Forget the trout opener: June is when Canadian fly fishing truly comes alive

BASS BONANZA

Later in June, bass fishing is open and heating up. Smallmouth are recovering from the spawn and feeding aggressively along rocky shorelines and current breaks, while largemouth prowl weed edges and lily pads in warmer backwaters. Both will crush surface flies, and a bass on a popper is as fun as fly fishing gets. Subsurface tactics are also straightforward: strip a Clouser, dead-drift that same Woolly Bugger or work weedless divers through the slop. This is the essence of summer fly fishing—scrappy fish, hard strikes and simple tactics that work.

June gives you options, with multiple species in multiple types of water, all fishing well. Even better, this variety is available across much of Canada, and often just down the road. June also solves every complaint anglers have about April. Crowds? Gone. Cold? Over. Uncooperative fish? Try a different species. Limited opportunities? June is loaded.

Still, we’ve convinced ourselves that fly fishing in April matters because of the trout opener, because it’s tradition and because it’s what everyone else is doing. Meanwhile, the best fly fishing of the year happens in near solitude because nobody bothered to show up.

BONUS TIP: TACKLING JUNE

You don’t need specialized gear or a grocery sack of flies to fish June’s bounty. A 6-weight outfit handles trout, bass and walleye comfortably, and add an 8-weight if you’re planning for pike or largemough in the weeds. A floating line covers 80 per cent of the water, while a sink-tip or full-sink line opens up deeper pike and walleye spots.

If I could only use one (large) fly box in June, I’d stock soft-hackle wet flies, Woolly Buggers, two- to three-inch Clouser Minnows (pictured) and even longer articulated Seaducers for subsurface fishing. For floaters, you can do a lot with size 12 and 14 Parachute Adams and CDC & Elk patterns, plus deer-hair divers and two- to four-inch foam poppers.