Opening day of trout season often falls on the first Saturday of April for many states. And even if you are lucky enough to live in an area where trout fishing is available year-round, April often marks the symbolic beginning to trout-chasing, that glorious seven-month stretch from now til October, when you learn or re-learn the joys and frustrations of tossing tiny flies to feeding browns, rainbows or brookies.

If you’re new to the sport, or if your skill set became a little rusty over the winter, here’s five trouty tips for the opening-day onslaught.

1) Fish upstream, not downstream, to feeding trout.

Early April remains pre-runoff for most major trout fishing rivers, so the water is often low and clear. Whenever possible, approach feeding fish from downstream, so they aren’t looking right at you and your bright red shirt when you’re trying to cast to them.

2) Don’t be afraid to throw streamers.

Sure, we’d all LIKE to be able to cast to surface feeders all day long. But this early in the season, even if you get a bluewing or March Brown or midge hatch going on, it’s probably not going to last all day. So don’t be afraid–even on small streams–to cut that 4 or 5X back to 2X and toss a few juicy streamers at some undercut banks.

3) But DO look for specific hatches. Sometimes flyfishers assume that the only real hatches take place in June, July and August. But if water and air temps are right, April can be a great month for prolific hatches, especially beatis or winter stoneflies. So make sure you’re packing more than just “searching patterns” in that flybox of yours.

4)Go find some brook trout.

While many opening day scenarios have people chasing hatchery-reared rainbows or pre-spawn cutthroat trout, ask around your local fly shops to see if there are any lakes unfrozen enough yet to go after some early-season high-country brookies. Or, if you life in the Northeast or Southeast, where brook trout are more prevalent at lower elevations, ask around about getting away from the rainbow crowd and going for a few–perhaps smaller, but always feisty–brookies.

5)Get your gear right.

Of course this sounds obvious. But many of us forget stuff on trips, especially early in the season when we’ve had six months to forget where we left it last time. At the minimum, after your rod and reel, have this: a good, clean, new or almost new 4- or 5-weight floating line; a packet or two of 4X and 5X leaders; a spool each of 4X and 5X tippet material; floatant; non-leaky waders; and at least a dozen or so flies that include a couple size 16 or 18 parachute adams, a few small hare’s ear or pheasant tail beadhead nymphs, and at least three or four woolly bugger type streamer patterns. Everything after that is excess.