Whoop out loud! And th’ow my hat! –
June wants me, and I’m to spare!
– “Knee-Deep in June” James Whitcomb Riley
It’s not just that June affords us more daylight hours to fish than any other month or even a wider variety of things to catch.
For a resident of the Rockies, it’s also the first real assurance of warmth – at least during this season of uncommon wet and cold. Finally, maybe, we can shed all those layers of fleece and let the sun shine in.
Of all the months an angler might choose, none is more welcome than June, certainly to those who lean toward lakes. More species find the water temperature to their liking than at any other time.
Readings pushing into the upper 50s in the mountains and high 60s on the plains bring out the metabolic best in fish of nearly every stripe.
Best of all, this largess of lakes comes at precisely the time when most streams are blown out from runoff. In one of the grandest examples of fishing serendipity, one aspect comes into phase to compensate for loss of the other.
Happily, the magic that is the month of June extends both to warmwater and coldwater lakes. Get the timing right and you’ll be knee-deep in fish.
The following are some of the considerations for the days ahead:
Wally world
For reasons tied to temperature and forage, June ranks as the best time for both size and numbers of walleye.
Prominent in most eastern Colorado reservoirs, walleye and saugeye reach a feeding peak at precisely the point when the natural food supply is dwindling.
The shad hatch has yet to occur, leaving walleye and similar predators such as wiper and white bass eager for whatever an angler chooses to present.
At popular impoundments such as Chatfield and Pueblo reservoirs, savvy anglers using bottom-bouncer techniques can catch dozens of walleye in a day.
The best part is you don’t have to be an expert to do this. Find a spot that holds walleye, trail half a night crawler behind a twister tail and get ready for a bite.
Bluegill bonanza
On dozens of small lakes and ponds along the Front Range, the time for bluegill is right now. For a can’t-miss experience for young anglers or an opportunity to hone fly-fishing skills, that magic time when bluegill gather near shore on spawn beds can’t be beat.
Scout the shoreline until you spot gaggles of fish or the tell-tale spawning divots, about teacup size. Don’t be distressed if the fish are small. This is one situation in which size shouldn’t matter.
Damsels in distress
Whether the lake is hot or cold, large or small, the June emergence of damselflies sparks a feeding frenzy in fish.
Popular trout lakes such as Spinney Mountain Reservoir, Elevenmile Reservoir and the North Park group – the three Delaney Butte Lakes and Lake John – come alive to the dance of the damsels. The same holds true for warmwater ponds along Colorado’s Front Range.
These elongated insects, olive or brown, emerge from weed beds and then swim rather swiftly toward shore with an active wiggling motion. Trout line up in the shallows to intercept them. Select a nymph that imitates the natural and strip it seductively.
At times, trout key on the winged adult, providing a form of dry-fly excitement seldom matched with other insects.
Callibaetis
With few exceptions, the same coldwater environments that support damsels also produce callibaetis, that branch of the mayfly family that burrows into mud bottoms and emerges daily for two months or more.
Learn the timetable of the hatch and you’re in for the most exciting surface action of the season. Most places, the peak comes from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., typically in shallow water where vegetation approaches the surface.
But there’s more to it than that. To extend your catch time, arrive earlier and dangle a callibaetis nymph just above the carpet moss and beyond the visible weed line, about 8 feet deep. There you’ll find hungry trout lining up for the hatch.
Once the hatch begins, most trout become attuned to the surface, where they become vulnerable to a good dry-fly imitation or a suitable nymph in the film.
Both the damsel and callibaetis hatch hold an important message for anglers of every inclination. After fish have gorged on these insects, they’ll be difficult to catch for several hours.
Anglers who troll or otherwise fish with lures or bait should get to the lake early, before the trout are stuffed.
Charlie Meyers can be reached at 303-954-1609 or cmeyers@denverpost.com.
