fishing report

for river related condition reports

A Sulphur Story from Mid-May

Thanks to Mark Eisendrath for the following stream report: Theaux, We all headed down to the Gun on Sunday and the Sulphers were flat-out partyin’. I didn’t have my rig with me as I still want my boy, Tappen to have my full attention as he is a dedicated outdoorsman in the making.We concentrated on working the nice, long trough just upstream from the old ropeswing above the Corbett Rd bridge. Again, he was on my shoulders as I waded so he could get positioned properly. His casting and forethought in troutfishing far outweighs his short few years on this planet. No action despite the …

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Ice Cold June Flows on the Gunpowder River

2009 has been a great year for rain in the Central Maryland region. Both City reservoirs were full since late winter, and Prettyboy Reservoir has added warmer spillover all Spring to the cold bottom releases on the Gunpowder River. The mix of warm and cold water is the result of Baltimore City Water and MD Fisheries officials attempting to maintain levels in the reservoir, while increasing water temps in an effort to boost insect hatches. After numerous gate changes this Spring, the City was pulling from the 55 foot gate, yet surface spillover brought temps to nearly seventy degrees in the upper C & R …

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Terrestrial Fishing On The Gunpowder River

Sulphurs and Caddis are still hatching along the Gunpowder, but there are other opportunities for dry fly fishing during the day. Hatches of BWOs, Sulphurs, and caddis may be concentrated very early or very late, so if fishing midday consider throwing terrestrial patterns. A recent shipment from Rainys includes a variety  of hoppers, beetles and ants that are proven patterns on the Gunpowder. The brown pictured above fell for a size twelve rubber legged foam beetle fished against the bank. In a few hours, from noon to four, on a bright day I landed eight browns on the same fly.  The browns were quick to …

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Green Drakes, Brookies On The Upper Savage River and Pocket Water Dry Fly Fishing on the Lower Savage Tailwater

The famed Green Drake hatch occurs on few Maryland rivers, but I encountered the hatch while fishing the Upper Savage River on the first two days of June with Neil, a shop regular. We spent two evenings wading areas where primarily brook trout were feeding on these large size eight bugs. The action was right before dark, and while fish were rising, the small brookies and large mayflies allowed the fish to gorge themselves quickly it seemed, and begged the question, just how many of these huge Mayflies can a seven or ten inch brook trout eat? I spent some time photographing this hatch and …

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Gunpowder River Clear After Numerous Flood Watches

The Gunpowder river is resilient. After countless flood watches this week the river is in great shape. It is currently flowing at 119 CFs, is 59 F, and is clear from Masemore Rd upstream. Bunkerhill, York, and Big Falls Rd access points also look great. The river is a little off color upstream of the Blue Mount Rd access but should be clearing quickly. Remember folks, the Gunpowder river flows through over 3,600 acres of State park land and protected under a Maryland state “wildlands” designation. By comparison, the North Branch at Barnum is flowing 2, 850 Cfs. Caddis emergers and dries and small traditional …

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Sulphurs in Full Swing, Come On Up, the Water’s Fine

While most of the folks South of us are building arks, we missed most, if not all of the rain last night in the Hereford Zone. The Gunpowder river is flowing at 62Cfs, is clear and 60 F. With air temps approaching the mid-80’s, wet wading is certainly an option. We have some great new CDC loop wing emergers, duns, soft hackles and spinners designed by Eric Stroup in the muffin tins on the front counter. Small elk hair caddis, tiny grey midges and feather winged spinners have also been tricking wild fish. Following are two very different stream reports. The first is from a …

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