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Jason du Pont

Expanded Maryland Fly Tying Materials Selection

Revising and reworking flies, even the classics, can be an easy way to tie patterns you already know. Many tying companies offer new materials that add flash, weight and movement to create new versions of old designs. Hareline’s selection and innovative products offer something for all anglers and the Backwater Angler fly has recently expanded our tying room selection to offer more tying materials for Mid-Atlantic fly anglers. Looking for soft hackles capes, wires and tinsels? We currently have plenty of genetic hen, english grouse, starling, hungarian partridge and over 26 different colors and sizes of wire and tinsel. 17/0 and 14/0 thread are new …

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Testing Out the New Cloudveil 8X Stealth Wading Shoe

Each Fall Backwater Angler staff demos new products for the upcoming season. A pair of size ten wading boots from Cloudveil are about to be put through the paces on the Gunpowder River. After a few days of fishing, I plan to hand them off to other Gunpowder Guides for more testing. We will be posting reviews by different guides in the coming weeks. The Cloudveil 8X Stealth Wading Boot is extremely lightweight and features a 5.10 rubber sole. Soft rubbers like 5.10 are found on soles of rock climbing shoes. The sole smears to the rock, wet or dry, and provides constant contact by …

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Maryland Fly Tying Materials and Patterns

Fall can be the time for pursuing wild browns amidst the changing colors of leaves and reflecting on the past year’s fishing. Journals can help, often times a fly box can be a great place to look to bring back memories from months ago. The tattered snow shoe hendricksons and soft hackle nymphs in my box bring back early Spring evenings. Size twenty midge pupaes, zebra midges, caddis larvae and the faithful San Juan kept things hot on cold winter days. Wet flies, caddis pupae and pheasant tails in many colors and sizes dominate rows and rows of slitted foam in my boxes. My “fur …

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Gunpowder Trout By The Bucketful

The shocking survey on the Gunpowder River is pretty incredible to witness. On September 24th a team of Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Biologists shocked the Falls Rd area on Gunpowder River. A line of wader clad, net wielding biologists and volunteers pushed upstream behind biologists wearing electro-fishing backpacks. The shocking prod stunned anything within a five to six foot range with a low volt charge. The stunned trout floated to the surface where they were gently netted and placed in buckets. Trout and the occasional big sucker floated up from every little hole. The contents of the buckets were placed into tubs with …

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High Flows and Big Gunpowder Brown Trout

This video post features two large Gunpowder brown trout caught in the last week of September 2007. Angler Matt Devlin landed his seventeen inch brown on a tiny nymph in higher water and Gunpowder Guide Jeff Lewatowski landed a solid twenty inch brown on a small nymph during a lower flow. The flow level at 300 Cfs can be tough wading for anglers not used to battling waist high water. Many anglers are foregoing fishing due to the belief the water is too high, but recent guide trips have accounted for first time anglers landing ten to fifteen trout. Dry fly enthusiasts may be disappointed, …

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Fly Tying In Maryland? Time To Dust Off The Vise

Backwater Angler will continue offering fly tying classes on both Saturdays and Sundays on weekends through the Fall and Winter. Classes will vary from beginner to advanced and many will focus on tying techniques, hatches or special materials. This is the time of the year when days get shorter and an angler’s time can be best spent at the vise restocking the fly box. If you put off tying, or thought it was too difficult, costly, or time consuming sign up for a class and learn how to produce easy fish catching patterns on the cheap. For all the experienced fly tiers our classes are …

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