Gunpowder River

[smm717]

Interesting. Any thoughts??
http://www.backwaterangler.com/2016/07/21/5-000-new-rainbows-in-the-catch-and-release-section-of-the-gunpowder/

 

[redietz]

I truly wish they would stop doing that. The Gunpowder is a wonderful wild brown fishery. Why do they need put stocked fish, even if they're fingerlings, over wild fish?

At least, as a DNR representative told our TU chapter earlier this year, the primary effect is provide food for the browns.

 

[ryansheehan]

I know red spends a lot of time on the gp as do I. The browns do a good job controlling the rainbow population. When they first put them in you catch and see a ton of them, 6 months from now they are mostly gone. One of the reasons imo (there are more) that the average brown is relatively small is lack of forage food in the upper part of the river.Don't get me wrong I've caught some large fish there but most are around 5-6 inches. Atleast the state is putting in fingerlings and they are a beautiful strain(kamloop I believe). They truly look like wild fish. I don't see this as a top ten issue on the gp fishery, curious what others think.

 

[redietz]

To be clear, what I object to is putting in stocked fish at all, given Maryland's poor track record in containing hatchery spread disease. The fact that it's rainbows going in has little impact on the fishery overall.

 

[ryansheehan]

I get what your saying red and I think we are pretty much on the same page.

 

[1manwolfpack]

I'm planning on fishing the GP tomorrow. It will only be the second time I've fished a tailwater (once on the GP last year). I was curious how the cold water temps affected the fishing. Does the bite not turn on until later in the day? I was thinking about nymphing my way upstream and then tossing some terrestrials on my way back down. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks.

 

[redietz]

They pushed the flow up to 90 cfs yesterday, so the fishing should be pretty good. You might want to try soft hackles instead of nymphs (or not) but other than that you plan sounds as good as any. My personal preference in terrestrials are parachute ants. A size 16 was working pretty well for me before last weekend's deluge.

There might be tricos in the morning, but they start later in the year on the Gunpowder than any other river I know about.

The "cold" is a relative term. We're talking mid-50's, not winter type temps. It's probably warmer than Big Spring is at the moment. It will fish just fine any time of day; the biggest concern is probably not spooking fish. Use a long leader, and pay attention to shadows/shade.

 

[smm717]

Snapped at Great Feathers this morning for anybody that might be interested.

 

[redietz]

smm717 wrote:
Snapped at Great Feathers this morning for anybody that might be interested.

Take that sign with a grain of salt -- it's often a week or two behind. The current flow at the Parkton gauge is 134 cfs, which is slightly on the high side. (Still very fishable.) Water temp is 52.

Here's a link to the flow gauge for Gunpowder. As you can see, the flow's been bumped up twice this week:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?01581920

 

[ryansheehan]

That might be really old, the flows have been alot of things lately but not 40 cfs.