The cold weather is back in Northern Baltimore County, and the recent snow storm dropped close to five inches in Monkton this past weekend. The Gunpowder flows dropped to 137 CFs on Sunday, and water temps are still below 40 degrees. Earlier this week I found some respite from numb toes and tough fishing by playing a hunch and venturing to some smaller water in search of warmer water temps. On a forty plus degree day, I took a ride to a tiny creek armed with only one small fly box, my Scott Fiberglass six foot one weight rod, and a pair of Hunter boots. A quick dip of the thermometer revealed 44 degree water temps, which confirmed that even the small freestones in the region would be more affected by warm air temps, versus the large volume of cold water in the Gunpowder.

The pockets and pools were tiny, but most held one to two brook trout, which would dart out from the cover of rock ledges to inspect the fly. The fish were aggressive, but would only take one look at the fly, forcing me to move frequently. Spotting fish and crawling into position was the typical scenario, and I was surprised to see some decent brookies from 7-9 inches, and a few browns a bit bigger than that in such a tiny stream. The great thing about small streams in Winter is they keep you moving (warm) and staying out of the water keeps the toes from freezing. After covering 20 pools/pockets I counted over 15 trout. I managed to spook half of those fish and miss most of the other strikes, but I brought two to hand; a french fry brookie and one small brown. The spot-and-stalk component, extremely skittish fish and tight casting on small water was a great change of pace from fishing the larger rivers in the region.