If you want to catch early season trout, you have to use worms or hardware, right? Sound familiar? Familiar, yes - right, not necessarily.

The next time you read or hear this, give it the same credence you would >statements like, "Wading won't spook trout if you fish upstream". Or "Yes, there are big trout in that creek, but I heard they have rabies".

Actually stream trout take flies in early spring at least as readily as in mid-summer. In southwest Wisconsin where an experimental January 1 st opening has been in effect for several years, fly fishers enjoy excellent catches in winter.

In early spring there is no head-high vegetation to harass fly casts and over-hanging new growth isn't yet a deterrent to fishing likely water.

However, it must be remembered that because there is little foliage to conceal anglers or disguise their silhouettes, extra caution must be exercised in approaching and fishing trout water. It is just as important and certainly more difficult to be inconspicuous now than any other time of year.

As a general thing, sunken flies are the best producers in winter and early spring (experienced nymph fishers will probably say, at anytime). If the water is high and roily, small streamers often work well.

Remember, early season insects tend to be small and dark, mid-season ones, larger and light colored, and fall finds a mixture of both.

Black, gray, brown and gray-brown are all good early season colors with olive and green running a close second. Streamer fly color should correspond with that of bait fish in the area fished. Use size 14 or smaller flies and number 10 and 12 streamers.

In late winter and early spring, aquatic insects tend to be on the move as the sun starts to warm the water around mid-morning. The slight warming also speeds up the fishes metabolism and makes them interested in feeding. Unlike mid-summer or fall, both insects and fish become less active as evening approaches.

Later in the spring, swallows and waxwings swooping over the water will help alert you to areas of insect activity. They (and the fish) can see and feed on insects so small as to escape your notice.

At this time, actual hatches are most likely to occur in and around riffles and rapids. Not so abundant usually, as those later in the season, they trigger the trout’s feeding instinct, but don’t concentrate its attention on one kind of insect as do some of the massive mid-summer ones.

Exact imitation isn't so important now. Just keep artificials smalI and darker colored than those you will use later. My own favorites are silver nymphs made with dark hued over-lays, shrimp patterns tied from muskrat or rabbit under-fur and peacock herl nymphs.

Hackle should be brown or dark gray. Incidentally, nymph and larvae legs almost always are thick and blunt appearing, unlike the delicate appendage of many adults. Trimmed hackle doesn't look out of place on these imitations. If you tie your own flies, here is a place to use up feathers you might otherwise discard as being too wide. Trim them before winding.

The first surface activity will usually be that of midges or small caddis flies. In case of a midge hatch, you can try your smallest flies, but it will probably be less frustrating to just put the rod down and watch. This is the one situation when early season trout are very selective. I have never had much luck taking fish then.

Perhaps a size 24 or 28 imitation will bring hits but they will be savage and most of us don’t have the delicate touch and reflexes to handle smashing takes on minute hooks and gossamer leaders.

I have, on occasion, pulled a large bushy fly through a group of trout slashing at midges and had one take the fly, but this has been rare.

During a midge hatch it isn't unusual to see trout swimming rapidly with jaws wide apart, skimming these tiny creatures from the surface by the mouthful. I suppose if you were fortunate enough to get a regular sized fly in one's path, it might be taken right along with the naturals.

Caddis flies also account for some early season surface activity, but their hatches are apt to be sparse and sporadic. They usually start about mid-morning and the sight of one or two fluttering across the water means it is time to try a caddis larvae or pupae imitation. The immature naturals are small and usually green or olive-gray. Size 14 is about right.

Let them sink, then drift or retrieve along the bottom in moderately fast water with frequent lifts of the rod to make them move towards the surface. Be especially alert for hits on these pick-ups. In rapids or fast riffles fish them with downstream swings across the current. Make two or three casts and swings, then extend line and do it again until all likely water is covered. This is a good way to fish any shallow, fast water areas.

Pool bottoms usually hold may fly nymphs. Here the peacock herl imitation will bring hits. Fish it slow and deep. Be sure the line is a color that is easy to see and watch it closely. At the slightest deviation, set the hook immediately.

Hard water streams in the southern part of the state are rich in vegetation. Here, trout feed on scuds (commonly called freshwater shrimp) and sowbugs all year long. When stream insect activity siows in winter, water-cress and stonewort beds are an abundant source of these little crustaceans. Their chitinous content is credited with contributing to the rich pink color of most of these fishes' meat and furnishes roughage. At any rate trout relish them.

Size 14 gray nymphs made from muskrat or rabbit fur imitate these very well. The scud imitations do not even need hackle. Their legs and swimmeretts can be imitated nicely by merely picking out fur along the underside.

The same flies imitate sowbugs also. Unlike the scud's 'hog-back" shape, sowbugs are flattened and have legs extending along each side, so palmer hackle clipped flush on top instead of the picked-out fur for legs is probably better.

Scud swim with erratic starts and stops so this is a good way to fish them. Sowbugs should be retrieved very slowly near the bottom.