June is the month the hatch charts on this site get crowded: Salmonflies are marked at peak on 30 rivers, Golden Stones on 60, caddis on 78, and Pale Morning Duns on 44, all in the same month, while a good share of those rivers are still too high with snowmelt to fish any of it. Sorting June is a matter of matching the hatch rows to the gauge. This page does that river by river; the mechanics of fishing high water are on the runoff page.
Salmonflies: thirty rivers at peak
Pteronarcys californica, the Salmonfly, is the biggest stonefly in the West and the most famous June hatch. The charts put it at peak in June on the Montana freestones, the Madison, Big Hole, Blackfoot, Bitterroot, Clark Fork, Gallatin, Yellowstone, and Rock Creek (peak May and June); on Idaho's Henry's Fork (May and June), Lochsa, Salmon, St. Joe, and South Fork of the Snake; on Wyoming's Snake and North Platte; on Colorado's Arkansas, Poudre, Roaring Fork, and Eagle; on Utah's Blacksmith Fork (peak May and June), Bear, Duchesne, Lake Fork, and Uinta; and in the Northwest on the Deschutes (May and June), McKenzie, Methow, and Wenatchee. The Logan peaks in May and reads on in June.
The hatch moves upstream a few miles a day and the fish gorge for a week and then get picky. Fish a foam adult, a Rogue Foam Stone or Chubby Chernobyl in size 4 to 6, tight to the willows, and a rubber-leg nymph below it or alone in the morning. The Golden Stonefly guide covers the smaller stone that overlaps and follows it on most of these rivers.
Green Drakes: the Provo and the Henry's Fork
Only three rivers on the site carry a Green Drake row (Drunella grandis). The Provo below Jordanelle and the Middle Provo show it on in May, peak in June, and on in July. The Henry's Fork shows it on in June and peak in July. A size 10 to 12 Green Drake dun or a Cripple, afternoons, usually a short daily emergence that brings up the biggest fish in the run. See the Green Drake guide.
Pale Morning Duns: the tailwaters go first
PMDs (Ephemerella) reach peak in June on 44 rivers, and the list is mostly tailwaters, spring creeks, and lower-elevation water, because the freestones are still high. Look at the Bighorn, Missouri, Frying Pan, Blue, Taylor, Gunnison, South Platte, both Provos, the Big Wood, Silver Creek, Henry's Fork, Hat Creek, and Metolius. On the Montana freestones the PMD row reads on in June and peak in July, once the water drops. Size 16 to 18 Comparaduns and Sparkle Duns, late morning through early afternoon, with a Pheasant Tail or Split Case nymph ahead of the emergence. The PMD guide has more.
Cicadas and Yellow Sallies on the Green
The Green River below Flaming Gorge is the one river here with a cicada row: on in May, peak in June, on in July. When the cicadas are on the water the fish in the A section eat a size 8 to 10 foam cicada with a violence that has nothing to do with the rest of the year's technical midge fishing. The same chart puts Yellow Sallies on in June and at peak in July, and PMDs on in June. Being a tailwater, the Green is fishable through the whole month regardless of what the snowpack is doing.
Where runoff is ending and where it is still on
The rivers above sort into three groups in June, and the gauge decides which group a given river is in on a given day.
- Fishing all month. The tailwaters (Bighorn, Missouri, Green, San Juan, Frying Pan, Taylor, Blue, Provo, Weber) and the spring creeks (Silver Creek, Hat Creek, Metolius). Also the Yellowstone park water: the Firehole is the only river on the site with Blue-Winged Olives at peak in June, alongside PMDs and caddis.
- Dropping into shape during June. Lower and mid-elevation freestones in Utah, Colorado, and Idaho: the Logan, Blacksmith Fork, Roaring Fork, Arkansas, Big Wood, Teton. These often clear in the first half of the month in an average snow year, and the Salmonfly and Golden Stone hatches ride the drop.
- Often still high. The big Montana and Wyoming freestones: Yellowstone, Madison below Quake, Big Hole, Blackfoot, Clark Fork, Snake. The Salmonfly row says peak, but in a heavy snow year the hatch happens in brown water and the fishable part of it comes at the tail end. Watch for the gauge to fall steadily for a week.
There are no fixed dates here on purpose. The order of clearing is set by elevation and snowpack, and a big winter pushes every river later.
Callibaetis and damsels on the spring creeks
The slow, weedy spring creeks fish like lakes in June. Silver Creek shows Callibaetis at peak from June through August and damselflies at peak in June and July; the Metolius carries Callibaetis at peak June through August as well. Size 14 to 16 Callibaetis spinners in the late morning, and a slim olive damsel nymph stripped along the weed edges.
Picking a June river the morning you go
- Open the river's page and look at seven days of gauge. Falling and clearing means the stonefly rows apply. Rising means go to a tailwater.
- On a tailwater or spring creek, fish PMDs late morning and caddis in the evening.
- On a clearing freestone, fish a foam stonefly with a rubber-leg dropper along the banks and switch to Golden Stones and caddis as the Salmonflies fade.
- Carry foam stones 4 to 8, rubber-leg nymphs 6 to 10, PMD duns and nymphs 16 to 18, Elk Hair Caddis 14 to 16, and on the Green, cicadas 8 to 10.
- Check the state agency for the water; some tributaries and sections have June closures for spawning cutthroat.