Just when the fishing was getting good, early April’s deluge sent the Gunpowder to unfishably high levels and sent me elsewhere (such as Little Falls and Morgan Run). I checked this morning, and the Parkton USGS station was reading 208 cfs and 44 degrees. Still a bit tough wading, but worth checking out.
The fishing was pretty good.
Early on, a black wooly bugger netted me this streambred brown:
The morning was actually pretty slow. I kept getting annoyed by the hordes of tiny size 24 midges swarming around. The answer was literally hitting me in the face.
The black midge fly is a size 20. I don’t know what the little one is, but the trout were all over it. I caught half a dozen trout on this pattern, from Masemore to the 4th boulder pool. All of that area was fishing well enough once I ‘matched the hatch’. By early afternoon, I saw sporadic rises as well, but I don’t think the rises were for midges…
I don’t know if this little midge will be hatching this weekend, but weather and water temps look like fishing is going to be decent to good regardless. Be careful wading, because flows are still pretty high. Good luck and have fun–this should be a good weekend!
James Kibler 