Fly fishing in May is wonderful because of all the different hatches occurring on the brookie streams. We just received some much needed rain and the streams are in great shape. One of my favorite hatches is the Little Yellow Stonefly. Often you will see numerous drys drifting across the same pool and trout coming up to suck them in. The Murray’s Little Yellow Stonefly Dry is an excellent match for this beautiful natural. The real flies drift so delicately on the surface of the stream, it is important that we mimic this accurately if we expect to catch the large trout. In order to achieve this gentle drift, I always use a slack line cast. Listen to my podcast >>
Don’t overlook the March Brown hatch that will probably continue for another week or two. The Light Cahills and Sulphurs are occurring this month as well. A Light Cahill Dry size 16, Shenk’s Sulphur Dry size 16, and Murray’s Sulphur Dry size 16 are perfect to match these hatches.
Fly Fishing for Bass
The smallmouth bass is starting to take off. My son has been floating the Shenandoah River at least once a week for the last month. Last week was better than the week before. Why? The water temperatures are finally reaching a certain point prompting the smallmouth to feed.
There are great numbers of crayfish in the rivers and the bass are feeding on them. In 2-3 feet water over cobblestone bottoms along the river banks are choice locations for crayfish. The crayfish scurrying among these cobblestones are easy prey for the bass. Wade or float down the river 50 feet out from the bank and cast a Murray’s Crayfish straight toward the bank landing a foot from the bank. Strip it 4 inches every 5 seconds so it darts between the stones like a real crayfish. Strip it out from the bank in this way. Wade slowly down the river pausing every 5 feet to repeat this technique. The crayfish are most active at dawn, dusk and when the water is slightly discolored.
Learn to Fly Fish
Each summer we conduct Full Day Fly Fishing Schools and Half Day Fly Fishing Lessons for those wanting to learn more. The Full Day Fly Fishing Schools include a classroom and on the stream instruction for a full day of learning. The Half Day Fly Fishing Lessons are on the stream for a basic lesson of fly fishing. We supply the rod/reel outfits for the schools. See our website for the scheduled dates for Summer 2023.
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