Pacemaker Fishing Forum

In spite of less than ideal conditions today, I was in the mood to catch a trout so I headed up to the Big Gunpowder River since it’s one of the closest trout streams around. After the snow and freezing rain this past week the river was up a little bit at a very fishable flow of 94 CFS. This was not going to be a long trip and I was only planing to fish 2.5 to 3 hours. In spite of windy conditions the temps were above freezing for the first 2 hours and I was quite comfortable.



I moved around quite a bit to locate fish. I threw a few casts into a shallower riffle (not expecting anything) and got my first hit of the day. It was a small fish and he came unbuttoned a few seconds later. I continued to work downstream and found a deep run against the far bank. I got my 2nd hit, a better fish and fought him across the stream. Net in hand, I began to reach down and he jumped and came off.

Just short of 2 hours in I caught and netted a beautiful wild brown around 10 or 11 inches, a very typical size for this stream.



I had several other hits but decided to work my way back to my truck since it was starting to get dark. I also started to feel the cold from having wet hands after catching the fish. It dropped below freezing the last 45 minutes or so and I had to clear ice from my guides a few times. On the way back I landed 1 more little brown.



In total I fished about 3 hours, landed 2, lost 2 and had 3 or 4 other hits. Certainly no complaints for mid to late January.

Last edited by Paul Naj (Jan-19-20 8:32PM)