Now that the regular trout season is underway, there will no doubt be a pretty good number of fishermen hitting the streams and lakes.

I’ll be honest, I’m a pretty serious and dedicated trout fisherman, and I hope to be on a number of different streams over the next few weeks as well.

Since I started fishing back in the 1960s, I have used all kinds of baits and lures, and I have had good success with several different presentations, but once I started fly fishing, I was “hooked.”

I’m sure, however, that if I rigged up my ultralight spinning outfit with light line and a number 12 hook with two pink salmon eggs, I could still land a good number of trout.

I’m also sure that some spinners or small minnow imitations like the Rebel minnow lure, if presented properly, would also bring in a good number of trout. The same is true for the good old worm or any number of other baits or lures.

All that said, I will have my flyrod in hand when I hit the stream, and my favorite fly-fishing technique is working a dry fly.

I think what makes this type of fly fishing so much fun is actually seeing that sudden strike on the surface as your fly quietly drifts along.

Don’t get me wrong, if the trout aren’t taking dry fly presentations, I won’t hesitate to switch to a subsurface fly like a nymph, streamer, or wet fly, but it’s that surface activity that I like the most.

For that reason, each spring when the trout season begins, I am especially tuned in to taking my first trout of the season on a dry fly presentation.

Last week, I hit one of the special regulations stretches on a local trout stream, and I managed to catch and release a nice 15-inch brown on a dry fly; my first trout of the new season, and it was on a number 14 deer hair caddis.

Several dry-fly presentations are good April choices.

One of the best is probably the Quill Gordon, but the Little Blue Dun and the Dark Blue Quill are also early April hatches that can produce some good catches. A Royal Coachman can also be productive, and I would never hesitate to put on a good old Adams in a size 14.

Another little trick I like to use when working my dry fly is the “tandem rig.”

After attaching your dry fly choice to the end of your tippet, you simply tie on another length of leader material to the bend of the dry fly hook. To the end of that leader, you add a sinking fly like a wet fly or maybe even a nymph. That fly could even be an emerger pattern of the dry fly you are using.

The length of the leader tied to the bend of the dry fly hook depends on the depth you are fishing. If I’m fishing in a stretch of water three feet deep, I’ll probably tie on around two to three feet for that additional tandem rig.

The dry fly actually acts as a strike indicator when a trout grabs the submerged fly, but you can also get strikes on the dry fly as well. The brown trout I caught last week was on a tandem rig, but it hit the dry fly.

When I head out to the trout stream, I’ll have a wide selection of flies, but you can bet that I’m hoping for some dry fly activity.

If the water levels remain good and the weather cooperates, I plan to be out putting these flies to the test.