Labor Day Report(s)

[Dave Stephenson]

Hit the river at Lock 8 for a couple hours early this morning. Water was crystal clear and absolutely alive with small fry and surface hatches until about 0900. Offered surface poppers, terrestrials, clousers, and crayfish patterns. No serious takers. Probably more my poor casting and presentation skills than anything. Still a beautiful way to start a day off. Hope others have better luck. Cheers,

Dave

[Andrew Sarcinello]

Beats the alternative on most mondays, that's for sure! I didn't hear many good reports from the rivers this weekend - anyone do well?

My dad and I fished the Monocacy for about an hour and a half and only caught 3 smallmouths. Loads of big sunfish kept things interesting though. Water was pretty badly off-color. We went up a tributary and still did not find clear water but we did find a little bit better action, with 10 bass caught between us (2 LMB, 8 SMB). Nothing over 12" though. My dad used a yellow boogle bug and I used a chartreuse shad jig (tied by Rob). Tried white too but it got ignored. In the last pool of the day I dropped a shad jig almost on the nose of a channel cat and caught it. Only my second catfish on a fly, it wasn't very big (maybe 16") but enjoyed catching something different.

[JT]

Sight fishing to catfish--nice!  I've caught a few and they're fun on a fly rod, but they've always been a total surprise when I'm pulling streamers for bass.  I visited a friend in Idaho this weekend and the Henry's Fork was good to me.

[Connor Donovan]

Nice brown!!

Took advantage of the cooler weather and floated the North Branch Potomac Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.  Did Westernport to McCoole for the first two days and the McCoole to Yoder float yesterday to see what was down there.  Caddis were everywhere.  In the air.  On the surface.  Seemed like every few casts I had some sort of pre-emergent caddis on my dropper.  Except for a stretches of streamer fishing, we fished dry dropper setups with a lot of success.

Saturday was the best day with over 50 fish landed, most small, but all wild.  Sunday I floated solo and waded some spots that looked good the day before.  Managed to catch a few nicer fish on streamers in the late afternoon.  As is tradition, I hitched a ride to the put-in when I finished.  Yesterday was a fun float.  We caught trout through the first half dozen runs then started catching smallies and the occasional large mouth for the rest of the float.  All weekend the flows were at 280 through these stretches.  While definitely on the low side, it was doable with some dragging. 

What really grinded my gears was how brown the river turns after floating by that wastewater plant.  I figured the brown discharge would settle after a few miles but it didn't.  Even at the takeout yesterday, some 8-9 miles downriver, it's very stained making it difficult to see some sub surface rocks.  I know this is on the river keeper network's radar but honestly, it looks sketchy.  Does anyone have any insight as how this is allowable or if they vary the discharge rate?