sarce
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2013
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Met up with Lutz for an afternoon of wild trout prospecting in Northern MD on Sunday afternoon. Both of us had reason to drive a fair ways to meet – 5-7 inches of rain on Saturday ruined my usual streams in the DC/Frederick MD area, and Lutz had to cancel a guided trip in PA due to similar conditions. Some portions of MD ended up escaping with only 2-3” of rain, so we agreed to meet in that general area and take on a surprisingly remote small stream with challenging access which I had fished only once before. The radar looked a little scary to the east of where we wanted to go, so it really seemed like this place was the ONLY possibility for the day.
This year I have been exploring a lot of new water as I am bracing for the inevitable, possibly soon, loss of my favorite large brown trout water due to ongoing landowner changes. So far it has proven difficult to find other water that holds anything over 12”. Either that or I have proven that I suck at catching them. We hoped this trip, in perfect streamer fishing weather, would reveal that this new stream holds those larger class of fish.
We ended up finding a ton of aggressive wild browns, landing over 20 and missing at least as many. None exceeded 12”, despite ideal conditions, cool 66-degree water, and fishing a number of large plunge pools with undercut boulders. Initially we were fishing the slightly off-colored water from the soaking rain the night before, and then after enduring a quick but intense thunderstorm, we fished the rising and increasingly muddy water that immediately followed. Fish hammered streamers all day. If there were big fish to be found, I think we would have tangled with them – but it just goes to show that small streams with large brown trout are not all that common, at least not here in MD.
With all that said, it was a truly awesome outing for the fact that it happened at all in between periods of some really ugly weather. We were able to use radar estimated rainfall and a knowledge base of streams covering a wide area, built from extensive “pick a blue line and go for it” type of exploring, to make the most of what the weather gods dealt us. To me, this is a great reason to keep exploring new water – you may one day need to fall back on that prior experience simply to find somewhere with fishable conditions! I never get tired of streams like this full of beautiful wild trout. Pics 5 and 6 below are from Lutz, the rest are mine. Thanks for reading.
This year I have been exploring a lot of new water as I am bracing for the inevitable, possibly soon, loss of my favorite large brown trout water due to ongoing landowner changes. So far it has proven difficult to find other water that holds anything over 12”. Either that or I have proven that I suck at catching them. We hoped this trip, in perfect streamer fishing weather, would reveal that this new stream holds those larger class of fish.
We ended up finding a ton of aggressive wild browns, landing over 20 and missing at least as many. None exceeded 12”, despite ideal conditions, cool 66-degree water, and fishing a number of large plunge pools with undercut boulders. Initially we were fishing the slightly off-colored water from the soaking rain the night before, and then after enduring a quick but intense thunderstorm, we fished the rising and increasingly muddy water that immediately followed. Fish hammered streamers all day. If there were big fish to be found, I think we would have tangled with them – but it just goes to show that small streams with large brown trout are not all that common, at least not here in MD.
With all that said, it was a truly awesome outing for the fact that it happened at all in between periods of some really ugly weather. We were able to use radar estimated rainfall and a knowledge base of streams covering a wide area, built from extensive “pick a blue line and go for it” type of exploring, to make the most of what the weather gods dealt us. To me, this is a great reason to keep exploring new water – you may one day need to fall back on that prior experience simply to find somewhere with fishable conditions! I never get tired of streams like this full of beautiful wild trout. Pics 5 and 6 below are from Lutz, the rest are mine. Thanks for reading.
