Fly Fishing in June

Fly fishing in Virginia

The month of June can provide some excellent fly fishing on both the smallmouth and native brook trout streams. Let’s discuss the smallmouth bass fishing first.

Last year I did a video on matching minnows that the smallmouth feed upon. The shiner minnow is one of the natural foods discussed. There are many shiner minnows on the shallow gravel bars along river banks in water from one to three feet deep. The bass will not hold in water this shallow but feed here by charging up on the gravel bars to grab minnows before returning to the deep water close by. A successful technique here is to cast a Silver Outcast Streamer or Shenk’s White Streamer size 4 out in front of the bass when you see him cruising through the school of minnows. Listen to my entire podcast >>

WATCH MY VIDEO ON MINNOW MATCHING

We are already getting some topwater action on poppers this year. The Shenandoah Blue Popper and Chugger patterns are working well for us. Fish these along the shady banks in water 3 to 5 feet deep.

Fly Fishing on the Native Brook Streams

There are many Sulphur mayflies hatching along the trout streams. The duns start emerging in mid day and continue until dark. The spinners start returning to the stream to mate and deposit their eggs the last 2 hours of daylight and continue until dark. Recommended flies: Murray’s Sulphur Dry and Shenk’s Sulphur in size 16, 18 On many streams this is the heaviest hatch. Keep in mind that the last two hours of the day, you have both duns and spinners on the water. There will be many rising trout. The Little Yellow Stoneflies are heavy this month on the trout streams as well. Listen to my podcast for more info >>