The Gunpowder river is flowing at 32 Cfs, is clear and 56 F. The recent rains have made things interesting today in the Hereford zone. Warmer water spilling over the dam coupled with a release planned for this weekend to mitigate the surface water should bring the Gunpowder river up to the mid to low 100 Cfs range through the weekend-think streamers! If you’d rather fish dries, Blue Winged Olives and Caddis have been working this week. Riffles emptying into flats have been the best areas to prospect. Long leaders in the 6 and 7x range are still needed to trick wild fish in low flows. According to last night’s NOAA forecast, “rainfall through Friday morning is expected to range from one half to three quarters of an inch”. We’ve seen close to 3″ as of this afternoon but the river will remain clear because it’s upper reaches are protected by 3,500 acres of State Park Land and controlled by Pretty Boy Reservoir. Did I mention that we have a sale on rainjackets? Small streamers in the #12 to #8 range have been working along log jams and have accounted for some very nice fish up to 14 inches. Nymphing has also been effective, but the fish are taking subsurface flies without a lot of commotion so make sure that your indicator is a litle closer to your flies this time of year.If your waders have been leaking all Summer it’s getting cool enough to consider patching them or outright replacing them-let me know if we can help keep you dry this Fall. In other news, the snowball stand in town just closed for the season and we have a few Gunpowder regulars headed out to Montana this week to do some late season hopper fishing.
Thanks to Paul for the stream report
Theaux,
-wanted to report on a fine day of fishing yesterday. After stopping-in at the shop I headed to Falls Rd, where I put in just downstream from the bridge. There was one spot in particular that was very productive. Caught four browns, three in the 10″ category, and one at 16″: easily my biggest fish I’ve caught on the Gunpowder. Caught all of them on the bead-headed hare’s ear that you recommended. I’ve attached a pic of the larger brown. Also a pic or two from my trips this summer we spoke about. One from the Little River in the Smoky Mountains, and another from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River in Colorado. I’m still awe-struck at the beauty of that area.
Thanks again for the recommendations which led to another great day offishing the Gunpowder. It’s nice to be back for another year!-fr.paul