Hot Spots
Fly Fishing Across America
If you are looking for the best time to go fly fishing, June is the perfect month because many rivers and lakes are experiencing the most prolific insect hatches of the year, right now. You’ll see rivers come alive in ways you hadn’t imagined, and you might just catch your biggest fish of the season. In fact, the only problem with June and fly fishing is that it happens only once a year.
The West
Take for example, the classic stonefly hatches on western rivers like Montana’s Big Hole, and Rock Creek, or the Gunnison River in Colorado. As the spring runoff subsides, trout are treated to a smorgasbord of swarming stoneflies, some more than an inch long. There isn’t much subtlety involved with this dry fly fishing—you’ll see the bugs skittering along the river, and the trout eagerly gulping them off the water’s surface. Watch for the rise, make your best cast with a big fly (like a Sofa Pillow), and hang on…
The Midwest
The Midwest angler enjoys some late spring/early summer mayfly hatches, like Sulphur Duns, especially in places like the Driftless Area in Wisconsin and Minnesota. The epic Great Lakes region hatch event, however, has to be the Hexagnia fall in western Michigan, when giant butterfly-sized mayflies cascade over the river… usually starting right before nightfall, and lasting well after dark.
Of course great fly fishing isn’t necessarily limited to trout. June is prime time for throwing small popper flies at smallmouth bass in many Minnesota lakes, and especially on the streams that comprise the headwaters of the Mississippi River.
East Coast
Moving further east to the Catskills, Adirondacks, and especially the Delaware River between Pennsylvania and New York, the warming weather trends shut the windows on some of the most notable mayfly hatches (like Quills and Hendricksons), but the trout menu now includes large mayfly drakes… slate, green, and brown. The appeal of fishing drakes is that you use large (size #10 or bigger) dry flies, but you want to concentrate your efforts on overcast or rainy days, or in the late afternoons and evenings. It also pays to watch and wait for fish to rise, then pinpoint your casts… the trout are wary in this season.
The South
In the south, fly fishing can also be productive in June, even as the weather heats up. On legendary rivers like the White River in Arkansas, watch for Sulphur hatches. It’s also a great idea to get out early in the day and try to turn one of the river’s legendary big brown trout on a streamer fly, like a white Zonker. On the many trout brooks in Smoky Mountains, yellow and cream colored flies are June staples. Among the best is a size #16 yellow Sally, especially in currents where the water is moving briskly.
Wherever you are, be willing to mix and match your flies. Think sub surface when days are brightest and hottest, and dry flies in the evenings. Do that, and you’ll find June to be among the most rewarding and informative months on the angling calendar.
Check out TakeMeFishing.org’s Hot Spots map to find a great spot for your next fly fishing trip.
