Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing 98 degrees in the air 48 degrees in the water in Maryland

Supposed to be over 100 degrees the next few days and I really need to do some fishing. My local streams are getting warm and even those that will hold trout over are pretty warm and I try and not stress the fish so where to go? Up to the Gunpowder. It's 30 minutes away and a tailwater from Prettyboy reservoir one of the main water supplies for Baltimore.

Trout Unlimited worked 15-20 years ago with the power company to arrange to have more consistent flows in the Gunpowder in hopes of building a solid trout fishery in Baltimore county. They did a great job and there hasn't been any fish stocked in 15 years and we have a native Brown, Rainbow and Brook trout fishery in an urban area of north of a million people. The catch and release area is about 7 miles long. While there are some big fish the average fish is about 10" and they see a lot of flies so they can be exceedingly picky at times. The norm is 9 1/2 leaders, 3 weight rods and 6 and 7X tippet.

On to the pics! I rolled in and hiked in from the upper lot off of Falls road. That puts you a good ways up the river and it was still a lovely misty morning.


The water is pretty thin this time of year making it pretty obvious where fish are hanging. The sulfer's are also strong in the evening but the fish key on them pretty quickly even when they aren't hatching. I was fishing a size 16 Elk Hair Caddis with a pheasant tail dropper but the early fish were all over the Caddis. Not monsters but great on the three weight.


I worked the little pockets and caught half dozen fish on that combo. The Browns are just gorgeous from here. Little jewels.


I fished up pretty close to the dam where the water was 48 degrees and the air a deliciously cool 60. Here's a shot of the dam through the trees and then closer where you can see the water coming out of the spillway.

up close


I worked my way back down the stream. It drops a good bit which yields some really great little runs and pools. I caught one stunning little Brookie (no pic sorry) and a few more browns on the EHK and by going to my standard rig for the deep pools of a large bead head stonefly nymph with a small pheasant tail dropper. Banks of mountain laurel and some great blocks of stone.

[img]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b52/gaepps/Fishing/abovefallsrdGP.jpg[/img]

The brookies are normally up these little spring streams but the low water brings them down to the big river.
[img]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b52/gaepps/Fishing/branchGP.jpg[/img]

All in all a very nice escape of the heat for a few hours. Yes it can get crowded but if you're willing to hike a bit you'll have no issues. It wasn't until I got back toward the road that I ran into what I call the "post movie" crowd.

Maryland is not where I want to be but there are some nice places and I'll be out of here as soon as reasonable. In the meantime my creeks and rivers and good folks like Isaac, 7x57Steve, Roof, Jorge and others keep me sane.

Nice pic-tale.

Thanks for sharing and bringing back memories. I have caught browns all over the US, Europe and Russia and have never seen a pretttier brown than one caught in the Gun Powder. Beautiful fish there. Spent many years when i worked in DC fishing the Gun Powder.


I used to tie green deer hair Inch worm pattern in 10-12 and they used to work really well there. Of course ants too. Also I used to go up to the dam ( Your fifth pic) . Put on a strike indicator and set it about 4-6 feet with a chronie. Cast to foot of dam and let it float around. Caught many, many fish doing this. I think it may have been cheating.

The green weenie is still very popular, particularly with a peacock collar and often tied with a beadhead. Ants and grashoppers work really well in the right spot, usually down lower in the river where there is lots of grass on the sides (as expected). I've never actually fished the pool up below the dam but nothing wrong with fishing a chronomid IMO. It's all fair and it's all fishing.

Out west here, but that looks like a fine place to spend a day. Thanks for posting,

the gunpowder is a great little fishery, i make it there one or two times a year