When other streams in the region become too warm, the Gunpowder’s cold flows, at 56 F during the first week of July, offer great trout fishing. During hot summer months some of the most exciting dry fly fishing on the Gunpowder River begins. Beetles, hoppers, caddis, tricos, blue wing olives, and ants are just a few of the dries that produce trout throughout ALL seventeen miles of river the next months. Consider twitching a large #8-12 Elk Hair Caddis through riffles to imitate all the moths that are flying around along the river. Spend time prospecting the banks, edges, under trees and around rocks with attractors, instead of trying to match a hatch. Mornings have been good for caddis hatches, and could reward anglers with the onset of the trico hatch. Fish are really looking up now, and as always will eat a variety of nymphs, midge and caddis pupa for anglers fishing subsurface.

This video post shows off the heaviest rainbow I have ever caught in the lower Gunpowder. The fingerling rainbow in the video was recently stocked above Falls Rd and has adipose fins unclipped, which used to differentiate between wild reproducing rainbows and these previously “clipped” fingerlings. While floating through miles of the Gunpowder River the past weeks, I rolled tape of some quality browns and Matt Devlin losing a big brown in the 18-19 inch range, which leaped in the air before bulldogging to the bottom. Few rivers can match the varied water, scenery, fish and icy cold water conditions the Gunpowder offers.

While I was fishing to a good Hendrickson emergence a few months ago, an angler passing me on the trail told me he saw spawning fish in some shallow riffles. I continued fishing a snow shoe emerger with success until I thought I’d take a look at the area he mentioned. Suckers, some nearly twenty inches long, had gathered in a section of riffle water to spawn. Prior to this I spotted groups of smaller suckers spawning in Little Falls, as well as in the Lower Gunpowder. The clear, shallow water of the upper river at that time made for some prime viewing and videotaping.

These fish had either migrated or congregated in riffles above Falls Rd, which means the sucker fry should now, months later, be providing the brown trout with a bit larger meal than normal. We also have a run of Gizzard Shad on the Gunpowder, which swim up from Loch Raven Reservoir. These bluish-gray 10-16 inch shad with a distinct forked tail and dark spot behind the gills can be found in areas of the upper river. The past two years I have seen more and more of these fish spawning during late May into June. The migration has ended for them as hundreds of shad are schooled up in the Plunge Pool below Prettyboy Dam.

Mild March weather is ideal for dry fly fishing on the Gunpowder. The warm temps hatch clouds of midges and send dark brown stoneflies skittering across the water’s surface. Trout are sipping the midges in the slower pools and whacking larger stoneflies used as searching patterns. Nymphing is still productive, but the surface action has really picked up for anglers willing to tie on some 7X-8X and cast tiny flies to sipping fish.

The rising trout tend to go into sporadic feeding cycles, and many fish can be seen hanging inches under the surface. Patience and hatch matching skills will be put to the test in these lower flows, but the fish are feeding on top! I rose over twenty fish on my most recent outing using a variety of small dries and stoneflies. I also filmed crawling stoneflies, hatching midges and egg laying midges, which returned to the water toward evening.

March has historically been a time when numerous insects start hatching on the Gunpowder River. Midges hatch on the river on mild days, and Blackflies can be found hatching in areas of the river this month under warm, ideal conditions. Stonefly nymphs pictured below can be found in the water under rocks and in leaf piles.

Dry fly anglers should look for less wary fish down river and an extended period of warm days or bright sun. I got reports of fish hitting dry flies on the warmest days the past two weeks. On days when the temps reached 55 degrees I counted six browns rising to stoneflies and midges in one pool in the Lower River. I also noticed little hatching and no risers on the days before and after in the same area. Small nymphs, attractor patterns, zebra midges, DMC midges and brassies have been working all winter. The fish have been pounding correctly imitated nymphs and pupae, and some will rise to dries during a short period of the day. Fishing the hatch involves nymphing if it’s cold, because the bugs are still subsurface. The fish have also been aggressive on black, brown and white streamers. Five different anglers reported black Wooly Buggers got the trout biting this past weekend. This video shows fish caught through the month of February in both the upper and lower stetches of the Gunpowder River.

The level of Prettyboy has risen with recent rain, but at least eight feet remains until spillover.The river upstream of the upper Falls Road lot, below Prettyboy Dam is very low, and tough to fish without spooking the trout. The levels at Falls Rd have been fluctuating from 34 to the low 20 Cfs range. Little Falls has been raising the levels in the lower river after recent rains, which has provided good fishing for many. Anyone looking to check out areas farther south should know the lower river below the Gas Line down stream of Corbett Rd Bridge will close on the March 9th, and not reopen until the 29th. A lot of rainbows from last Spring’s and this Fall’s stocking are still in the river, along with fat wild browns. The fishing isn’t slow, the conditions are just very different from years past and anglers adjusting tactics and exploring new areas are getting into fish.