July 11-13, 2017
Through the years I have had so much east coast business travel. I had totally given up on finding a river within driving distance of DC that support wild trout and is fishable year round. The area gets hot and the rivers that are within striking distance like the Rose and those in West Virginia flow low and warm in the summer and many of them close.
Another nice brown from the Gunpowder River….with a bullethead skwalla sticking out of his face.
Well, when the world famous Harmon Cabins on the North Fork South Branch Potomac River told me no way in July I almost gave up. That would have been a 2.5 hour minimum drive from DC. I just couldn’t look outside that radius. It would have been too much. 2 months before my trip, I totally lucked out on an internet search and found the Gunpowder River in Maryland. The Gunpowder River is a tail water that supports reproducing trout (Browns, Rainbows, Brooks). Most of the river is not stocked; it doesn’t need to be. The Gunpowder runs cool all summer long because of a “below dam” release. The river is small, but even in low flow there are many spots where the river is not crossable.
It’s located in Gunpowder Fall State Park, which is a public recreation area comprising six non-contiguous areas covering 18,000 acres in northeastern Baltimore County and western Harford County, Maryland. The area is absolutely beautiful. And low flows of summer means easy wading, but a stealthy approach and long casts will reward you.
After finding the Gunpowder River on the internet, another targeted internet search yielded Backwater Anglers fly shop located just outside the park border. I immediately contacted them and arranged for a guide for me alone on Wednesday and then for my buddies Tom and Loren on Thursday. I got a reservation at a cheap local hotel in the Hunt Valley and started to get excited. I was going to play hookie from work for a couple days and fly fish. It was an 11 day business trip so, I wasn’t feeling too guilty about doing it since I work the early mornings, nights and both weekends anyways.
The Gunpowder River
Well in DC, on Tuesday my keynote demo went really well and my afternoon meeting postponed. I looked at my watch, 2pm. And that is when I decided to try to beat the traffic out of DC and make it to the river for a couple hours to catch the evening hatch. It was slightly tricky figuring out where to park my rental car, but with a little research, I found the closest place to the fly shop. It was a huge paved parking lot and the State Park signs identified it. But, there was no guard shack to take my money. I wondered if I was in the right place. It was. I walked the trail down to the river and was the only sole there. I stepped into the river and as I was slowly getting into position I saw a rise. My first cast produced a 8” brown. I knew it was going to be a good evening session. When I staggered out of the river a couple hours later I had landed ~15 fish and easily lost twice that. It was getting dark by the time I exited the river; the fireflies let my path back up the trail. “Tomorrow, guided, “ I said to myself, “was going to be a good day.”
My guide, Gene Howson from Backwater Anglers is a 27 year old Scotsman. With that Scottish accent he sounded so old on the phone. I was a bit surprised he is so young. Gene suggested an early start, 630am because of the weather; hot and humid. I’m glad he did. We did well. Gene took me to a lot of places. When we first entered the river there was a mist that gave it kind of an eerie feel. I had not fished in the East in so long I forgot about that mist. We didn’t see a single other angler. We caught a lot of fish, but it definitely shut down mid day just like Gene predicted.
Gene Howson, Backwater Anglers Crossing the river through the mist
The next day Gene took all four of us to another new spot on the river. This place was the most beautiful of all. It was in a canyon and took a hike down to the water. I took my high school buddy Dan Cerniglia with me. I hadn’t seen dan in a couple years. We got into a habit of fishing at least once a year together, but when he went back to American Airlines to fly 737s his schedule became unpredictable. I totally lucked out that my trip to DC was on a couple days when dan was off. Gene lead Tom and Loren, my buddies from the msft .net partner advisory council. It was such awesome trout water. But it was slow. Still a totally fun day. and we did burn some calories.
Dan Cerniglia, keeping that tight loop while smoking a cigar
I have been studying solunar theory for over a year. I have disproven it numerous times by getting skunked on good solunar days…and the exact opposite, killing on days that should have been poor fishing. http://fly-fishing-blog.timhuckaby.com/solunar-theory-as-applied-to-fly-fishing/ Solunar theory basically says animals are more active when the sun and moon are closest to the earth. Anyways, I did look at the scoring (I used an app called “Fishing and Hunting Solunar Time” ) and the scoring for Tuesday (out of 100) was 64, Wednesday was 33, And Thursday was 13. That would explain why Tuesday afternoon / night I did so well. And it was slower Wednesday and really slow Thursday.
The gang: me, Dan Cerniglia, Tom O’Connell and Loren Goodman
All in all I fished 4 different locations on the Gunpowder and found every type of water: runs, pocket water, pools, riffles, tail-outs, heads, steep canyon water and water falls. The fishing was really good at times and challenging at times. I caught a lot of brown trout. I even had a sucker rise on me. Nothing huge….although I bet the Gunpowder has some exceptions. Most of the fish I caught went 4” to 14”.
It’s a beautiful place. I can’t wait to get back.
If you are on a trip in the DC area I strongly suggest you contact Gene Howson of Backwaters anglers. He’s a great guide and a great kid. Contact Gene by phone at 410-357-9557 or by email