Washington County, Maryland,
March 28, 2008
It was still dark when I arrived at the second fly fishing
parking lot off Beaver Creek Road. As I geared up behind
the car, dawn began to fill the sky and I could hear local
traffic zooming down the road to join the daily commute
heading into metro Washington on I-70.
I brought a fast action 5-weight rod this time. On my last trip I used a medium flex
4-weight rod and I felt undergunned. Some of the
fights turned into long back and forth affairs which
isn't too good for the fish and increases the chance
it won't survive the fight.
The water was a bit lower than the previous trip. I thought
it might be higher due to the rain that moved through the
area the day before but it looked lower and the flow
slower. The water was a bit stained and water temperature
was 55 while the morning air temperature was a brisk 42
degrees with overcast skies.
I began casting to one of the deeper runs and on the third
cast there was a huge strike and the line I was stripping
in shot out of my hand and I had the fish on the reel. This
was a big one and I got a brief glimpse of the fish as it
flashed before taking off for a huge tangle of tree limbs
sitting upstream. It was a rainbow. I tried to stop the
fish from ducking under the snag and managed to turn his
head but he zipped downstream a bit then quickly turned
back upstream and dove into the snag and broke me off. I
was using 4X tippet.
After upping the tippet to 2X and tying on another fly I
moved up to the next run since all the previous commotion
probably disturbed everything else in this section of the
stream. I put out a few casts and watched a beaver slowly
swim past, giving me the evil eye for invading his space so
early in the morning. A couple of more casts later the fly
was swinging midstream when there was another savage
strike. The line went tightand there was a huge boil of
water as the fish pounded the fly. I power-stripped line in
but the fish took everything back out again as it headed
for the opposite bank and it was at this point of the fight
that I noticed that there was no place to land the fish.
The banks on this section of Beaver Creek are three feet
above water, vertical, muddy and extremely slippery. Downed
trees were on both sides so I couldn't work the fish to a
lower area. I freed my landing net and had to lie prone
while holding the rod behind my back to get the fish close
enough to slip into the net. A very nice, fat rainbow! I
quickly moved to a shallow area for some quick pictures
(and almost dropped the fish and fell into the water)
before releasing it.
After reorganizing myself I continued upstream, stopping to
fish at various runs and pools. Fishing was great and I
tied into another huge rainbow, possibly the biggest of the
day, but it slipped the hook inches from the net!
Around noon I could hear the sound of thunder in the
distance and the sky looked pretty ugly so I decided to be
a gas stop gourmet and called it a day
EQUIPMENT: I uses a 9' 5-weight fast
action rod, Scientific Anglers GPX weight forward line,
short fluorocarbon leader tapering to 2X and an assortment
of nymphs and streamers.
DIRECTIONS: From I-70 heading towards
Hagerstown, take Exit 66 (Boonsboro) and turn left at
bottom of ramp onto Mapleville Road (66). Continue down 66
and turn right onto Beaver Creek Road. About 100 yards past
Beaver Creek Church Road on your right is the fly fishing
parking lot. Follow the signs to Beaver Creek. Please
respect property owners and do not trespass.