Is anything more frustrating than fishing a lake full of educated fish that are sipping Daphnia? If there is, I hope I never have to do it.

I have a friend who tried to imitate Daphnia by tying several tiny "lumps" of red thread on a light wire hook. Sort of the same principle (on a much smaller scale) as using a Griffith's Gnat to represent a cluster of tiny midges, I suppose.

It didn't work, but I had to give him props for his effort.

As Stonefish knows, a chironimid pattern, as painful as they are to fish, will carry the day when you resign yourself to thinking Daphnia are the only thing they will eat. Same colors he mentioned seem to work just about everywhere.

Looking forward to those few, consecutive sunny days myself. Spring fishing on lakes is a great, relaxing time after months of laboring through cold, rain, snow, frequent skunkings, and everything else that comes with winter steelheading.