Trout fishing in April and trout fishing in June are two different things. It is unfortunate that so many beginners at trout fishing start in with the opening of the season and, discouraged by the cold and windy fishing conditions, fail to stick at it long enough to enjoy trout fishing when spring is in full bloom. April trout fishing often means ice forming in the guides and snow flurries whistling over the hill. April fishing is for hardy souls who are too eager to wait for the pleasant days to come later.
June fishing for trout may not be as easy for the beginner using bait as it is on opening day when the freshly stocked streams are thrown open to fishing but it is more truly representative of trout fishing as a sport. In the early season trout are often concentrated in the deep pools and eddies while the shallow runs and pocket waters are empty of fish.
In June the fish have spread out all through the stream, wherever their food is to be found. The fly fisherman under these conditions will find easier going than in April but the bait fisherman will find his quarry much more difficult to fool. June is a better time for the beginner at fly casting to make his start.
In June the rivers normally run clear and at a moderate level midway between the high water of the opening and the low, slow flow of August. The trout have had weeks of good feeding and are full-bodied and strong. Their activity, supported by their added strength, is at its peak. Their wariness, after a month or so of being fished for (new stockings excepted), has increased, too. But their feeding habits, rather than being limited (to sunken or bottom food at opening day or to an exact match of the fly hatches in May) are very wide in scope and cover everything from the smallest of flies and nymphs to grasshoppers, June bugs and bumble bees.
June days are long and there are extra hours of daylight fishing added to each week end trip, The angler’s shirt is open at the neck, and his sweaters and woolly underwear are carried only as spares for an exceptionally cold and windy day. The water is clear except for the roil resulting from an unusual rainfall. Rivers are easier to wade and to fish. The foliage is lush and green. These are the days to remember.
The bait fisherman will find that trout are generally on the move. In April they may be lethargically concentrated in the deep and quiet water and by August they may have settled again into similar concentrations where cool springs attract them or where the few remaining deep pools satisfy their need for safety. The June fisherman can rarely fill his creel by sitting on the bank with a can of worms and fishing a single eddy. He will still take some trout but rarely will he take them in limit lots.
Worms are exceptionally effective in June right after a thundershower or heavy rain has raised and slightly roiled the rivers. Trout feed avidly on a sudden rise of water at this season and the fisherman who can be on the spot with a can of nightwalkers when the streams start going up should do considerable business. Best results are usually to be had by using a light sinker or none at all and letting the nightwalker drift with the current. A single number 8 or No. 10 hook holding the nightwalker near the band is inconspicuous to the trout and gives the worm a chance to show life and action. A big trout will take such a free-drifting nightwalker in a single gulp. Even a middle size trout is likely to take the major part of the worm into his mouth well enough to be hooked. Only a small nibbler will grab one end and yank at a time when great quantities of food from the flooded fields are being washed into the streams. The small hook on a fairly light leader will both fool and hold a big trout.
For success in June, under normal conditions, the bait fisherman should endeavor to cover more water than in his early fishing and to use other baits besides worms. Sinkers should be lighter or should be entirely eliminated. The trout are active and alert and they’ll take a moving bait with a rush instead of working up to it gradually and slowly sucking it in. By casting to a point up-stream from a good trout location the bait can be allowed to drift down to the fish naturally as the current carries it and more strikes will be secured. Many top worm fishermen use a long fly rod or a spinning rod and wade upstream just as the dry fly angler does, fishing the likely water from behind the trout in their area of blindness. This is more work than sitting on the bank and letting the bait lie motionless on the bottom of the pool but it is also more productive.
Small minnows are deadly in June. Minnows are more or less an annual crop and the minnows spawned the previous fall should be about two or two and a half inches long by June. This is an attractive size for a trout and is just about as small as an angler can handle in fishing without an extreme amount of care and ultra fine tackle. Grasshoppers and crickets are plentiful in the fields and are welcomed by the trout. Stone fly and other nymphs are full grown and often big enough to use as bait. Most of these other baits look more natural to a trout than does a worm, which, although common in high water, is not often found in the streams in the clear water of late spring.
The fly fisherman finds June trout actively feeding at all depths. When flies are hatching, the trout will be seen rising to them but when there are no hatches of flies the fish will still have one eye cocked toward the surface for some bumbling land insect that may stray out over the water but lack flying power to carry him safely back to shore. Eyen when there are no signs of rising fish the dry fly man may fish the water with a certainty that his fly will not go unnoticed. While the hatches are in progress the fisherman’s best bet is to match them as closely as possible and to use as fine a leader as he thinks he can handle the fish on. When there are no signs of rising fish, a fairly large fly of heavy body is best to use in an effort to simulate a mayfly or the occasional stray land insect. A larger fly will be more easily seen by the fish than one of standard size.
The skater or fluffy spider (eight to ten turns of large hackle on a 16 hook) which is skidded across the surface of the water in a series of sharp twitches is an exceptionally effective dry fly in June. Its startling action is readily noticed by the trout and these flies will draw rises when nothing else seems tempting. This is a tantalizing lure and I like to concentrate its use on the most likely spots, making a dozen or more casts wherever I’m sure fish are lying, rather than covering the water in a more uniform manner.
