The only thing I heard on the weather report was the part about "temperature in the 60's". My selective hearing tuned out the part about rain and high wind.
I arrived at the fly fishing parking lot across the street from the Catoctin Iron Furnace and geared up to hit the water. Just as I locked up the car and took one step down the well-beaten path, the sky opened up and the rain began to fall.
According to the Maryland Division of Natural Resources Little Hunting Creek is catch and release, artificial lures only. It's a short stretch of water from just below Route 15 to one and a half miles up to the Cunningham Falls State Park Manor area. This creek is home to many wild brook trout but all of them had a severe case of lockjaw today. I spotted fish, but they just would not cooperate by taking a fly. And the pounding rain sure didn't help either.
After fishing upstream a bit I returned to the fishmobile and headed to another spot a little further up the road. This was a much larger parking area and must be the staging area for a lot of hikers during the spring and summer. The trails are well marked and very wide, leading to the beautiful Bowstring Arch Bridge which spans the creek. Originally spanning Big Pipe Creek in Detour, Carroll County, Maryland, this bridge was reduced in width and moved to Little Hunting Creek around 1872. The design of this truss bridge was patented in the early 1840's by noted inventor Squire Whipple and many of these prefabricated bridges were erected across rural America.
This is the view upstream from the bridge. The concrete structure in the background is the Route 15 overpass.
This is a downstream view as seen from the Bowstring Arch Bridge. The parking area is on the right where the red fishmobile is parked.
There are some deep pools near the Route 15 overpass and they do hold fish. But I didn't catch any of them. They just finned behind some boulders at the bottom of the pool, mocking me. I pushed on upstream for a bit before heading back to the car. The rain continued to pelt down, making it almost impossible to fish in this shallow creek.
EQUIPMENT: I used a 3-weight rod and floating line. Due to the rain it was almost impossible to use a floating fly because the heavy drops would pound it underwater before you could finish a drift. You had to use a short, quick presentation. Nymphing with tiny bead head flies worked better.
DIRECTIONS: From Virginia take Route 15 north (to Gettysburg). Take a right on Catoctin Furnace Road (806) and follow it to the first parking area across the street from the Catoctin Iron Furnace or continue up the road and look for the larger developed parking area on your left just before the bridge.
