I try to do as much fly fishing on the native brook trout streams throughout the summer as I can. By this time of summer, I rely strongly on the Murray’s Flying Beetle. If the stream level is holding up, I use size 14. When the stream drops and the trout are wary, I go to size 16 on a 6X leader.
As the trout become selective in their feeding, I use slack line casts such as a Puddle Cast or Lazy S Cast to assure a natural dead drift. On windy days when many natural insects are getting blown into the stream, I often present my beetle so it lands on the stream with a SPLAT. This is easy to achieve with a roll cast or by imparting a snap to the rod tip in the last instant with an overhead presentation. There are over 200 beetle type insects around our trout streams, which explains why the Murray’s Flying Beetle is so effective.
Fly Fishing for Bass
My favorite and most productive smallmouth fishing is taking place right now. I’m talking about fishing the aquatic grass beds. These grass beds hold great numbers of shiner minnows and the bass feed very heavily upon them. I do especially well by fishing the aquatic grass beds around the limestone islands in the middle of the river and those along the river banks. The Potomac, James, and Shenandoah River all have an abundance of aquatic grass beds that hold great populations of shiner minnows. A Silver Outcast size 4 is very effective here. Listen to the rest of the Podcast>>
We still have a few openings in our Full Day and Half Day Fly Fishing Lessons on the Shenandoah River for Summer 2022. We have also just recently posted the dates for our Spring 2023 Mountain Trout Schools.
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