The year-round rule of thumb is this -- go fishing for trout at the time of day that is most comfortable for you. In March, April and early May, that's usually from around 10 or 11 a.m. to about 3 or 4 in the afternoon, when both air and water temperatures peak. Stream flows may be well below the trout's optimum level -- which is between 55 and 65 degrees, depending on species -- but a temperature of 45 to 48 in early afternoon feels a heck of a lot better to you and the fish than the 38 degrees your thermometer registered at dawn!

By mid-May, the most comfortable conditions are in the evening. Come summer, early morning or the hours between midnight and sunrise are invigorating to both trout and angler.

Autumn sees a return to the mid-day comfort zone.

USE A LIGHT TOUCH
Because water temperatures are cooler than trout prefer, early-season feeding periods tend to be short and meals small. Trout of all sizes bite daintily, or "almost like a sucker," as my father used to say. They frequently take one or two tentative nibbles of a worm or salted minnow and then drop the bait. This fussy eating is routine even at a time when food is extraordinarily plentiful, thanks to spring showers and runoff that funnel all sorts of critters into streams.

If you hope to detect the delicate strikes that are common in early spring, you'd be wise to arm yourself with ultralight tackle, whether you prefer to spin-cast or lob nymphs or bait with a fly rod. Go with the most sensitive, subtle rig you can handle, and stick with it even if the water is running chocolate brown. The purpose of the light line is not to avoid being seen, but to avoid being felt -- and dropped.

My spring-season outfit consists of a 10 1/2-foot noodle rod with an extra-sensitive tip section. I attach either a spinning reel or a single-action fly reel, each spooled with 4-pound-test monofilament, and I add or subtract split shot as I go from pool to pool to keep my bait ticking along the bottom.

You'll lose a big trout now and then as your light mono becomes abraded on the rocks or is otherwise weakened, but your total catch will more than compensate for the occasional get-away.

Don't be tempted to go with 6-pound line because it's only "slightly" thicker or stiffer than 4-pound monofilament. The difference between the two, in terms of strike-detection, is truly amazing.

WORK THE MARGINS
Some of the best places to go trout fishing in early spring don't even hold significant numbers of trout at other times of the year. I'm referring to so-called "transition zones," where trout habitat gradually gives way to water temperatures and oxygen levels more suited to bass, suckers and other species. These areas are usually, although not always, at the downstream end of popular trout streams. They may be stocked for put-and-take fishing purposes by state hatcheries, and occasionally, some of those planted browns and rainbows will manage to survive summer warm-ups and even hold over for one or several seasons by occupying hideouts in cool tributaries or just downstream from spring seeps. The early weeks of the trout season provide the perfect opportunity to connect with one of these lunkers.