It’s 72 F in January! The river is much colder at 42 F. The water is clear and the edge ice has melted. Dave Gerhardt at 94 years young, bought his Maryland fishing license today while he was in the shop and told us that he was fly fishing today and saw fish rising below Masemore Rd. We also had several calls today from lucky anglers from Pennsylvania. John and a friend drove all the way from Lancaster, PA to try their luck with stonefly nymphs and soft hackles and caught a number of fish. Small nymphs, brassies and zebra midges rounding out their offerings. Those hoping for midges went all the way upstream to Falls Rd. Several reports from anglers of Bats eating midges in broad daylight are telling. ICSI midges are a good bet as are tiny BWO’s, but most fish this time of year are keying in on size #20-22 blackflies. Blackflies look best on a 12 ft leader ending in 7x, so make your leaders long and light. If you have trouble with long leaders collapsing, try picking up a few hand-tied leaders next time you’re in the shop. Downstream, below Bluemount, small traditional streamers are also a good bet as the young of the year, by now in the pinkie to index finger size range, don’t have many places to hide. Little Black stoneflies are buzzing but not in enough numbers to get the fish looking up yet. In a week or so and we should have consistent dry fly fishing in the riffles. The water is super low and the last accurate gauge reading, (before the malfunction) was 20 CFs. So limit your wading, have fun and remember that driving a dirty car will help conserve water. Since the end of October the water level in Pretty Boy has moved up four feet and the reservoir is still down twenty feet from crest.
Thanks to Matt for the following stream report:
Hey guys,
I took advantage of the warm temps yesterday and fished the GP with decent success. Fish were consistently rising/sipping from 12-4 in the slower midge pools. I landed some nice ones on really small ICSI midges, Griffiths Gnats and 7x. Not bad for January. No sign of black stones however.
Matt
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