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The Clocks have completed their spring forward. Cold snaps are getting shorter. Chinook winds have carved away the ice and snow. Warm days are sprinkled into the coming weeks. It is ice out time again, and it’s hard to pass up the springtime urge to tangle with some large, hungry trout.

If you are a diehard dry-fly angler and fish the months of December through April, you know a certain angling truth: That is not a mosquito.

The Chubby Chernobyl is synonymous with western stonefly hatches, especially the early season skwala emergence, which makes its annual appearance on numerous western rivers in March, April and May.

Quickly learn how to tie Andy Mill's Tarpon Toad Fly. It's one of the best tarpon flies in history and catches silver kings in the Florida Keys, Cuba, Mexico and Belize.

Basically, you have to want a permit to catch one, because not catching fish, as we all know (unless you fish with DuPont Specials, a.k.a. dynamite), is no fun at all. When you’re fishing permit, there’s a whole lot of waiting and very little catching. One eat a week would be acceptable. Three or four hookups means you’re pretty darn good at your craft.

Currently, fewer than a dozen outlets are licensed to sell his flies, one being—yours truly—House of Fly. If you buy Game Changers outside this network, Blane has a question for you: Are you pitchin’ real Chocklett? The answer: Probably not.

We, at The House of Fly, were lucky enough to have the recent opportunity to cast The Pure 2 at the Winston Rod factory in Twin Bridges, Montana. While we were there, we casted the New Winston rod, The Pure 2.

It is not always the best technique, but it’s not in my nature to put down the spey rod for long. Beyond effectiveness, it is an enjoyable style of fishing. It’s deliberate. It’s laid back. It’s showing a fly to the fish and giving them ample opportunity to eat it. If they like it, they will respond and when they eat, it’s a jolt on a tight line.

A historical guide to Spokane's two favorite cutthroat trout streams. They're in another state.

Whether they eat the dry or chow the nymph, trout run large during salmonfly time.

It's hard to imagine going to Lincoln County's Coffeepot Lake and somehow missing the potpourri of sights, sounds, smells and impressions that gives this place its undeniable character. Part of that is the way the big, lusty rainbows wallop a streamer, reminiscent of a terrier destroying a stuffed toy. If you listen, there is much more to hear than just shrieking fly reels.

In his words: Phil Rowley's must-have Spring stillwater fly patterns. To avoid the skunk, Phil doesn't leave the house without these bugs.