The weather has not yet decided if it is spring yet…
At home, a fire is still burning in the woodstove. Wind, rain and sun are constantly taking turns, and the nights are chilly still. In one moment you get a sunburn and in the next a cold. The same applies for the fishing, some days everything seems to work, no matter if its dry flies or nymphs or streamers…. and then again nothing, as if someone had flipped the switch.
Small mayflies and caddis flies are already producing an almost reliable hatch in the late afternoon/early evening, and instant happiness is garanteed when you happen to be at the river. Small patterns #16 or #18 are accepted on the first drift usually. And with a little luck, one or the other good fish can be caught already! 
Depending on the weather, the hatch can fail completely though, and there will be no surface activity at all. Flexibility is the key to success at the moment, and you should be ready to switch between various forms of presentations (dry, nymph, streamer, high, deep, slow, fast…).
A 4x tippet reduces the effort of switching between all the different patterns and presentation, as it can be used for almost anything on a 5wt rod. And as the water is not yet as clear as during the summer months, the fish are not yet a sceptical towards the thickness of the tippet.
I hope you have been lucky to catch something yet? Depending on climate and region, the insect activity is somewhat different in its annual cycle, even between years, there are differences. For example the hawthornfly, a.k.a. bibio, has not shown up yet, it is late by at least 10 days… but sooner or later it begins, and the best time of the year is just one step away… looking forward to it!
