Jason du Pont

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 …

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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 …

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While fishing a quiet stretch of the Gunpowder River on Friday,  I noticed a good stonefly hatch along the banks of a small glide. The size #16-20 stonefly adults crawling along the rocks, logjams and snow banks could easily have  gone unnoticed as there were only two to three winged adults per foot spread over both banks. Few of the adults were flying about, as most were engaged in the act of mating or crawling on the snow. The sun was at just the right angle and intensity for a series of days to cause the stoneflies to emerge. Most of the stoneflies were a size …

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