High, cold, dingy, debris-filled streams and rivers make fishing a challenge this month, but not futile when the right techniques and the best baits are utilized. Fly casters will enjoy only sparse action in central and northern Maine until water levels decline and temperatures rise.

Anglers chucking lures and plugs won’t fare much better until after freshet conditions settle down. Regardless of what a sportsman’s favorite fishing style might be throughout most of the season, for sure April action, choose the way of the worm.

When I was a kid growing up in Aroostook County, I was a worm fisherman. My dad was a dyed-in-the-wool fly caster, and sometime during the summer between eighth grade and high school, I was converted. I became a bit of a snob, as many converts to the way of feather and fur are wont to be. Over the next 20 years I might troll plugs for bluefish, drag spoons for togue, cast Slug-Gos for stripers, and rubber grubs for smallmouth, but brook trout and landlocked salmon deserved to be tempted only with flies.

About a dozen years ago I wised up and realized that fishing with flies when the trout just weren’t interested in taking a fly is referred to as casting. Since I got a bit more enjoyment from the catching portion of fishing, it was a fairly simple deduction to start using whatever bait was currently producing strikes. Each to his own, as the old lady said when she kissed the cow, but for consistent April action angleworms are the best bait.

Good old garden hackle

A good many years ago, I had spent better than an hour one late April morning beating the water to a froth with a variety of wet flies and streamers. I knew I was fishing over trout, but my effort was to no avail. As I walked back toward home, another fellow with a fly rod and three hefty brookies on an alder stringer came up a trail from a lower section of the river. I described my fruitless flailing to the older sportsman and asked what pattern he managed to fool his fish with.

He allowed that a “good old garden hackle” had worked like a charm. I admitted that I’d never heard of such a pattern. “When you get home, young fella, ask your daddy, he’ll know what I’m talking about,” and with a grin and a wave he plodded into the brush and away up over a hill.

Edgar Tapley was the aged angler’s name, and although I didn’t know at the time, he knew who I was and had known my dad for years. Dad got a great laugh when I told him the story and asked if he had a garden hackle in his fly box I could borrow. As many old-timers will already know, a garden hackle is nothing more than a cute name for an angleworm. That day in the Prestile Stream was my first exposure to that nickname for a worm and also my first time seeing a man with a fly rod fish bait. Over the years the three of us shared many a laugh over my request for a garden-hackle fly.

Then and now, worms and night crawlers are difficult to come by this month with snow cover and partially frozen ground still prevalent in many regions preventing anglers from digging bait. The simple solution is to raise your own worms. Build your own box or buy one of the various size flower boxes for under windows at the local hardware store, fill it with dirt or commercial worm mulch, add some worms and keep it in a dark corner of the basement through winter. Add oatmeal or a bit of corn meal for food once in a while and you’ll have bait all winter for ice fishing and for early spring brook angling.

When most farms had livestock or horses, the manure pile was the place to dig worms because the earth near the edges never froze. If you live near a dairy farm or a neighbor who has horses or a few beef cattle, a visit to their manure pile will offer soft earth and plenty of healthy worms this month. Gardeners who maintain a compost pile will have the same luxury of unfrozen dirt and lots of angleworms under the heap. As the month progresses, spots with regular exposure to the sun will thaw enough to be excavated for bait, but this will be weather-dependent from spring to spring.

The most dependable source of worms with the least amount of work is a local bait dealer. Some enterprising youngsters put out signs in front of the house and sell bait to passing anglers, while local sporting goods stores often stock commercial containers of various amounts and sizes of worms. Each year more pharmacies, department and convenience stores, and even grocery stores are stocking commercial bait packages for sportsmen’s convenience. It’s a great way to save time and backaches.

Picking pools

Unlike summer fishing, when trout are fairly well dispersed throughout a stream, spring fish tend to school up in selective holes to avoid the cold, fast current. Recognizing and concentrating efforts on particular holding pools will greatly enhance results when bait fishing high, dingy water conditions. Eddies along banks and on river bends generally hold fish. Bogans and backwaters formed when water levels are high are very attractive to fish since there’s no current to fight, and water temperatures are warmer.

Coves along fast-moving waterways are another area trout and salmon seek out to avoid freshet conditions. Fish also seek refuge from fast current in the calm water just above dams and in the deep eddies on either side of the heavy flow below dams. Beaver dams, fallen trees, gravel bars, and ledges that slow and alter the spring runoff also provide calm holding pools that attract trout and should therefore entice April anglers to drop a worm.

Calm runs below islands always draw fish from nearby faster water and the slow pool formed where two streams join together is another spring refuge. Each of these spots has the added benefit of creating a natural food funnel to schooled fish created by the hydrostatic motion of current passing on each side of the pool. Toss a nonweighted worm rig in such a spot and it will eventually work its way right to the holding fish.

Rigging up

Open- or closed-face spinning reels on 6- to 7-foot spinning rods are the most popular bait rigs due to simplicity of use, availability, and moderate price. Baitcast reels are favored by a few, and for fairly close casting, fly outfits are very popular. Full sinking or sinking tip lines with at least a 9-foot leader will be needed for drifting bait with a fly rod. Due to debris, obstacles in the stream, ice chunks, and very cold water, a stronger than normal monofilament is recommended for April bait casting, 8- to 10-pound test will generally suffice.

For coves, backwaters, and bogans where no current will affect bait position, a bobber setup works well. Since it’s ineffective to have a worm suspended 2 or 3 feet above the river bottom, it’s necessary to know the water depth. Set the bobber on the line so the worm lies on the bottom with no more than a foot of slack or is suspended from 6 inches to a foot above bottom.

Use medium-size worms or night crawlers for bobber-style bait-and-wait fishing. Thread the hook through the bait two to three times and leave 2 inches of tail free to wiggle. Change worms frequently to keep bait lively and assure maximum dispersal of odor to fish in the vicinity. You’re allowed to use two rods, so take advantage of it by casting to different depths and locations, propping each on a stick and waiting patiently. An insulated bucket provides a comfortable seat, as well as storage for lunch, bait box, and extra tackle.

Eddies and slow-moving runs require a cast and slow retrieval technique called bottom bouncing. Fish in cold water won’t travel far to strike, so the bait has to be right in their face. This tactic takes a lot of casting to cover a pool and slow methodical retrieves. Just a worm and hook will work in still water, but a sinker will be needed when a current is present. Sinker size is determined by current speed, which is something learned over time. Attached a foot above the bait, a sinker is the right weight when it can’t be pushed downstream with the current, yet bounces a few inches rather than drags when the rod tip is lifted.

Some worm casters prefer to use a spinner for weight and slowly swim the bait cross current just above bottom. The silver, gold, or pearl spinner adds the flash of a lure in conjunction with the look, smell, and motion of a worm. It’s a dependable combination. Have extra hooks, spinners, and sinkers along for any April outing, since rocks, submerged driftwood, and bottom cover will claim a lot of gear.

Spring water levels and conditions are less than appealing, and often air and water temperature aren’t conducive to fast fishing, but that’s April in Maine. On the plus side, no bait is more natural, appetizing, and enticing to a fish than a fat, juicy worm! It’s been a long, winter and finally you can cast a line without drilling a hole in some ice, so don’t quibble over tactics. Bait’s the best bet this month, so find some open water and try the way of the worm.

Outdoor feature writer Bill Graves can be reached via e-mail at bgravesoutdoors@ainop.com