The Gunpowder River is clear, flowing at 75 Cfs, and is 56 F. Caddis and Sulphurs in the #18-20 range have been accounting for a number of fish in the evenings. I spent Monday evening with a friend just in, and a little jet lagged, from West London who, at approximately 2:00 AM British Summer Time managed a 13″ rainbow on a #20 Unusual and 7x tippet. For those interested in larger Rainbows the Lower River still has a few gigantic rainbows from the Freshwater Institute. They’ve proven to be hard to get but if you’d rather chuck streamers, they might provide some light entertainment-be sure to bring plenty of 3x-not something you’ll hear on this site very often…Thanks to Dave for the following glimpse into his evening antics in the catch and release section. For those of you that have not fly fished the Gunpowder since early Spring, Backwater Angler moved May 1, 2008 to a new location at 16928 York Rd, Monkton, MD 21111.

Hi Theaux,

The Wood Elf “sez” fishin has been pretty good, (for some) the past week.

Wed night: strong Sulfur hatch occured at the bottom of the Falls road high trail. Was already happening at 7pm and continued in 20 min pulses till dark. Fish were-a-rising in the riffles and quiet water. Caught 10-15 fish (up to 13 in) on a Renegade until just before dark; then caught 5-6 more before dark on the last fly (spinner pattern). Lot’s of Lime Sallys and a few Caddis were hatching too. “Heard” rumors this happened all the way down to Bunker Hill in the fast riffles.

Friday 11am-5pm: Fished the upper section from the high trail to the dam There was no hatch to speak of all day, however the fish rose to the “right” flies all day. Caught about 10 fish up to 12 inches and dropped two nice ones, maybe up to 14-15 inches. Missed many-many splashy strikes. Fish were taking X-Caddis (light body size 18 and 20) while the sun shined…and stopped when the clouds came in thick. A Lival emerger did the trick under the cloud cover for a few more fish.

Friday night: Fished Upper section at base of lower trail. Big news was that Max caught a beautiful brown at least 15 maybe 16 inches on a streamer. There were a few Sulfurs and Caddis hatching. Caught a couple guppies on the X-Caddis and then switched to a size 12 Renegade and caught 8 more (up to 12 in).

Dave

Backwater Angler will be open this Friday, Independence Day from 10:00 AM till 4:00 PM.

Related Posts:
Grand Opening for New Location of Backwater Angler Revealed