June feels like a month when we can finally breathe a bit. The transitional season is over…its summertime! And with summer time comes a whole bunch of options in both fresh and saltwater. Excluding the fall migratory pelagics like false albacore, June and July offer the largest variety of species to chase in our local salt waters. Your species options include striped bass, bluefish, tautog, porgy, fluke, black seabass, bluefin tuna, and even last year in certain parts of New England, Atlantic bonito showed up! There’s really not much you can’t do in the salt. In the fresh and brackish waters, you’ve of course got every species: large and smallmouth bass, pike, pickerel, trout, crappie, white perch, bowfin, carp, catfish, and yellow perch. And there are probably one or two that I’m still forgetting. June is just a lot of fun. Let’s talk about how to approach fishing this fantastic month.
Freshwater
You’re going to have some warm water in June. Bass will be post-spawn and easing into, if not already in, their summer patterns. This means that early mornings and later evenings, and even night time, will become your most productive days. If not those times of day, then days when it’s overcast and cooler with perhaps some rain can also be highly productive for bass. Vegetation will also be grown in pretty well, which means weedless presentations will be clutch.
My favorite way to fish in the summer is topwater. That’s probably true for many freshwater anglers, as it’s visual and explosive and just plain fun. Hollow body frogs in heavy veggies as well as topwater spooks and poppers in open water are great choices for topwater approaches. They also have the added benefit of covering a lot of water pretty quickly, so if you’re not sure where the fish are, you can hopefully quickly ascertain that with some long casts and then responding to whatever action you get.
I’m also a big fan of soft plastics in the summer. Especially if it’s warm, sometimes the lazy, slow presentation of a Senko or lizard profile can make bass think they’ve got a quick and easy meal. You can Carolina rig these or just fish them weightless Texas Rigged on a worm hook. I’m always more of a fan of weightless and weedless presentations for these baits.
If you do want to dig into some heavier cover, a jig is a great summer time option. Green Pumpkin, Black and Blue, and PB&J are my go-to colors. Many anglers, myself among them, also like to put some sort of creature bait trailer on the back of the jig to enhance the profile. Usually for me, lay-downs, docks, and other solid structure are premier spots to toss a jig and hop it across the bottom. Setting the heck out of the hook when you get a bite is a blast!
If you’re going at night or targeting larger bass, big glide baits (which are now catching on heavily in the saltwater) are also excellent choices. Go dark with your colors at night. Purples and blacks are usually the best choice.
Saltwater
Pick your poison in June my friends. That’s the name of the game. For me, June is big striped bass month. You’ll hopefully have access to live bunker to fish live on a large circle hook, which is one of the most exciting ways to fish inshore in New England waters. If you’re using live bunker, free-swimming them is a blast, but if you’re fishing deeper or in strong current you may want to add a sinker-slide and a couple ounces of weight to get your bunker in to the strike zone. A 10/0 circle hook is my preferred size for live bunker, but opinions vary. If you have never tried this style of fishing, give it a shot…you won’t look back.
Other than live bunker, June is a great month to throw live eels or big topwater baits, both of which are tried and true big fish producers. I like a 6/0 or 7/0 circle hook for eels personally, along with about 3-4’ of 50lb fluorocarbon leader. Let the eel do the work – you’re only job is to keep them out of the rocks since they’ll naturally swim downwards. When you feel a thump, don’t set the hook. You’ll potentially pull the circle hook right out of the fish’s mouth. Lock your rod arm and reel until your rod tip bends down and you feel the fish fight back. Then lift your rod tip to help sink the hook and enjoy the fight!
For big topwater baits, there are so many that work well. My personally favorite is the 2467 Lures Mully, a 2-ounce wooden spook-style bait that casts a mile and has a ton of variability in how you can work it. They’re also made in Connecticut! Of course, the tried and true Drifter Tackle Doc in 9-inch bone color work really well too. For a Doc, you’ll want to update the terminal tackle. Go with either an Owner ST-66 3/0 treble or a BKK Viper 41 3/0 treble. If you want to use inline single hooks, which many anglers do, VMC makes a great one. I’d also recommend upgrading your split rings to either an Owner, BKK, or Tsunami SaltX split ring. Anything other than the stock hardware will be better and your risk of losing a world class bass will decrease quite a bit with nicer terminal on the Doc. This is also true for any other plug that comes with perhaps less-than-ideal hardware.
Bluefish will also likely be in the mix with striped bass in June, especially near river systems. Go ahead and target them with anything that will make them mad, which is most things. A strong pair of lip grips and some pliers are always needed to unhook bluefish, as they’re known to writhe and roll and generally behave like maniacs when hooked. But man, they can be fun too.
Your ground fishing options in June are pretty variable as well. Porgies (or scup in northern New England) should be well-arrived by then, and can be caught on any small metal along with bait like clams, squid, or sandworms. Black Seabass also typically bite well in June depending on where you’re at. I love to slow pitch for seabass with metal jigs, but they can be caught with a variety of other tactics as well. If you want to try slow pitching, I love the Daiwa SK Jigs. Weight will depend on the depth you’re fishing, but the most common are between 3oz. and 6oz.
Fluke are worth chasing in June, and can be in depths from 20’ to over 100’. Large spinner or spoon rigs are common for hardcore fluke anglers, but if you’re looking to just get out there and see what bites, a hi-low bucktail rig works great. There are a variety of these available at most of your local bait shops, so search around and see what your trusted local shop says.
We could probably cover another 5 pages worth of information on June fishing, but consider this a broadly painted picture of your options. It’s a fun month! School is getting out, fish are here and fired up, and there’s that feeling still that summer is just getting started. Enjoy it! It goes fast.