With Monday’s closing of this year’s spring turkey hunting season, many sportsmen and women’s lives can return to a semblance of normalcy or at least about as close as any avid outdoors person’s life can be described as normal when viewed by others of the primary coach potato sect.
After a month of beating the sunrise to their favorite turkey hunting locations, the luxury of sleeping in on non-working days must feel pretty darn good. At least with fishing, camping, hiking or canoeing/kayaking or whatever, the participant can pretty much choose what time they begin their days afield or on the water, and this month is normally a fine month weather-wise to enjoy being outdoors.
While some anglers may view May as THE fishing month, June is often even better for many species of game and pan fish species. Plus, bass season will open on June 19 (although they could be caught and released prior to that) and with the abundance of smallmouth bass in our area rivers, and largemouth bass in many of our lakes and ponds, anglers shouldn’t have difficulty catching them. Another benefit will be that walleye, pike and assorted panfish are often caught incidental to fishing for our river smallmouths.
Insect hatches have been accelerated by our recent warm weather, which means fly fishermen have and will continue to benefit on their favorite trout waters. While fishing the St. Lawrence River last Thursday, the hatch of caddis flies emerging was so dense, it looked almost like it was “snowing upwards.” Small bass and panfish near shorelines were glutting themselves on the spinners that fell to the surface, the dimples made it look as though it was raining there. This increased feeding activity also carried over to the larger pike and walleye, which started striking our lures in abundance.
Speaking of insects … while most of the blackflies have expired, mosquitoes have taken their place and even with the recent dry conditions, they’ll no doubt be lurking anywhere near a water source. So if you’re fishing a stream or river, make sure you apply repellent. This is especially true along our rivers, where those dense Ostrich ferns grow to head-high levels.
From a personal standpoint I’ve always enjoyed fishing streams and rivers because of the constantly changing scenery and opportunities to catch fish. Although the pool I just fished may not produce, hope springs anew when I drop a line in the next one. This is true whether I’m wading or fishing from a canoe or small car-top craft. Regardless of how lousy the fishing might be, success may be awaiting just around the next bend. Both the Chenango and Unadilla rivers as well as the Otselic are great examples of this.
Generally speaking, lake and pond fishing is best done from a boat or other watercraft, but it’s rather ironic that the fish are normally caught while casting toward shore. So that should indicate anglers casting or otherwise fishing from shore also have a good chance of seeing their rods bend under the strain of a hooked fish.
While both our local rivers host a good population of rock bass, I’d have to give the nod to the Unadilla for the best “red-eye” fishing. Although petite in size, rarely exceeding 10 inches long, rock bass are fun to catch and put up a strong if somewhat short fight when hooked. They are also quite tasty filleted, coated with seasoned cornflake crumbs and fried. Being prolific, you also don’t have to feel guilty about catching some to eat … there’ll be more again next year. For real fun, try fly fishing streamers or fishing ultralight spinning gear for them. Usually wherever there are rocky bottoms there’ll be rock bass holding there.
Conversely, if you plan to take a youngster out fishing on a lake or pond in a boat, take a long a good supply of worms and let them fish for sunfish. Very abundant, either bluegills or pumpkinseed sunfish can provide non-stop action for kids, and given most kids’ attention span, that’s a plus. They might even be surprised when a perch, bass or bullhead ends up on their hook. It’s a great introduction to the fun of fishing for any kid old enough to hold a fishing rod. And have them wear a PDF vest, sunscreen and a hat.
On many trout streams in June, you’ll be hard-pressed to find another angler, despite the fact the trout are still active, especially early and late in the day. Brook trout are the easiest to catch and will strike small spinners or spoons. The low clear water mandates stealth and keeping a low profile, but if the trout aren’t spooked, they’ll usually whack a shiny lure.
Larger streams such as the Otselic and Genegantslet hold brown trout … and some rather large ones. While brook trout will hit about all day long, browns tend to shun the high sun and feed primarily at dusk, nighttime or dawn. Mepps and Panther Martin spinners, Phoebe spoons and, for fly fishing, streamers fished in the larger pools are your best bet. Look for the best results in those pools that offer cover, such as tree root systems, submerged logs and rocky shelves as browns are primarily ambush predator fish that like cover to hide under or behind.
Last but not least there are the northern pike and pickerel, the former in the Chenango and the latter in many of our local lakes and ponds. These toothy fighters will strike about anything that resembles food, so just about anything that shines or looks like a small fish will attract their attention.
Maybe bass are considered the “Holy Grail” by some come June, there’s a whole lot more for fishermen to do than try for old “bucketmouth.”