The mountain trout streams are low and the large trout are very wary. Many of these trout move into the heads of the pools where they feed along the sides of the incoming riffles on the natural insects which wash down the stream to them. Drag is seldom a problem here if you approach the pool from straight below this riffle. Stay below the pool and shoot long casts to the very edge of each side of the incoming riffle in the head of the pool. The straight currents here will give you natural drifts with your flies and it is not unusual to catch several trout on each side of the riffle.
Flies which work well for me at this time of the year include Murray’s Inchworm 14, Murray’s Housefly 16, Shenk’s Cricket 16 and the Mr. Rapidan Ant 16 & 18.

When fishing streamers across stream it is best to do this by pausing and standing still to impart the stripping action to the fly. This enables you to impart the exact action you desire to the fly. You can also quickly feel the strike and easily hook the fish.

Aquatic grassbeds are some of my most dependable areas for catching large smallmouth bass. For example when I was writing the book Virginia Blue Ribbon Streams my son Jeff and I fished the best smallmouth bass rivers and trout streams in Virginia in order to come up with dependable information on these streams. Every smallmouth river gave us our best fishing along the aquatic grassbeds.
Some aquatic grassbeds form along the sides of the rivers while others encircle the limestone ledges in the middle of the river. I use the same tactics to fish all of these. That is, if the water immediately adjacent to these grassbeds is less than three feet deep I cast a Shenandoah Damsel Popper 6 right against the grass and fish it out 10 feet with a six inch stripping action every 10 seconds. I place each successive cast five feet further along the grassbed until I cover all of it. If the water next to the grassbed is more than three feet deep I use the Murray’s Magnum Bluegill with the same tactic. Grassbeds are too valuable to pass up.

Trout can become very selective when feeding in the middle of a heavy hatch of aquatic insects. However, as the hatch tapers off later in the day there can be some trout out on feeding stations that seem to want to eat just a few more insects. Frequently these fish are not super-selective. This is where I go to the fly I call my “hatch closer”. I’m referring to the Murray’s Flying Beetle 14.
The way I fish this is to wait until I spot a trout rise then I present my Flying Beetle with a extra snap on the presentation cast so it lands on the stream in a small splash, just like a natural beetle falling onto the stream. I want my trout to quickly be aware of my beetle so I cast in oly two feet upstream of him.