Thanks to Roman for the report and to Adrian for the great photos.
Hey Theaux,
We drove up north a few days ago to help Adrian with moving into his new apartment up at Dartmouth. While in the north country, we just had to take a few days off to do some fishing.From Hanover, we continued 3 hours north to the far northern-most tip of New Hampshire to the headwaters of the Connecticut River where we spent a few days catching trout. Not only were the mid 60s temperatures an absolute pleasure after the sweltering heat back home, but the fishing (and the catching) was excellent. In the trophy stretch, the water was flowing clear at around 150 cfs and 61°. There was a smattering of caddis and blue wing olives and imitations of these were successful at bringing fish to the surface. However, the fish were more interested in feeding below the surface and we found the pheasant tail nymph to be the perfect tool for fooling the trout. We caught numerous trout over 12″, several over 15″ - almost all of them fat rainbows and putting up a good fight. Included in our catch were also several brook trout -the best of these was caught by Adrian - a fat brookie that we estimated at about 20″. From there, we drove south to do a couple of days backpacking in the White Mountains. I wish we had another few days to spend up here but reality forces me to come back home. Fortunately there are fish awaiting in the Gunpowder!
Roman.
The Gunpowder River is the ideal destination for trout fishing in late Summer. The prolonged high air temps and lack of rain have basically shut down trout fishing on freestone streams in Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Low flows are not the big problem, but the warmer water temps over 70 degrees can be too stressful on trout. Fortunately the frigid bottom release from Prettyboy Dam offers refuge from the hot air temps, and allows us to fish the Gunpowder without concern. Yesterday I was curious just how much river was fishable based on water temperature. The Falls Rd area is 48 degrees, and roughly six miles down river warms to 57 at Blue Mount Rd. I took a temp of 61 degrees at 1 pm by the Monkton Rd Bridge. Anglers may not encounter high water temps until they reach the Glencoe Rd section, which means there are more than eleven miles of river below 65 degrees. Last Thursday when heavy rains moved through the region, the river rose but quickly cleared above Masemore Rd. The sections down river were stained from the tributaries running high and off color, but remained fishable. The river had 8-10 inches of visibility with a lot of leaves, sticks and other debris in the water. I hoped the trout would be in feeding mode and rigged two nymphs on 5X under a Thingamabobber. The next few hours it was steady action, browns from six to twelve inches, before a late afternoon storm chased me off the water. On Friday afternoon I took my girlfriend out to catch some browns gorging themselves in the murky water, but the river was clear. She caught a few browns and missed some strikes in an hour of fishing. More storms passed through over the weekend, so I spent Monday searching for cloudy sections of the river. In an hour of nymphing I landed six browns before switching to a streamer. The brown above measured fifteen inches and my next brown was just shy of fourteen inches. In the latest video post I filmed a few browns I caught yesterday on the Gunpowder.
Brad Boyer sent in this picture of a gorgeous brown trout he caught on a recent trip out West.
Hey Theaux,
I’m one of Alex McCrickard’s friends and I stop by the shop quite often. Just got back from fishing the Wind River Canyon near Dubois, Wyoming. Had an awesome trip mainly fishing the Wind River and it’s tributaries. The fish were caught on a hopper dropper set up, the hopper was a variation of a Fat Albert and the dropper was a halfback nymph size 12. Here are a couple pictures I thought I’d share from the trip.
Brad
The morning trico hatch on the Gunpowder is pretty late compared to most streams. The fish start rising after 9 am until 11:30, and sometimes continue rising until 1 pm. On Monday I fished a section of river in the morning with decent hatch clouds of tricos, but not a lot of fish rising. The interesting part of the day was around 3 pm when trout started rising everywhere. I noticed a lot of female tricos emerging and the trout were quickly sipping them off the surface. The tricos in the air even grabbed the attention of some birds, including a few hummingbirds. I snapped the photo above of a freshly hatched trico next to a size 24 trico pattern. Lately the mornings have been best for spinnerfalls, but good numbers of duns are also hatching in the afternoons. Blue wing olives are hatching on cloudy days, early mornings and late afternoons. Last year both hatches stayed pretty consistent until November, so anglers have months to explore different areas to find the heaviest concentrations of mayflies. In the latest video post I filmed the afternoon trico hatch and browns sipping them off the surface. I included some pretty wild browns I caught on the Gunpowder in the 100th video post on the Backwater Angler website. To all the viewers out there, thanks for watching and stay tuned!
