Spring is here in the Mid-Atlantic. We’ve had a full week of sunshine with temperatures reaching almost 80 degrees on a handful of days. The trout stockings of early Spring have been in full swing, and I’ve spent most of my fishing days chasing these trout in February and March. One of the last weekends in March, I fished the Morgan Run boulders area off Klee Mill Road, and caught several brown trout on nymphs. The highlight of that trip…
The weather has finally started improving so I decided to take advantage of one of our warm April days in the DC area. The temperatures were approaching 70 degrees when I arrived at a local Maryland stream. I’ve always stayed away from streamer fishing, but lately, I’ve decided to work on my presentation. I wondered if my lack of interest is a result of my lack of streamer skills, or if I truly don’t like fishing those flies. I’d say…
This weekend I took a short drive over to the Little Patuxent River in Maryland. It’s only a 30-minute drive from DC, so it’s a good option for a quick outing to target trout. I’ve fished it twice now and caught at least a dozen small rainbows on each outing. They stocked it in early February, and I can’t imagine that these fish stay in the stream for long. I parked near the trailhead just outside of the historic Savage…
The other day I was browsing the web about fly fishing and came across the California heritage trout challenge. It’s a unique program developed by the California Department of Fish and Game, and it encourages anglers to seek out different species of trout in the state. California is an especially lucky state, as it is home to such a wide variety of trout. Participants of the program must catch and document at least 6 different types of trout in order…
I had the day off on October 8th and decided to go fishing at Morgan Run. Morgan Run is about an hour outside of DC and is managed as a catch and return fishery in select sections of the stream. I started off at the boulders section off Klee Mill Road. There were quite a few people hiking and wading into the water, but I didn’t see any other fisherman in this section. I also arrived mid-day, which isn’t…
I had free time recently and decided to spend an afternoon fishing the Gunpowder River in Maryland. I’ve fished this river before, but had limited success on my first time out. I’m happy to say that the fishing was much better on this trip. I started the day at Masemore Road and walked my way up the trail. I stopped at a few spots along the way, mostly tossing a double nymph rig into spots that looked promising. Once I…
I decided to put together a small stream outfit and recently picked up a LL Bean Pocket water reel. At $89, it seemed to be a nice option for a low cost small stream reel. I love the look and feel of a click and pawl reel, and already own an Orvis CFO that I pair with a 4 weight rod. I plan to pair the Pocket Water reel with my 3 weight to make a well balanced small stream…
Last weekend I had a trip back to Boston with extra time to kill before my flight, so I packed my gear and decided to fish a couple of old haunts for a few hours. It was incredibly rainy nearly all day, but that didn’t stop a few trout from hitting flies. I had originally hoped with the warm weather that I’d have a chance to fish dries, but the steady downpour was keeping the fish down. I used…
This weekend I decided to drive up to Big Spring Creek to go fly fishing on one of Pennslyvania’s famous springs creeks. I read that this stream is expecially known for producing large brook trout, and that was all I needed to hear to put it on my list. It’s also known as an extremely difficult stream to fly fish, and I’m always up for a challenge. Big Spring Creek has the combination of crystal clear water and wary trout,…
As some of you may remember, I broke the tip section off my Orvis Clearwater 3 weight rod back in 2017. I wrote a post about it while commemorating one year of blogging. For some reason, I waited almost another year to send it off to be repaired, and the blog will be celebrating its second birthday this month! It feels apt to start off the second year with a story of the repaired rod, and hopefully it will set…