Here is a smallmouth bass technique I use often at this time of the year when the rivers are high but reasonable clear. I call it “sweeping a streamer”. It works like this: You are wading in water knee deep. The river drops off quickly right beside you into a beautiful pool which becomes six feet deep only five feet from where you are standing. You feel sure you could catch some large bass here, but how can you swim your streamers along the stream bottom in this deep water? Your first cast is made 20 feet long up and across stream at a 45 degree angle and your streamer is allowed to sink on a slack line. After it is down deep the slack is removed with the line hand as the rod is swung downstream ahead of the streamer at the same speed the streamer is drifting. This assures you that you have a tight line on the fly which enables you to feel the strike as your streamer sweeps along the stream bottom. Successive casts are made at this same angle about a foot longer and fished in the same manner until you have covered all of the water 30 feet out then you wade downstream, stopping every ten feet to repeat this tactic. Good flies for this tactic are my Strymphs, Marauders, and Magnum Streamers.

There are now good hatches of aquatic insects on our mountain trout streams and the trout are coming up well to feed on the floating naturals. These trout will take your dry flies readily if you present them in the same line of drift as the naturals. However, this can be a little tricky. The streams are carrying higher water levels than the trout usually encounter at this time of the year, so many of them select feeding stations in the back eddies on the sides of the main flows. The currents here are actually flowing upstream along the banks, forming a large lazy Susan that may range from three feet wide to ten feet feet wide. In order to catch these trout you must have your fly drifting drag-free just like the naturals. Watch the drift of the bubbles and foam to evaluate the currents. I often rely on a slack line cast to help me present my fly naturally in these back eddies.

It is important to know the specific mayflies that will be hatching as the season progresses so you know which fly with which to fish. An easy way to predict this as I see in 30 years of my stream notes is to watch the wildflies in the mountains.
*When the blood root is out full the Quill Gordons are hatching well so use a Mr. Rapidan Dry 14.
*When the Trillium are beginning to break through the little blue quills are on in good numbers so use a Blue Quill Dry 16 or 18.
*When the Trillium are out full all around the streams the march brown are hatching well so use a Mr. Rapidan Dry 14.

The North Fork of the Shenandoah is starting to drop back to fishable levels, but they are still carrying a great amount of water. I’m really getting cabin-fever so here are two ploys I use to help me beat the high water levels.
1. I head upstream to get above as many feeder streams as possible. For example, from where my fly shop is in Edinburg by driving upstream 10 mile I can fish the North Fork of the Shenandoah River in a manageable water level because I have gotten upstream above 3 of the main feeder streams.
2. The second tactic I use is to go to sectons of the river where I know there are islands which split the flow of the stream. Frequently I’ll get great fishing on the small side of the island when the large side still has too much water.