The dry fly hatches of June are more likely to come in the morning or in the late evening while those of May tend to take place in the warmth of midday. Once the fisherman learns to know his stream he can plan his day in order to be at certain preferred stretches when the fly hatches are due and to fish the intervening water during the remainder of the day. The angler accomplished in all phases of trout fishing may, on a June day, fish dry fly for a few hours in the morning then change over to wet flies, streamers, nymphs or bait until he returns to the dry fly again for the evening rise.
The wet fly fisherman needs finer leaders and often must use smaller flies than for early fishing. The current has slowed down, wet flies travel through the water at lower speeds and the fish have a better chance to look them over before making up their minds whether to strike or let the darn thing go on out of range. Because the fish has a better opportunity to study the fly it must be chosen with greater care and must more accurately represent the living underwater food for which he searches. Nymphs, which are better aquatic insect imitations than ordinary wet flies, are better fish getters, too. The slower a fly travels the finer the leader should be. If weight is needed to sink the wet fly or nymph to a desired depth it should be added in the form of very small twists of lead at the leader knots or a single small weight at a fair distance up the leader from the nymph.
Streamer flies, which are minnow imitations, are effective at this time. It is difficult to advise a particular time of day to fish streamers except to say that they are worth using during the periods when there is no surface activity on the part of the trout. Being a large fly they’re more easily seen in rough and boiling water. They’ll often take trout which are actively engaged in feeding on a hatch and they’ll draw strikes in the flat calm of clear, still water at bright noon. Streamers tend to take fewer fish than the smaller wet flies or nymphs but the fish they take run much larger.
The spinning angler should use his finest line and work his small lures slowly across the deep pools. He should also work small metal or combination metal or plastic and feather lures in the tumbling pocket water and shallow riffles. This is a time when the spinning angler can cover the river. The fish are no longer concentrated in the pools and runs and he will often take more and bigger fish from the riffles and pockets than he can bag by fishing only the deep water. I like the twisting, darting all-metal lures as well as any for June spinning.
Bait casting with light lines and long rods will be just about as effective as spinning on the trout streams. The lures are about the same size and the line need be little, if any, heavier. More and more baitcasters are showing up on the trout waters and they’re making good catches. A plug about halfway between the fly rod size and standard bass size is a deadly lure for trout. Old timers who have always felt no self-respecting trout would take anything bigger than a No. 10 Royal Coachman are being surprised by the size and number of trout succumbing to plugs on the streams where bait casting rods used to be unheard of. Bait casting works well at night. It is the most easily controlled method of casting in the dark and after sundown the trout seem more willing to strike a large lure. It’s not a matter of just fishing through the dusk into the darkness but rather of making a separate trip to the stream around midnight for a few hours fishing where the streams are open enough for safe casting.
Night fishing with flies is effective, too, and will bring in superb catches when conditions are right. After-dark fishing is just getting good about June. Large flies like 2s, 4s and 6s are better than the conventional 10s and 12s. Both light and dark patterns work well and a good policy is to use two contrasting wet flies with a white or lightcolored fly at the tail. Night fishing calls for greater caution in casting and only a man who knows his stream thoroughly and is either very brave or very foolish should do much wading.
Night fishing with dry flies is more difficult. Few fish will be hooked on the floating fly unless it is dragging or unless the trout makes a good, noisy rise. To be successful, night fishing with a dry fly calls for considerable advance daytime thinking and planning. An almost exact knowledge of big fish feeding stations is essential to success. Where the big ones are known to feed regularly in certain pools at night. and where fly hatches tend to come out after darkness rather than during daylight hours, night fishing with the dry fly is the answer.
The foregoing has been written about stream fishing. Trout are present in the lakes and ponds…and June is equally good in the still waters as in those which flow. The land bugs that drop to the water from the fringe of overhanging leafy limbs around a pond draw the trout to the shorelines for mornings and evenings. Dawn and dusk are the hours when the cruising fish tend to move into the flow of either inlet or outlet. All methods of casting will work on a pond. Fishing toward the shore from a boat or canoe is the best bet for the caster, whatever his method.
If the pond is open and generally weed-free, spinning is the best method. If there are snags and weeds to contend with, the bait caster’s slightly heavier line has the advantage over the spincaster and when the trout are feeding on small food which can only be imitated and cast by a fly rod that method is the one to use. When fishing from a boat or canoe the fisherman can carry two types of casting outfits with him and use the one most suited to the occasion. In general, the lake fish respond better to a larger lure than do the trout of the streams. Lakes and ponds are often windy, a further advantage for the bait casters and spinning anglers in comparison with the fly rod man.
Where trout streams empty into lakes or ponds the largest trout may move down into the still water. Even though such lakes or ponds may be noted for bass, perch or other fish there may be enough trout roaming the waters near the inlet to make it worth while to spend a few evenings there each season using lures attractive to big trout.
Don’t overlook June on the trout streams. The opening day crowds have dwindled to the few seasoned regulars, the fishing is never better and the surroundings are never more beautiful.
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