Spring steelhead on the swing don’t abandon eggs — they reinterpret them. The most useful mental model for late April and May fly selection isn’t “what’s different from winter” but rather a temperature-gated sequence in which the same prey cues persist while their size, color, and delivery shift in step with water clarity and the direction the thermometer is moving. When Great Lakes water holds between 40 and 60°F and clarity is improving, swung flies that combine real profile with efficient movement — sparser Intruder descendants, forage-accurate sculpin and goby imitations, muted natural-tone eggs — outperform both winter bulk and tiny midge-era compromises.

That’s the short version. The longer version is that spring is not a single condition. It is at least three overlapping ones, and the fly that solves each condition’s challenges is different.