Jun 01 2024 8 mins 6
This June looks to be a great opportunity for fly fishing on the native brook trout streams and the smallmouth rivers. The steady rains have provided perfect water levels in the Shenandoah National Park for the trout. Hopefully that will last all of this month.
Let’s start this blog with the smallmouth bass rivers. The rivers are warm enough that the smallmouth are starting to feed on hard head surface bugs. Success here depends on selecting the bug which will produce the action you need in each area. The action you can get from each bug depends on the shape of the body and the cut of the bugs face.
The Shenandoah Chugger has a large fat body and a deeply cupped face. It can be made to create a loud chugging action. This will often pull bass up from very deep water and undercut banks. The Slider has a long slim body with a fine pointed nose. This type body design makes it easy to produce a gentle teasing bug action. Fish this in 2-3 feet deep water over cobblestone bottoms around shaded river banks. The Shenandoah Blue Popper has a straight body with an up-sloping face. It is very effective in the tails of the pools and around aquatic grass beds. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST>>>
Fly Fishing for Native Brook Trout
There are many little yellow stoneflies and sulphur mayflies hatching. These in conjunction with the terrestrials are providing a great source of food for the trout. The trout are more wary than they were in April so use a stealthy approach to each pool. I have tapered down to 6X leaders and use a slack line presentation so our flies will drift to the trout just like the naturals. I like to use puddle cast or a lazy-S cast to assure a good drift. LISTEN TO THE PODCAST>>>
