Trout rising to insects is a common sight on the Gunpowder this time of year. Midge, caddis and mayfly hatches during the course of the day keep the trout looking to the surface for a meal. The sulphur hatch is one that tends to send the trout airborne after emerging duns, and seeing trout flying out of the water isn’t unusual. Many reports from anglers this week mentioned fish rising and leaping out of the water along the Gunpowder. I’ve seen this occurring in just about every stretch of river in the afternoon when the sulphurs start hatching. Throw in a midge hatch and intermittent egg-laying caddis toward dark, and the fishing gets interesting. A few anglers relayed that despite the aggressively feeding trout, they found it challenging to get the fish to notice their fly, amongst the naturals. I witnessed a unique sight, where a dozen trout took to the air repeatedly. The fish were consistently leaping two and three at a time for twenty to thirty minutes. The fish were so keyed in on a specific stage of a hatching insect, that it was a better situation to film than to fish. In the latest video post I filmed a dozen three to ten inch browns flying a foot or more out of the water. The brown below took a streamer, so a bigger fly is a good way to get the trout’s attention amidst the hatching insects.

Small to medium size streams are abundant throughout Maryland, and many are downright scenic this time of year. Some of the streams support trout, either stocked or wild, but many also hold populations of bass, panfish, carp and other assorted coarse fish. The joys of fishing these types of places include not needing a big selection of flies, less wary fish, and rarely having to wear waders. The idea is an easy day of fishing where each cast may bring in a different species, and the fly choice boils down to either a black or white wooly bugger. I’ve always enjoyed covering new water and exploring different places, even when in many cases the fishing is hit or miss. Many anglers lament doing the legwork on unfamiliar water, but not knowing what is around the next bend is the pull for me. In the latest video I shot some footage of a variety of water while on my travels recently, including high gradient and meadow stretches. I caught ten small mouth bass in one spot where wild flowers were blooming, and the bass were putting up a nice fight on a four weight rod. Nearly every county in the state has streams that if they don’t hold trout, may have good populations of warm water fish. The adventurous angler has numerous opportunities for a variety of fish, in all types of water throughout Maryland.

Insect hatches and flows on the Gunpowder River remained consistent over the past week. Water levels dropped from just over 100 Cfs down to 82 cfs, and water temps are changing as less spillover from Prettyboy Dam enters the river. Due to the warm spillover, and the cooler tributaries entering the Gunpowder, the river is actually cooler farther down river. A quick dip of the thermometer reveals the water temperature in the Falls Rd area at between 65-67. The water temperature starts to drop with the addition of flow from numerous tributaries and in the Big Falls stretch the water is a few degrees cooler. I took a temp at the Monkton bridge yesterday and was surprised to see the water was 63 degrees. The warmer temps mean there are numerous hatches and many of them are quite intense. Sulphurs are hatching in size 14-16 and spinnerfalls have been very good for catching rising trout at dark. Caddis hatches are getting the attention of trout during the day and the egglayers drop to the water alongside sulphurs toward dark. Craneflies are also abundant and can be found crawling along the shoreline midday. The “wild card” hatch in the evenings are the midges, although small they get the attention of trout due to the extremely large numbers present on the water. In the latest video I show off a heavy fish I posted pics of last week. I also included footage where I captured some craneflies and hatching sulphurs in the afternoon. The most intense hatch I captured was a midge and micro caddis hatch that started up two hours before dark. The river is full of hatching insects and trout can be caught by imitating the various stages of these emerging or egg laying bugs.

The hatches on the Gunpowder River over the past month provided many of us with great fishing. Hendricksons, caddis, march browns and sulphurs are all hatching through the afternoon, and many evenings the spinnerfalls bring the fish to the surface. Anglers are catching trout on dries during the day using all variety of patterns, but a great technique is swinging nymphs or pupa patterns. Many brand new anglers on guided trips are learning this simple technique of imitating emerging insects. The number of strikes is often two to three times higher than the number of fish brought to the net, so landing one to two dozen trout is a possibility. Patterns imitating sulphurs and caddis are the best choices, and the shop has a wide range of flies. We just received a big shipment of sulphurs from Mike in New York, both snow shoe and traditional Catskill styles. This year the hatches on many rivers have been extremely early, so be sure to stock up and fish these flies before the hatches end. The sulphurs are hatching in increasing numbers each day, and the spinnerfalls are already happening after 7:30 pm. The amount of caddis laying eggs on the water toward dark is impressive in the riffles, giving the trout a few options for a meal. While the heavy fifteen inch brown pictured above was not caught swinging nymphs, it was caught swinging a streamer. The larger browns are not likely to be caught on dries, or wet flies, but they will eat a big streamer stripped across their nose. For the anglers looking for big fish, it isn’t where, but how they are fishing that matters. Streamer fishing may require covering a lot of water, and will begin to feel like work after stripping a fly for hours. In the evenings I switch to a tandem nymph rig and have fun catching lots of browns until the surface activity gets hot. In the latest video I fished one riffle using the lift technique, which imitates the nymphs wriggling from their nymphal shuck on the surface. This technique has worked great on guide trips and clients are picking up a few more fish by lifting the rod at the end of the swing. Swinging and lifting nymphs is a pretty relaxing way to fish, and even the smaller browns hit the fly pretty hard. We have a big selection of patterns that work and good recommendations on access points on the Gunpowder to try this technique.

