Any tips on the Paint Branch?

[Reno]

Has anybody ever tried their luck with this little stream in Montgomery County? I've got a few hours on Saturday morning, and the idea of a self-sustaining brown trout population so near DC is pretty hard to resist. On top of that, a friend and I got our first tight lines of the year last weekend, and now we both have the fever.

I have tried to find some information on the internet, but there is precious little out there. It seems like the browns are small and hard to find. If we strike out with them, will we still manage to find something that will chase a fly? Anybody who has an experience they're willing to share is appreciated.

[Fred]

Good luck with that, if you cAn find the few wherever they are and with the inter county connector being built . Theres run off cocerns etc... I went and researched it to no avail. 

>))))*>

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 4, 2011, at 10:20 PM, Reno <steve.s...@googlemail.com> wrote:

Has anybody ever tried their luck with this little stream in Montgomery County? I've got a few hours on Saturday morning, and the idea of a self-sustaining brown trout population so near DC is pretty hard to resist. On top of that, a friend and I got our first tight lines of the year last weekend, and now we both have the fever.

I have tried to find some information on the internet, but there is precious little out there. It seems like the browns are small and hard to find. If we strike out with them, will we still manage to find something that will chase a fly? Anybody who has an experience they're willing to share is appreciated.

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[CHUCKSTER]

I used to live in Laurel Md., and I have fished this lil' stream on
several occasions and all I caught was sucker fish and didn't see any
trout at all. There is a book by Larry Coburn on the catch and release
streams in Maryland that has info on this lil' stream and a bunch of
other locations in our area. It can be purchased at Bass Pro Shop @
Arundel Mills in the fly shop, if you don't have it yet. Larry is the
manager of the fly shop and a real nice dude. Peace!

[Brendan]

I thought i had replied to this earlier but something must of went
awry.

I know there's the chapter on it in Larry Coburn's book, which overall
is a very useful resource for MD streams, but i think he included
Paint Branch in there as more of a discussion piece than a
recommendation on a good stream to hit.

Speaking of hot... I haven't heard of any fish being caught since the
drought year of 2007 and with the heat last summer, I wouldn't be
surprised if the small population was almost completely destroyed.
Even during a cool summer the temps still get over 70 for prolonged
periods, making survival difficult even for the hardiest of brown
trout. With the amount of heat we had combined w/ extremely low
flows, I would be very surprised if you find anything beyond sunfish,
suckers and eels,

interested to hear how it goes.

good luck and be safe.

/brendan

[Michael Frank]

I  lived in DC for 10 years back in the 90's and fished this stream probably a half dozen times.  I managed to catch two of those wild browns.  I spotted one rising to something too small to see and got it to take a reverse-tied midge on the surface.  The other hit a simple foam beetle pattern with a yellow foam shell that I blind cast around some rocks expecting bluegills to hit it.  These fish were small and silvery  but definitely brown trout.  That silvery cast to their coloration was an indication that the water conditions were not ideal even back then.

Most times I fished the place there were bluegills and chubs that were willing to hit nymphs, streamers, and generic dries and terrestrials.  Didn't go out there often because there is so much other good fishing in the DC area, but every now and then the idea of catching a wild brown wading into a stream that flowed through a greenway park while hikers and bikers stared in disbelief was too hard to resist.

I live in Columbia, SC now where we have a large river full of stocked trout, introduced smallmouth bass, and a native population of landlocked striped bass flowing through town.  I haven't gotten up to DC much in recent years and the times I have I haven't had as much time to fish as I would have liked.  Makes me want to get up there this spring and walk the Tidal Basin for a few hours with fly rod in hand casting for crappies and bass.

On Monday, April 4, 2011 at 10:20:52 PM UTC-4, Reno wrote:

Has anybody ever tried their luck with this little stream in Montgomery County? I've got a few hours on Saturday morning, and the idea of a self-sustaining brown trout population so near DC is pretty hard to resist. On top of that, a friend and I got our first tight lines of the year last weekend, and now we both have the fever.

I have tried to find some information on the internet, but there is precious little out there. It seems like the browns are small and hard to find. If we strike out with them, will we still manage to find something that will chase a fly? Anybody who has an experience they're willing. to share is appreciated.

[TurbineBlade]

Epic thread revival Mike -- with the exception of Brendan, we may need to determine whether these folks are still alive ;).  

Gene

[namfos]

In the late 70s, early 80s, there was a regular caller to radio talk show host Joel Spivak who raved about the native browns in Paint Branch and how Maryland ought not permit any further development, etc., etc. He went by the handle of "Depo Provera." But his calls and interaction with Joel (truly one of the greatest at his game) were funny, informative and always worth listening to. I've no proof, but I've long suspected that 'Depo Provera" was Foreign Service officer and author Datus Proper. IF you tie flies for trout, his book "What The Trout Said" is must reading.

Mark

[namfos]

Gene, 

Datus Proper, alas, is not alive. He died while fishing Hyalite Creek near Bozeman, MT in 2003. 

Mark