Pacemaker Fishing Forum

My journey into fly fishing has had a steep learning curve to say the least. While I'm loving the challenge and learning new things daily, there's definitely some frustration involved in in the process. So when my insomnia hit Saturday night into Sunday, I almost decided not to go thinking I wouldn't be that sharp with only 3 hours of sleep. I'm glad I pushed through the exhaustion and made the trip.

This was my 2nd trip to this river and the water flow and depth was about half of what I fished last time so I knew everything I learned that trip would be different this time. The plan was to fish nymphs and I decided to continue to play around with with a technique known as Euro or tight line nymphing. With this technique you use bead headed nymphs and long leader to get to the bottom and the fly line barely leaves the rod, if at all. The low water makes the runs in this small stream perfect for this close in style of fishing. Here are the nymphs I decided to start with. They didn't change much all day except for color.



I arrived at 5:45 am, geared up, and after a 15 minute hike downstream, I quickly hooked up with this little guy.



Although it was small, it was a fish, I caught it quickly in a very shallow run and it was encouraging. It took me less than 10 minutes to hook up again and give me the feeling I was onto something. This one was a slightly better fish and apparently pretty average for this river.



When I found the right water I had fairly consistent bites. I was able to land 9 fish, hooked and lost another half dozen and had several other hits. I also spent less time untangling my leader and flies and replacing lost flies from hooking trees than past trips so I was happy. About 20 minutes before calling it a day, I found a very narrow run that cut right up against a bank and under an overhanging tree. After about 4 or 5 tries, I got lucky and laid a cast into the perfect current seam that took the nymphs right under the tree and was rewarded with a good hookup. I was surprised when the fish started taking drag. I was able to get this beauty to net.



Apparently that is big fish for the Gunpowder. As healthy as a fishery it is reproducing wild brown trout, the bigger ones are not caught very often in this highly pressured, technical tailwater. I felt accomplished and my day was complete.

As a bonus I finished the day with this juvenile rainbow trout.