The Gunpowder dropped close to 100 CFs last week. The river gradually leveled out after the big surge of water on the 11th. Heavy rains last night bumped river flows up to 165 CFs. The Spring rains should provide good flows the next few months, since the river levels will fluctuate with rain and spillover. The City notified the shop they recently made a gate change to the 10 foot level at Prettyboy, and the temperature graph on the USGS shows a spike up to just over 48 degrees. Angler reports from last weekend of slightly off color water was likely the result of the reservoir thermocline “turning over.” The water cleared early this week, and I witnessed increased hatches of midges and blackflies. The days when the air temperature hit the sixties I saw stoneflies hatching in more numbers each day. One afternoon I watched a few dozen drop out of the hemlocks onto the water. The occasional splashy rise could be seen, but the rises to stoneflies were sporadic. The midges and black flies were what the steady feeders wanted on the surface. The black flies are more plump in the body than typical midges, so the fish were very selective. I found a few pods of risers working the surface over two hours and caught some browns, and missed quite a few others. The rest of the fish I caught using tiny larva patterns we have in the shop. The extended weather forecast shows a slight drop in temps over the weekend, but next week rain and highs in the fifties. Water temps approaching fifty and fluctuating flows should make for ideal fishing conditions in the coming weeks. In the latest video post I filmed some blackflies, a few browns, and nice sized rainbow I caught.
