fishing report

The Gunpowder river is flowing at 155 Cfs, is clear and river water temps are still below 40 F. The wind and cold this week has made for challenging fishing. Stoneflies are about but not many fish are willingly to commit to dries. We were paid a visit midweek by a hardy Nebraskan angler from the Cornhusker Fly-Fishers . They have a CCF CARPFEST listed on the site that looks interesting-any takers? Gunpowder regular Carl also stopped in this week with some old paper goods- a 1976 Leonard Spring Catalog and a 1969 issue of TU’s Trout magazine with a dead ringer for Curt Gowdy …

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The Gunpowder is flowing at 106 Cfs is clear, and is dangerously close to 38 F at Falls Rd. Slightly warmer water can be found a little further downstream as we still have a lot of spillover that’s keeping the upper sections cool. Large streamers dead drifted under indicators and stonefly nymphs fished through the shallow gravel are good bets. If conditions stay this warm, stoneflies should be buzzing soon. Black flies are also on the way and can be imitated with a number of midge patterns that have just arrived-just be sure to use plenty of 7x. We’ve had more than a few people …

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Winter temperatures, high flows and ice on the guides hasn’t kept many anglers from wetting a line this past week on the Gunpowder. My last day of fishing in 2009 was on Monday of last week, with a few friends willing to fish in the dropping 400 CFs flow. Each of us landed a few fish in as many hours nymphing the soft edges of riffles and bends. Big streamers produced a few strikes, but the browns were not really aggressive in the colder water temps. My last brown trout of 2009 was hard fighting and took me around some trees requiring an assist on …

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The Gunpowder river is flowing at 668 CFs and is dropping. A full reservoir, coupled with 19″ of snow from the last storm, and a warm and rainy Christmas weekend in the Hereford Zone, pushed the river up to 1, 070 CFs last night. An angler who stopped in the shop yesterday at 8 AM tried his luck at Masemore until a tree floated past him. Typically, flows below 275 Cfs are more reasonable for fly fishing the Gunpowder but even at those levels one should limit wading and use the excellent trail network to get around the river. If pitching streamers from the bank …

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The Gunpowder River flow increased to over 600 CFs midweek at the Falls Road gauge, when warm air and rainfall melted the snow that fell the previous week. Once the river flows dropped below 400 CFs, I spent some time nymphing and swinging streamers Thursday. A combination of cold night air and spillover dropped river temps into the 40s, but browns were still eating a variety of patterns. The increase in flow and colder water required deep, slow drifts for nymphing. The takes were really subtle, so using a Thingamabobber, and extra weight on the line helped detect these strikes. The trout preferred big or …

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