Flows on the Gunpowder are still around 50 Cfs and the water is 48 degrees at Falls Rd. We are fortunate to have such cold water through the C & R sections, and temps are still below sixty degrees down past Monkton Road. On Thursday I planned to cover a few areas, and try some different patterns. Fishing the Gunpowder was surreal in the thick fog. I rigged up for the morning trico hatch around 9:30 am. I could hear the fish splash, but it was hard see beyond forty feet through the fog. I fished a few flats, riffles and back eddies catching browns on size 22-24 Tricos. Once the hatch action slowed I moved to another area and fished larger caddis pupa in some deep holes. After catching a couple nice 11-13 inch browns, and a bunch of 6-8 inchers, a thunderstorm chased me off the water. The storm dumped a lot of rain in a twenty minute period, and than it was clear blue skies. It was prime time to head down river to take advantage of the added off color inflow of the smaller creeks. The fog on the water became much thicker than in the morning, so I snapped the pic above. The water levels didn’t rise much, but the trout really started feeding in the murky water. A few hours turned into a marathon day, before I realized it was 7:30 pm. I covered 3 different areas, and saw only two anglers all day. The latest video post is some underwater shots of black nose dace, sculpins and chubs I filmed on the Gunpowder on another day. There are a lot of food sources, other than mayflies and caddis, in the mid-lower sections of the Gunpowder River.

I spent a few days fishing the Savage River in Western Maryland last week. MDDNR was shocking the river, so flows were down to 30 CFs. I opted to fish the North Branch of the Potomac until later in the week, when flows on the Savage would rise to 55 CFs. Alex was out assisting the shocking survey for three days, and said they electroshocked a good number of trout. I fished the Savage a few weeks this year and the majority of wild browns I caught averaged between eleven to fourteen inches. In two days of fishing I fished dries in the pocket water and caught nothing under nine inches. In addition to good sized trout, I’ve noticed rising trout on each day I’ve been out on the Savage this year. It’s pretty common to see fish get into a frenzy right at dark, but I’ve witnessed fish rising steady during periods of bright sun. This week the midday or afternoon risers were taking flies off the surface so small, that only patterns in the 22-26 range on 6X worked. I used a size 24 amber mayfly pattern and a size 22 black beetle to catch my larger browns. I saw a few larger mayflies, caddis, and lime sallies at dark. In the latest video post I include some shots of the Savage, some rising browns, and an up close look at a Red-Spotted-Newt.

I recently returned from a few days of fishing in Western Maryland. The 125 Cfs flows on the North Branch of The Potomac tempted me to spend some days fishing on the WV/MD border. In these lower flows the wading is much easier, and the fish tend to congregate in the deeper areas. I fished around the Barnum access, and also hiked in many miles down river. On Monday I met up with Nate, a Backwater Angler regular, and we fished nymphs in the deeper slots. My Thingamabobber shot under in a deeper chute, and I was tight to a big rainbow. The trout looked like one of the big Freshwater Institute Rainbows stocked in previous years on the North Branch. At over twenty inches, and at least three pounds, this rainbow was a torpedo. The bow took off down river and forced me to chase it at least a hundred feet downriver, before finally breaking the tippet. An hour later I was tight to another big fish, but never saw it before it wrapped me up on a root system. I caught a few small bows, before we both stumbled onto a pool loaded with stocked browns. They had decent coloration, but the combination of beat up pectoral fins and eagerness to eat a fly was not typical of a wild trout. The ten to eleven inch browns were aggressive on hoppers, beetles and caddis patterns. The fishing was getting a bit ridiculous during the time we fished in the one pool, since the browns were so numerous.

On Tuesday I fished a section of the North Branch many miles down stream of Barnum. I covered some shaded banks using a hopper, and caught a few rainbows. One of the bows was really vividly marked, and had all the traits of a wild fish. I also caught a six inch native brook trout, one of two I have ever caught in the North Branch. Hopefully in the coming years there will be more of these wild fish in the river. By the afternoon I switched to a big six inch long streamer and headed back down river. My hopes of finding an elusive big brown never worked out, but I caught some nice sized rainbows. I did get a couple of swipes from some decent sized browns, but none of the huge fish I’ve seen in the past. In the latest video post I filmed some river shots and fish. I also included a few minutes of casting and hook ups. The weather was hot, the fish were biting, and I saw two people fishing in two days on the North Branch.