Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Was thinking of heading to the Mattawoman for snakeheads and bass on Sunday but the evening weather looked a bit dicey with t-storms forecasted, so I loaded the truck with trout gear and hit The Gunpowder in MD. I love tailwater streams. 57 degrees, nice flow and clear water. It can often make for tough fishing but the cool of the stream was a welcome relief of the 90+ degree heat.



As I drove over the stream to get to my spot, the parking lot and road was packed with cars but there was no one fishing that stretch. It turned out to be hikers and tubers. The "tube hatch" was in full effect.



I was thinking I made a big mistake making the drive given that the river is low and tubers were flailing their way and even walking through all of the deep runs that I wanted to fish. Instead of leaving, however, I hoped that as evening approached it would calm down and I would find a few fish. I met another angler in the lot where I fished and he found a few fish rising on a caddis fly before the tubers came through. So I stayed calm, worked a few spots and within minutes after the wave in the picture above went through, I hooked and lost a small brown. I feared that might be the last fish I saw as more smaller packs of tubers came through.

I then came upon a faster run. I had been fishing a dry / dropper with no luck. I picked up my tight line nymphing setup and immediately started hitting fish in the faster water. This was the first landed.



I then focused on similar water and for the next hour or so into sunset, I landed 8 fish and probably lost another 7 or 8 before they got to the net. Those little trout have an uncanny knack for shaking themselves off of a barbless hook. I found that the bigger fish dug deeper in the current and stayed hooked way more. Here are a few samples-

 

After thinking through the day, I believe that when tubers are on the river, the trout hug super tight to the bottom. Since they can't leave the river, I believe they stay low and just scatter when someone walks through their territory, but then quickly regroup in deeper water. I believe that putting those nymphs tight to the bottom got them looked at a lot and the trout were eager to take a meal since they wouldn't be roaming very far. All in all it was good action and nice practice for my trip to Montana in October.

Last edited by Paul Naj (Jul-08-20 10:05AM)