June 2014 -- What's going on

Well it's June.  Summer mode is setting in but there's still some excellent late spring action to take advantage of.  I often call this the Grande Finale.  Let's see, options right now;

1.  Schoolie stripers in downtown DC.  This is the time of year you can rack up some serious numbers.  Either fish the blue plains poop discharge for crazy numbers of fish, troll the Washington Channel or cast jigs in the fast water above Chain Bridge.  When the water levels get below 3.5 feet at little falls... LOOK OUT!  Some serious action awaits for the agile rock hopper.  Find the fastest water you can find and throw your favorite top water, jig, crank bait or fly and hold on.  You'll be shocked at the size of the striped bass that take refuge in the well oxygenated white water.

2. It's berry time!  Mulberries that is and they are dropping fast and furious.  The fish know now is the time to take advantage. What kind of fish you ask?  Well, 5 to 20 pound carp on dry flies.  Check out the roof of this barge on the C&O Canal!  There are quite a few berries there and at any given time a dozen or more giant princes of mud feeding on the bounty.  This spot is next to impossible to present a fly to a fish and even harder to land one but similar situations present themselves all over the canal and river. 

 

 

Ryan fought a fish I hooked the other day on a 6 wt fly rod rigged with a brown deer hair spun mulberry fly tied by John Hancock.  This is a small to average size fish.  The younger smaller fish are a lot less educated than their larger, smarter brothers. 

 



Then there's trout.  There is a small little hidden gem of a stream near me that produces natural trout.  it's a tailwater stream in suburban Maryland that only gets stocked with fingerling (2-3") trout every year or every other year.  But these fish survive well through the summer and grow incredibly fast.  Here are a few fish I managed in a single outing with just over an hour's effort.  Nymphing the fast runs works but swinging a bead head woolly bugger through the deeper pools almost always is the fool proof way to see who's home.  I cast the fly near perpendicular to the current but swing it through the prime lie at a 45 degree angle.  The hits almost always come at the end of the drift, even after I worked the pool over with nymphs moments before without so much as a take. 

Check out how fat these fish are!  and look how perfect their fins are!  I've fished this stream a half dozen times this year, winter through spring and not once have I see another angler. 

That's a size 14 boot.  Strong, well fed fish that are about as near natural trout as you can get around here.

 

 

 



There's more.  Pond fishing... is about at its peak for post spawn hungry largemout.  The Green Drakes on Penns, Little J, Fishing Creek in Pa are about at their peak.  Musky... yes, musky.  I'm off to go find out what they are doing.  Till next time.