Matt and I did a second float this month on the Gunpowder. It was his last day on the river for quite a while, since he moves to Montana next month. The weather was ideal, and the water temps in the fifty-nine to sixty degree range. Craneflies and caddis hatched steady all day, in addition to midges and the occasional sulphur. Over the course of the day we spotted trout rising in the riffles and flats, but never tried a dry fly. We crossed paths with another angler who was catching fish on dries, but we were having consistent success with streamers and nymphs. The trout were taking caddis pupa and cranefly patterns, while some big nymphs in sizes 10-12 caught fish under a Thingamabobber. In addition to wild browns between 7-12 inches we landed a dozen rainbows in the 12-15 inch range. We both encountered browns between 12-16 inches, including a couple we both had hooked, but lost them. I lost a memorable brown in the 16-17 inch range after a subtle take on a big rubber legged nymph caused me to lightly set the hook. I was standing nearly on top of the fish, high sticking a riffle when I came tight to the brown. Immediately the brown jumped and landed under my rod tip, preventing me from taking slack out of the line. We both yelled out at the exact moment as the line went limp, and the fish was gone. By the end of the day we landed more fish than our previous float, somewhere in the range of thirty fish between us. The smaller browns were a lot of fun and really eager to eat, as were the rainbows which had gained some strength and color from time in the river. In the latest video I included some shots of gear, the boat and river. The rest of the footage includes Matt and I landing trout in numerous riffles and runs on the Gunpowder.

The unique conditions with high volumes of spillover on the Gunpowder means we are seeing many insects very early compared to previous years. Water temperatures are in the high fifties to low sixties, and held steady for the past three weeks with many mayflies hatching weeks ahead of schedule. The hendricksons are very early, showing up three weeks ago. The spinnerfall action after 7 pm means waiting out the bugs until dark. The quill gordons and march browns are still hatching, but their numbers are sparse compared to the hendricksons. On a few evenings this past week I fished until dark each night, and was rewarded with numerous spinners laying eggs and trout aggressively rising. For reference I had seen only a few duns hatch through the afternoon, and by 6:45 was ready to hit the trail, thinking the hatch wasn’t going to happen. I looked up against the sky and noticed waves of spinners slowly beginning to drop, which created a short lived but intense response from the trout. I’ve fished a few of these spinnerfalls, and the intensity can vary from one night to the next. I was surprised to see sulphurs hatching alongside hendricksons mid April, which is extremely early. Last year I saw the first sulphur on April 28th, and encountered the first fishable hatch on May 6th. This year I saw them on the 15th of April, and caught the first big emergence on a cloudy, rainy Wednesday this week. The browns wasted no time taking the sulphurs, a few even leaping up to take the duns, as they lifted off the water. I caught browns on a size 14 sulphur and saw duns emerging for about 2 hours, yet a weak hendrickson spinnerfall. The following day the conditions changed and the sulphur hatch was light, but the hendricksons returned to the water at dark. Caddis hatches are also a few weeks early, but the majority are hatching down river of the Catch & Release section. The variety of insects hatching through the course of the day means fishing a dry in the riffles is a great way to catch some trout on the Gunpowder. The brown below took a spinner pattern, while the brown above was caught by Matt on a second recent float trip. In the latest video I filmed a sulphur, quill gordon and egg laden hendrickson spinners returning to the water toward dark. I slowed the footage down and the dark bodied, size 14 spinners can be seen against the lighter sky.

The mayfly nymphs living under the rocks in the Gunpowder river are beginning to hatch in good numbers. Many anglers are experiencing good dry fly fishing during the hendrickson emergence and spinnerfall. The trout are really eating nymph patterns under the surface, especially at the end of the swing. The real mayflies are drifting down river to hatch in mass it seems, as the fish can be seen flashing and chasing bugs up to the surface. Just turn over a few rocks in a swift riffle area and you will quickly see the river is full of life. While fishing in the evening I spotted numerous March Brown spinners, Quill Gordons, Sulphurs and Hendrickson Spinners toward dark. Before the light got too low, I started turning over a few rocks and found nearly two dozen nymphs on one rock alone. I began filming them on the rock and then put a number of them in a Solo cup we use at the counter for flies. It is easy to see why wet flies and even hackle-less nymph patterns are working on the swing, once you watch these nymphs move in the water. The latest video features a few minutes of close up footage of the main staple of the trout’s diet for the coming weeks. The shop has a variety of nymph patterns in the correct sizes and colors to match these nymphs.