The Gunpowder is still providing numerous opportunities and surprises for dry fly fishermen, as this photo of a brook trout taken by Neil Stahl illustrates. I was fishing tricos to risers just downstream of him when he caught it, and we found fish looking up in most pools and riffles we fished. Blue Wing Olives and Tricos are still on the water mid morning, although waves of emerging bugs and rising trout are sporadic on colder days. The past two weeks large midges in a size 16 were hatching in big numbers on warm days and bringing trout to the surface. On a guide trip this week, the biggest brown of the day took a nymph, but the majority of fish preferred a dry fly fished blind in the riffles. We hooked slightly less than half of the strikes on the dry, ending the day with seven browns in the net, which isn’t too bad for a first time angler on a windy November day.

The Falls Rd stream gauge is currently at 86 CFs, while the Glencoe gauge is at 195 CFs. The C & R sections are down to great levels for dries, while the lower river is prime for streamer fishing. A number of anglers passing through the shop experienced some great fishing this week and caught some nice trout on homemade streamer patterns. Many tyers are getting innovative using hair, feathers and fur for streamers, but for me the flashier synthetics are proving to be irresistible when the flows increase. The brown trout above fell for a large Psuedo Chub on 3x tippet, as the water dropped below 150 CFs in the C & R section.