I recently spent a few day trips fishing some of the limestone spring creeks in south central Pennsylvania. The Letort Spring Run and Big Springs are two fantastic streams in close proximity to Carlisle–add in Falling Springs Branch near Chambersburg and you have three of the best spring creeks east of the Rocky Mountains. Fishing these spring creeks is much different from your average trip to the Gunpowder River. This is mostly due to the change in water characteristics. The wild browns and rainbows that reside in these spring creeks demand extreme stealth and perfect presentation. With a narrow stream bed and excessive aquatic plant growth like cress beds, a perfect presentation can be hard to achieve. Add in strange currents and densely overhanging trees and catching trout can become difficult. Like the Gunpowder, trico mayflies are currently hatching out in the mornings on these spring creeks. The spinner falls have been thick but begin a little earlier, around 8 am. Small BWOs may start hatching as well if the bright sun changes to cloud cover and drizzle. Expect to see sporadic tan and brown caddis in the size # 16 range emerging throughout the afternoon. I have been doing well fishing small terrestrials like ants and beetles tight to the banks. A size # 18 black rubber leg Rainys foam beetle worked well underneath bridges and trees. As always, fish cress bugs and scuds in between the cress beds on these spring creeks. These small crustaceans account for a large portion of the trouts diet. On separate days I caught nearly a half dozen wild browns from Letort and Falling Springs. Most of the fish were in the 8 to 12 inch range. Falling Springs tends to produce more rainbows than the Letort and you can expect to catch many chunky bows in the 6 to 10 inch range. I did land a nicer wild rainbow of 15 inches in Falling Springs one afternoon. I lost a considerably larger fish of around 18 inches the same day while nymphing in a fast run. The fish easily broke me off on 6x tippet. Remember to wash your boots and waders in a salt solution, rinse with freshwater and allow ample drying time before heading to other streams after fishing in the Gunpowder. Its important that we try to control the spread of Didymo.
| August 8, 2010 |
| 1:00 pm | to | 3:00 pm |
Please join us Sunday August, 8 from 1:00 PM till 3:00 PM for a free Deer Hair Spinning Tying Demo with Micah Danmeyer. Leave it to Micah to make tying deer hair flies fun!
The Gunpowder river is flowing at 49 Cfs, is 53 F at Big Falls Rd and gin clear. The catch and release area has been fishing great. Tricos are in full swing and we’re picking up a few fish on dark Bwo’s just before the tricos. After the trikes fall, try swinging a small elk hair caddis in the riffles downstream or plan on covering overgrown and shaded banks with beetles and hoppers towards afternoon.
Thanks to Neil for his post earthquake fishing report from Friday, July 16:
Theaux,
The quake got me up 20 minutes early Friday here in Greenbelt, which got me to Falls Rd. with time to spare. A great morning - steady risers for 2 hours plus. Landed five, lost twice as many. The new Scott rod & Bauer reel are a dream. Thanks to Jason for the timely Trico info.
Neil Williamson
and thanks to Keith for his report from Friday, July 23:
Hi-
Stopped into the shop for some tippet and flies Friday afternoon- thanks. Ended the day with a dozen to 16”. Fished York road up to Bunker Hill Rd. They kept smackin’ at that orange hopper you recommended but couldn’t seem to land them so I switched to small caddis and had a ball and picked up some nice fish later on a streamer.
Thanks- I’ll be back
Keith
In case you missed the earthquake reference, we had a real live quake in Maryland on the 16th. Check out, Earthquake in Maryland: D.C. Area Rocked, from Michael Blanpied, Earthquake Expert for USGS featured in the Washington Post.
