DanStag

Thanks Steve Baker for the article and the good tips included.
Asi it turned out I went to Montauk before the article was posted and “accidentally” tried some of the things in the article.
The date was March 17th and it had lightly rained a day or two previously. While the water was NOT muddy it was murky enough that you couldn’t see the bottom or even down more than 1 foot.
After catching one and breaking off my last nymph, I tied on an on white crackleback with the cinnamon colored hackle, maybe sized 16, fished as a dry.
Even though the water was a bit fast (and choppy) for most of the stream, I was able to find some slower water on the edges and seams (as the article suggests) and had some decent luck.
Surprisingly the trout we’re taking off the top even in the murky (but not muddy) water with overcast sky.
The results were that over about 4-5 hours, I ended up catching 5 or 6 (some small), and had at least that many strikes.

This all seemed odd to me since mid March doesn’t seem like a good time for a hatch of any kind, especially on an overcast cloudy day. But then again the water temp is pretty much constant most of the year so time of year may not mean much in spring fed water.

Before I left I had checked the Missouri hatch guide and it said Blue Wing Olive or Quill Gordon. Even though I had some, I never got to them since the cracklebacks worked. I did see 2 bug hatches along the stream. One that looked like Caddis and another that looked like the Blue Wing Olive.
Every one I talked to seemed to be using white or olive woolly buggers and having good luck (or so they said). But who believes a trout fisherman anyway?