The hatches on the Gunpowder River over the past month provided many of us with great fishing. Hendricksons, caddis, march browns and sulphurs are all hatching through the afternoon, and many evenings the spinnerfalls bring the fish to the surface. Anglers are catching trout on dries during the day using all variety of patterns, but a great technique is swinging nymphs or pupa patterns. Many brand new anglers on guided trips are learning this simple technique of imitating emerging insects. The number of strikes is often two to three times higher than the number of fish brought to the net, so landing one to two dozen trout is a possibility. Patterns imitating sulphurs and caddis are the best choices, and the shop has a wide range of flies. We just received a big shipment of sulphurs from Mike in New York, both snow shoe and traditional Catskill styles. This year the hatches on many rivers have been extremely early, so be sure to stock up and fish these flies before the hatches end. The sulphurs are hatching in increasing numbers each day, and the spinnerfalls are already happening after 7:30 pm. The amount of caddis laying eggs on the water toward dark is impressive in the riffles, giving the trout a few options for a meal. While the heavy fifteen inch brown pictured above was not caught swinging nymphs, it was caught swinging a streamer. The larger browns are not likely to be caught on dries, or wet flies, but they will eat a big streamer stripped across their nose. For the anglers looking for big fish, it isn’t where, but how they are fishing that matters. Streamer fishing may require covering a lot of water, and will begin to feel like work after stripping a fly for hours. In the evenings I switch to a tandem nymph rig and have fun catching lots of browns until the surface activity gets hot. In the latest video I fished one riffle using the lift technique, which imitates the nymphs wriggling from their nymphal shuck on the surface. This technique has worked great on guide trips and clients are picking up a few more fish by lifting the rod at the end of the swing. Swinging and lifting nymphs is a pretty relaxing way to fish, and even the smaller browns hit the fly pretty hard. We have a big selection of patterns that work and good recommendations on access points on the Gunpowder to try this technique.
