luck!

That's what I was planning as well. I usually troll a floating Rapala while paddling so that it doesn't hang up when I stop paddling. Maybe next trip I'll try fly rod only using GBA's method.