Early season I like to throw in some nymphing usually. If the water is cold they don't like to chase streamers IME. So for nymphing 5wt 10' Orvis Clearwater with floating line and around 10ft tapered leader. Any medium sized nymph will work. I use sawyer`s (p. tail) and golden stone in size 12.
For fishing fry patterns when the water warms up a bit I like to start small and work my way up as the fry get bigger. Start at size 12 and then fish a size 6-8 by May. Mostly use teal or mallard back patterns with frostbite body and spun deer hair head in olive, yellow, and gun metal grey. Another thing I`ve seen is that you don`t need the longer rods for fishing fry patterns. 8-9 foot is fine. I like using my medium action 5 wt 8' St. Croix Imperial with a floating line and just 9' piece of 6lb fluoro.. Not a lot of people use the shorter rods but for river fishing (exvept on small creeks) nut you really don't need the faster longer rods for streamers and they're easier on the arm.