Frustrated with the high, cold water and didymo at Gunpowder (and maybe a little inspired by the stocking I did last week), I decided to check out 2 other Maryland trout streams this week I was hoping for a little easy action with the stocked streams I picked. Didn’t turn out that way.
Maryland DNR is busy stocking trout streams all over the state. Many of these streams are closed to allow the fish to acclimate. If you are planning to go out, check the stocking schedule to make sure you don’t fish a closed section.
Daniels Dam section of the Patapsco
On Wednesday (3/19), I fished the 2 trout a day Daniels Dam section of the Patapsco.
You can see the dam in the background, past the old railroad trestle. This is a larger stream by Maryland standards, and has several sections that looked just incredibly ‘fishy’. Additionally, the water was 41.5 degrees when I got there, a full degree warmer than the Gunpowder.
I fished about an hour and a half, first casting streamers with no success, then trying out a variety of nymphs before pulling up this little guy on a midge emerger fished as a nymph:
I think this section is definitely worth another look when I can spend some more time there.
Morgan Run
On Thursday (3/20), I decided to check out Morgan Run. I had heard great things, both about the beauty of the river itself, and about the plentiful and not overly picky trout. It was one of those days where you show up to the river and think to yourself “this is going to be a special day”. And then it isn’t.
The stream lived up to its reputation in one regard: it is beautiful. The clear, emerald tinged pools reminded me of a tiny version of Utah’s Green River. With one major difference. I didn’t see any trout. As clear as the water was, I was shocked not to see a single fish other than the one I caught.
The water was relatively warm (42.5 degrees), and bugs were abundant, but I saw not a single rise all day. I think the stocked trout haven’t figured out that stoneflies are food.
I believe that to be a little black stonefly, but my entomology skills are weak. Whatever they are, they were abundant and very small (sz 18 or 20). Wild trout would have been gorging on them. As the water at Morgan Run was nearly 1.5 degrees warmer than the Gunpowder at the same time, I would expect to potentially see nice hatches of these flies on the Gunpowder. I have seen sporadic examples already.
And then there’s this:
Any biologists reading this, please feel free to let me know what this is in the comments section. It was about 2.5 inches long, and has weird tendrils near its ‘mouth’.
Anyway, the sole fish I caught was on a prince nymph, and he squirted away before I could get a picture of him. He looked pretty much just like his cousin (above). I tried more or less everything in the 4 hours I was there, so I can’t be of much help in terms of ‘what’s working’ at this point.
James Kibler 