Finding a pattern

Hi Folks, I have been spending a lot of time on the water with guests. With the hot weather, my focus has been on smallmouth and small steam trout fishing. Water levels are still low in our rivers and rain would be welcomed.  It has been an above average warm summer. With that, water temperatures are above average for this time of the year. I love summer smallmouth bass fishing. Rivers in particular, but I’m not adverse to running my boat for still water bass. The last couple of days the lake fishing for smallmouth has been very good. The cloud cover really helped and the wind laid down a bit. Last weekend was hot, windy, and sunny. The  bass fishing was a lot more tricky. Surface temps. on the 2 lakes I have been working were 75 to 78 degrees. We located fish in 10’ to 15’ of water. All hard bottom with a nice mix of weed and wood plus some large boulders. It has been a mix of surface and subsurface fishing. The larger fish have been duped into eating off the top. There still are #6 Hex’s hatching. Mixing up the boat fishing with Fly and spin gear. #6 Crease flies in black and a good old yellow perch Rapala have been drawing lots of surface interest. A #6 Lil Kim in olive and black has drawn interest when being stripped back to the boat. The prime fishing times have been early morning and late afternoon. Especially if you want to catch surface oriented bass. The small stream fishing has been pretty consistent. Better after what little rain we have had. The small brooks temps. have ranged from 62 to 65 degrees. Pretty warm for the small water. Stealth is important. Spooking lots of fish. All dry fly fishing into tight little pockets. We have been catching Native Brookies, Wilds Brown, and wild Rainbow all on dry flies. A #12-#14 Goddard Caddis has been the ticket. The small streaming demands accurate casting- remember to carry a thermometer.. For bugs I have  seen tiny #22-#24 Tricos. Unfortunately with warm water temps., I have not fished the hatch yet. Still lots of  stone fly activity and more and more #18-#20 micro caddis hatching. Hoppers in farm fields and plenty of beetles along the streams bank. Remember to clean your gear and keep the non-native species at home . Have Fun, Willy