Gunpowder Falls Recon

Hen tries his luck above Falls Road

Heading up I-95 I've always been intrigued by Gunpowder Falls, not only does it have a cool name, but I'd heard that it's a great fishery.   After some trophy-trout research I found that Gunpowder Falls is the homewater of flyfishing's Lefty Kreh (there are no falls, "falls" is another name for river) and spills out of a PrettyBoy Reservoir just south of Pennsylvania and West of I-83.  It's one of the best year-round fisheries on the East Coast.  Ground Zero for fishing the Gunpowder is the small town of Hereford about 30-min north of Baltimore and that's where Henry and I decided to meet in the parking lot of Back Water Angler at 0600.   This recon fishing trip was a point of light as Henry and I came through busy weeks at the office and we were both happy to share an early cup of coffee when we reached Hereford.   Our plan was to fish the upper section (see map below) from Falls Road toward the spillway first so we headed to that section and found the river pumping grey steel. We knew that it was high but now we knew first hand how a 2.49 flow at the 'Falls' gauge looks and feels.  Powerful, constricted and cold. Next time we'll heed good advice and fish this area when its at 1.8 or below.

Note the spike in water we were dealing with

Upper Gunpowder Falls from Fall Road Up

The Upper Gunpowder is a non-stocked special regulations area populated by a self-sustaining population of brown trout with a few rainbows and brookies in the mix, oh but to find them!

This is not a high-gradient mountain stream, but is bolder-strewn and channelized in a small gorge making it rugged and gorgeous. No luck here,  I tried both nymphs under an indicator and streamers.  It was really hard to move in the deep stream so we sipped some coffee and drove to the thoroughly interesting Pretty Boy Reservoir Dam (Damn big) and then headed downstream to the Masemore Bridge access point.  

a wreath of scrub frames Henry on the Upper Gunpowder

The normal bottom release can be seen...all water over the top was unfortunately extra

Lefty Kreh Water trail marker

We plied the waters here again for 90-min and though the wider banks mellowed out the strength of the river it was still roaring through.  A lesson I relearned today was to wear multiple layers on my legs when I'm going to be in deep water...brr it was chilly.  Henry was happy to have found his icebreaker gloves in his Salmon River Kit, all-the-more-so when it started sleet-snowing on us for 20-min.  

The Gunpowder widens as it heads south, hen caught his brown off the bank on the righside

We left Masemore and hopped into the water the Gunpowder again off Falls road just East of I-83.  Again the river had mellowed and widened and Henry Flicking a golden retriever into a bankside back eddy was rewarded with the only trout of the day.  Well done Hen. 

Today's' trophy

 There are trout in here, no doubt, but the river simply had not recovered from the Trauma of the deluge Thursday.   We grabbed Subway for lunch in Hereford and skipped down to the stocked put and take section which is lovely big water,  it looked like prime smallmouth water but alas no more trout.  

Little Falls joins Gunpowder Falls behind Henry to from the left

Hen throws a nice loop at the far bank

As we walked out we crossed Little Falls, a major Trib of the Gunpowder and met Gene who works at BackWater Angler (support your local fly shop) who was very pleasant and gave us some advice for our next trip.