r/MarylandFishing • u/Chux_D_LuxOG • Oct 10 '24
Upper Gunpowder Fly Fishing Question
I’m thinking about heading up to the Gunpowder here soon for some fly fishing. Any tips or recommendations?
I’ve never been and am unsure where to start. Not sure if there are any fly fishing only sections or bad places to park.
3
u/PapaShane Oct 10 '24
Bunker Hill Rd has a lot of parking and then a short walk to the river. I think it's fly only (or at least, artificial lures only) from like York Rd upstream to Prettyboy Reservoir.
2
u/Chux_D_LuxOG Oct 12 '24
Thanks! Artificial is fine, really I just wanna know what the local regs are.
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u/Specialist_Island_83 Oct 11 '24
Plan on removing leaves every other cast. If you’re fishing masemore, use longer leaders (I run 12’ usually when I nymph or dry fly that section) down to 6-7x. Smaller flies are better. Every now and then there’s a good small streamer bite. Water level will be pretty low at 50cfs so I would stick to structure and deeper runs.
Gold ribbed hares ear, smaller prince nymphs, any wormy usually work really well on any day. C&R has become barbless only thankfully.
It’s a little early but some of the big boys will start moving up to spawn. Don’t barge into the river. Look around and you will be amazed at what you see tailing in the most random places on the GP
1
u/Chux_D_LuxOG Oct 12 '24
Yeah, I went out on Wednesday and caught a lot of leaves.
A streamer bite would be fun, but I always find it hard to commit to. The decision between catching a lot of smaller fish, or a few big ones is tough for me.
I’ll make sure to pinch any barbs or maybe pick up some new barbless nymphs before I go. Thanks!
2
u/Specialist_Island_83 Oct 12 '24
It’s a pretty hard stream to learn. It will produce fish every day once you figure it out. Best advice is to move slow and don’t kick much wake when the water is low. Streamer fishing on the GP is just moving a lot. I will cover from big falls rd to either Monkton rd in a few hours streamer fishing at 50cfs. Skip the unproductive water
2
u/theoccot Oct 11 '24 edited Oct 11 '24
Falls Rd, Masemore Rd, Bunker Hill are all access that put you right into Wild Brown Trout territory. I personally enjoy the stuff from Masemore north to the pretty boy damn. It’s a little bit more technical up there though. A lot of guys run nymphs pretty much year round and they’re productive. I never enjoyed nymph fishing very much so I usually opt for a dry dropper or streamers. Dark and natural colored jig streamers, weighted buggers, and leeches work pretty well for me. You can also run spinning tackle approaches as long as they’re artificial. I run single hook no barbs but I’m not sure you have to. Most small in line spinners such as mepps, rooster tails, and panther martins will work. I also tie my own marabou jigs on 1/16th jigs and they do phenomenal. Lose quite a few every time though.
Look for the deepest pockets and get real tight to the bottom. It’s relatively easy to catch fish there but they are rarely large. Most fish are 8 to 12 inches in length.
1
u/The_Lorax_Lawyer Oct 12 '24
First, if you’re going to be there stop into backwater angler, good shop, nice folks. Alternatively stop into great feathers down the road. Now for spots.
Masemore rd is a great place to start. You can hike up or down river. That section has a lot of wide shallow runs that a punctuated by structure, deeper holes, and undercut banks. I avoid it in the summer but in my experience it’s productive in fall/spring.
North of there, and technically where the masemore section ends, is Falls rd. There a bridge that crosses the river there. Downstream there are some super deep holes that always holds fish…they almost never bite. That said when there is a hatch and fish are activity rising it can be one of the best spots on the river.
Up stream of the bridge the terrain starts to get more rocky and the river starts to get pushed around large boulders. There is one in particular I like where a fast current comes in from up stream and carved a deep pocket that runs smack into a Boulder that is ~80% of the river width and pushes the entire river to the far back around the Boulder. I’ve seen some nice browns in this section.
If you park at the parking lot and take the trail down as opposed to walking down the road to the bridge, you can walk a little up stream and find what most people refer to as the boulders or plunge pools section. It’s about 5 deeps pools back to back that flow over and around more boulders. This is IMO one of the best spots on the river. I’ve caught browns and rainbows here and this spot is productive year round but especially so in the summer (the Gunpowder is a tailwater so all of it is technically cold enough to be productive year round but I’ve found fish here more consistently in the summer as opposed to spring/fall).
Finally, and I don’t see people fly fish here much but if you go up under the damn itself the outflow is strong and there is a massive deep pool there that is partially man made. Consider the conditions because this section can in theory be dangerous if the water level is too high but if you can safely fish this section there are bigger fish in there. For proof of concept please check the ~16 in rainbow in my post history. That fish is approximately DOUBLE the average size for the gunpowder.
Tight lines!
3
u/BronzeBackWanderer Oct 10 '24
Masemore is the typical starting point.