Sunday Morning Trip?

[JohnCSullivan]

Does anyone want to headout Sunday morning?

I was thinking of either Gunpowder, Owens/Hunting Creek or possibly Morgan's Run.

Let me know if anyone is interested.

[chesapeakeblend]

reports don't look to promising (as posted on backwater angler):

We have the lowest water of the season, make it the past few seasons, at 32 CFs, the water temp is warming a bit and it's tough to get close to pooled up fish-even with 7x. Abandon all hopes of floating the river in any device. The fish are spooky throughout the catch and release section, so give the lower river a look. Access points such as Bluemount road , Monkton, Upper and Lower Glencoe and Sparks are certainly worth trying.

Little Falls joins the Gunpowder at Bluemount and adds a good bit of water to the river at the confluence. Streamers such as black woolly buggers and marabou muddlers sized #10-12 and large dries like Humpies, Wulffs and Hoppers in the lower river are a good bet. Plan on covering more water than you normally would in the upper stretches.

[Salmo trutta]

I fished Hunting Creek and Owens creek three times two weeks ago in the middle of the week. I had a job in Thurmont and milked it for everything it had. I was determined to get some decent fishing in.

The conditions were awful and you had to be Hudini himself to sneak up on those fish. The water was barely a trickle on Owens and the only decent pool I found had a toothless family swimming in it [sad].

I worked a decent section of Owens upstream and spooked one fish and had one rise from a 1 foot wide riffle. I was discouraged to say the least and fished Hunting Creek the next two evenings. The first time I fished up high near some popular pools that always hold fish. Sure, there might have been some fish but I had to crawl on my stomach to get a cast in and still spooked the fish. I hooked more tree limbs and spooked more fish than I did when I first started fly fishing 15 years ago. I eventually gave up, fishless, with a broken spirit.

I swore not to go back but the next evening came and I had finished my work earlier than expected. Back to Hunting Creek with the dog and the trusty 5wt. This time I fished further down river towards the end of the Catch and Release. The theory was that maybe there will be more water further down stream. But it was the same situation, barely any water but I found a pool with fish working the surface and managed a 6 inch rainbow. I was delighted and had a grin from ear to ear. Next fish was a three inch brown from the only decent riffle left in the stream. Another grin… The final fish took a nymph at the bottom of a deep, stagnant pool. Another rainbow that looked like he was having a hard time with the heat and low water. He barely fought and looked anorexic. But I’d say the few hours spent that day were a success and rewarding. Very difficult fishing presently with the low water. Oh yea, and I still made it back in time for dinner and the daily evening walk with the pregnant wife.

My advice is to head west but the Gunpowder could be decent. But if the water gets too low in the reservoir, they will start to release water from above the thermocline and this will mean a release of water in the 70 to 80 degree temperature range. It happened back in 2002 when we had that drought. But I don’t think we are at that stage yet.

[Tissy Furnes]

I was in Angler's Lie yesterday and Grizzley was telling folks that the GP was super low and he was advising folks not to fish it in order not to stress the fish. His advice was 'go bass fishing instead.'

[Salmo trutta]

Yea, what Griz said, go bass fishing. The Potomac is fishing very well.