Streamers and nymphs remain the best way to catch large numbers of trout but that should change over the next couple of days as the river drops and warms & more trout start looking up. Those who have found the pods of freshly stocked trout recently have racked up the biggest catches, but some bigger holdovers are mixing in here & there. Fish a spot, but if it's not producing, move on, don't linger. Lately the more water I cover lately, the better I do. I might come up empty in 2-3 spots, and then bang fish in the 4th. Nymphs & deeply/slowly fished streamers are normally the most reliable fish catchers in the cooler waters of the early season, unless you see fish rising.
Subsurface, try fishing Hendrickson nymphs, Bruce Marino ties us a DEADLY
nymph for this- ask and we will point you toward them. Hendrickson
nymphs catch me a lot of BIG trout in April/May. A bigger #12-14
Pheasant Tail can also work well. Hendrickson Nymph patterns can also
pull double-duty as early season stoneflies. #16 Olive nymphs imitating
Baetis Vagans are also a good choice now, they are active.
Early Black & Early Brown Stoneflies (sz 12-16), Pheasant Tails (sz
12-18), olive/green caddis larva (sz 8-16), cased caddis larva (sz
8-16), midge larva/pupa (sz 16-20, especially in red), attractor nymphs
(sz 12-18 in Red Headed Stepchild, Copper Johns, blue Lightning Bugs,
Yellow Prince, Rainbow Warrior, and egg flies (sz 10-18) are still a
good choice. Don't be afraid
to fish some some gaudier/flashy/attractor-type nymphs, the trout
sometimes show a preference for them, doubly true for recently stocked
trout.