Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I planned last week to take this Friday and Monday off for a long weekend. The plan was to trout fish one of the days and bass fish the other. The weather didn’t cooperate today so I opted for a quick shot on the Big Gunpowder River in MD since the state opened up recreational fishing this week. I fished the catch and release section for wild brown trout.

I got on the stream around 1:45 pm and hoped to get a few hours in before the heavy rain.



I was the only one on the stretch of stream and the on and off rain made it quite peaceful. Within minutes I had a tiny fingerling trout eat a nymph and I lost it at my feet. I lost the first 3 fish I hooked but I was getting bites so I was optimistic. I then finally landed a tiny fingerling but it wasn’t worth the picture so I quickly released it.

Oddly, the bites got slow and I hadn’t landed another fish for some time. There were a few mayflies coming off but not a major hatch. Even still, I had a few fish rising around me. So I switched up my rig to a dry / dropper setup with a small midge on the bottom. I never got a hit on the dry but the midge did the trick.



I had pretty steady action for the next hour and landed 8 more. Here are some samples.



While none were big, those wild browns were fighting hard for their size. On the way out I had one more little fingerling but the rest were all about the same size as above. It started to rain heavily so it was time to call it a day. Final tally was 10 landed, 4 hooked and lost, and a few other hits. Not bad at all. In addition, that gives me a trout in every calendar month of the year since I started fly fishing last June.

Cold and wet, I finished the night with a hot bowl oh Pho. I’d call that a pretty good day.

Last edited by Paul Naj (May-08-20 5:49PM)