Day out on the Gunpowerder River with Micah

[Brian W.]

I am very new to fly fishing and thanks to this group I have received some good tips on places to practice.  I went out to Lake Needwood, but found a lot of weeds and not a lot of room for the casting.  I tried Clopper Lake.  It was a great place to practice with a lot of room, but the fish were not in the mood to play along.

I then ventured out to Tridelphia Reservoir.  It is a great place with plenty of open spaces to work on my cast while giving my boys places to play.  I was even able to catch a small mouth bass on a wooly bugger.

Today it got real, and I went out to Gunpowder River with Micah from Knee Deep.  Micah was quite patient with my type A personality.  His philosophy of fly fishing matched well with my personality.  After working with me on my casts, showing me how to set up the rig, and catching a 2 inch brown trout, just to make sure the bar was set, it was my turn.  After smacking around the line a bit and learning what it meant for my casting motion to come to a stop, I started getting the feel for my rod.  And then, bam, I caught my first brown trout on my very on fly rod, in my own state.  It was about 7", although about 2' in my mind.  The Cheshire grin was ear to ear.  I kept the smile on my face as we spent the next 3 hours working the river, as Micah showed me how to look for the edges of the riffles where the different flowing water paralleled.  While i had a chance at a couple more fish as they lunged for my fly, I only brought in the one, but that was good enough.  I had a great time, I learned way more than I ever could from the books, I enjoyed being out on the river at peace, and became thoroughly addicted. 

Going back this weekend......

[namfos]

Hooked & landed you are!  Congrats on your outing.

[Jeff Silvan]

Congrats! Sounds like you had a great trip. I'm planning on my first trip up to the Gunpowder this weekend. 

[Richard Lin]

Yeah I will go back to Gunpowerder again. Last May I was on the way to Philadelphia for business, I thought I could stop by Gunpowerder for 2 hours – yes I did. First time I was there and the place was liking a heaven place. Oh Yeahhh – it was not only I stopped by, I caught my very very first little brook trout.  It had made my day!!

 

Richard

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[Brian Walsh]

Great to hear. We will be up there early Sunday morning for about 3 or 4 hours. We will head upstream from the bridge and parking lot area off of Masemore Rd. Look for us if you head up on Sunday.

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[Jeffrey Silvan]

Figured I'd report back on my trip, especially since you're going out tomorrow AM. I got there about 9 AM (same launch location as you - Masemore). I discovered two things very quickly - not having insulated socks means very cold feet, and I have no idea what the heck I'm doing on a trout stream when the fish aren't taking dry flies. There was no insect activity in the morning. That didn't stop me from trying caddis flies and midges with no success. I tried ants and hoppers, too, but the frost last night probably stopped any terrestrial activity. I tried streamers, nymphs, and even a attractor/nymph dropper. Nada. Granted, I know detecting nymph strikes is supposed to be challenging, so who knows how many hits I might have had. I was seeing fish, so I know they were at least there. 

Around 11, I started seeing the first signs of bugs. The caddis started hatching, and shortly after the rises started. They appeared to be tan caddis, but I couldn't get a strike on the tan ones. I switched to olive and on my second cast got my first brown trout of the day - about 12". I got another strike on my next cast, but the hook didn't set. About 5 minutes later, the hatch stopped and the fish stopped rising.

The bugs were sporadic through the afternoon until about 2, then the big pool I was in stayed active on top through the rest of the day til I left around 5. At first I couldn't get a strike on anything from the rising fish - I couldn't even see what they were rising too, so I tried white midges and black midges after the caddis didn't work. Finally, I switched to the Griffith's Gnat. First cast, another brown trout, about 8". Next cast, another one, about 12". After that, the fish completely ignored it. A little while later, I finally saw "tan" caddis again. Despite seeing no fewer than 10 trout actively feeding in this pool, they wouldn't take the tan caddis. I switched to the olive, and once again, my first cast brought in another 12+ inch brown trout. I missed another one on my second cast, and once again, the fish just instantly stopped showing any interest in the same fly that was a delicacy minutes before. I tried switching around size, color, and even tried midges and droppers again, but nothing.

I have no idea why the fish stopped taking the fly after the second catch/strike each time. Maybe I just tried working the same pools too hard. Either way, it was a pretty awesome day. It was my first time river fishing for trout, other than a couple guided native brook trout trips here and up in New England. Thanks to everyone on the board who has given advice along the way!

Jeff

[Rich, Marek]

Fishing the Gunpowder can be one of the most rewarding yet challenging experiences for a trout fisherman. Given its beauty and proximity to major cities, it obviously receives the requisite fishing pressure; thereby making some of the more accessible portions of the river terribly difficult. I’d say you had a very good day on the GP, Jeff. It’s not uncommon to come off the water skunked or a mere 2 or 3 landed. Changing tactics, evaluating water/weather conditions and adopting to your environment is the name of the game. That and dropping into the Backwater Angler for some local intel!

 

I’ve only experienced it a few times, but I would strongly encourage those with the interest and availability to fish GP at last light/no light. You’ll be amazed at the number of fish in that river and their willingness to take a dry fly!  

 

Keep at it, Jeff!

 

Marek

[Jeffrey Silvan]

Thanks, Marek. From my single data point of this past trip, I can vouch for the last light/no light comment. As I said in my post, the dry fly fishing didn't REALLY start until afternoon (at least in the stretches I was fishing), and then really picked up in the last couple hours before I left. I would've stayed longer, but I was exhausted since I unfortunately had stayed up watching the Nationals the night before, then got up early for the trip. My whole walk back to the car, I saw rises - though not quite like I saw in the one pool I was fishing at the end.

[Brian W.]

Jeff, thank you for the great report. Unfortunately I didn't read it until sunday night after spending the morning at the river. Our experience was much like the one described by those who responded to your post. It was a beautiful day and the weather was great, but I was only able to land two very young browns. We left at 1045am, just before your day turned around. All in all it was a great day to be out, but definitely a challenge. I will probably look to head out to the middle pentuxant river in the next couple of weeks to try a little closer to home. Next time I go to the gunpowder I will be sure to make it the end of my day and not the beginning. Thanks again for your report.