June is a wonderful month for fly fishing in the native brook trout streams and the smallmouth bass rivers. The Sulphur mayfly hatch that we currently have, produces some of the best trout fishing of the year. This is a very heavy hatch on many of the streams. One evening on a remote stream in the Blue Ridge Mountains, my son and I watched eleven wild brook trout feeding on the sulphurs on the surface in one pool. In fact as we climbed the mountain, every pool had feeding trout.
The duns start coming off about noon and continue to dark. The spinners start coming back about 2 hours before dark and continue until dark. This means for the last two hours of the day we have a concentration of duns and spinners and many feeding trout. The Murray’s Sulphur and Shenk’s Sulphur in size 16 & 18 are very productive. Listen to my podcast for more info.
For more information on the Shenandoah National Park native brook trout streams:
Smallmouth Bass
The smallmouth bass feed heavily on the shiner minnows at this time of the year. This is a schooling minnow and large numbers of them live on the shallow gravel bars in water 1-2 feet deep.
The bass feed on these shiners using a hit and run tactic: that is, they swim onto the gravel bars and grab a few minnows then return to the safety of the deep water close by. If I’m within casting distance of this chase, I cast a Silver Outcast out in front of the bass’es anticipated patch and strip it across in front of him. If I do not see a chase, I fish the drop off where the gravel bar tapers off the the 4-5ft deep water in the main part of the river. Fish a Murray’s Heavy Shiner size 6 in these areas. Listen to my podcast for more info.
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