A report from Jin for mikescatchreport.com
I planned to fish the upper and lower stretches of the Gunpowder River to explore sections of the stream I have not yet fished. Unfortunately, I fell into my old habit of parking at Masemore Road and walking upstream, hoping to have the riffles all to myself. Air temperature was in the low 70s and water temperature was 70 degrees.
One other car was in the parking lot when I arrived around 8am and I let the elderly fisherman go ahead of me. We had the entire stream to ourselves. There were sporadic rises, with fish jumping out of the water in many instances.
I tied on a size 16 caddis and hooked a 12 inch trout almost immediately. Switching to a size 18 paranymph, I landed couple more small browns before I caught up to the fisherman ahead of me. He was having difficulty tying on his new fly, so I set him up with some 7x tippet and an X-Caddis, guided him across the stream to a better spot, and started up the stream to the riffles. I hope I'm fishing the Gunpowder when I'm 84.
Caddis started to come off in larger numbers around 11am. I landed another four to six fish, mainly small browns, and probably missed just as many strikes. I managed to foul hook the biggest two fish of the day, a couple of browns that were 12 inches plus. The bigger fish would take the fly and roll on the surface as they spit out the fly, causing the hook to become lodged somewhere on their body.
I left the stream around noon and stopped at Backwater Anglers fly shop for some info on fishing conditions. Jason at the shop said the fishing picks up around 6pm, as Sulphurs start to hatch. A size 16 to 18 Dun is the go-to fly until the Spinners start to fall. He also said the warm water is accelerating hatches this year. Sulphurs usually hatch through out June but we may see them ending earlier this year. The peak hatch maybe over and we might be fishing with ants and beetles before the middle of June!
EQUIPMENT: Use a 3 or 4 weight rod and floating line. Tie on an 11-ft leader that tapers down to 6 or 7X. The fish are very wise. You'll get one shot at them and if you miss, that's it. Just move on. Or tie something else on because they won't try to eat the same pattern again.
DIRECTIONS: Take I-95 towards Baltimore then left onto I-695 to Towson. Take Exit 24 and merge onto I-83 Timonium/York, PA. Take Exit 27 Mt. Carmel Rd/MD-137 toward Hereford. You will see a gas station at the top of the ramp. Turn left to go to the Mazemore Road section of the river about a mile down the road, or keep right and follow the sign for E. Hereford and merge onto MD-137 Mt. Carmel Rd. The road comes to a T intersection in town. Go left and follow the signs to Bunker Hill Rd. and Gunpowder Falls State Park.