Trip Report: Gunpowder River 7/1...Its So Good to be Back!

So Z and I hit up the GP last Sunday and boy did we crush it. In the first 2 hours, I had landed 18 Fallfish, all on a Green Weenie. It was a good hike up to Zach's new secret spot so by the time we actually got in the water, with the air temp lingering in the mid 80's (at 8am), we were already wet. We put in after I snapped a few photos and vids and began our journey hitting up the banks and holes back to the car. The water was around 70cfs, really low, and the fish were pretty spooky. Using long leaders, we hit every bend and nook with only Fallfish to show for it. Finally, after being disturbed by some pretty obnoxious kids in a canoe, Zach tightened his line on a 5" Brownie with a Olive Wooly Bugger. Mokey was off our backs...finally. We waded a bit more and saw quite a few more fish but just couldn't get them to bite. We filmed a bit more, enjoyed our new Allen Trout 2 reels, and kept cool in the 53 deg F water.

We headed up to Backwater Angler where we ate lunch and picked up a bit of this and that. We talked to Theaux a bit and found out the shop will be moving in the next week or so. Not too far, actually back to their old location (which I'm honestly not quite sure of yet, but its close to the current store). After some good conversation about conservation on the GP, we headed up to the Trophy C&R section off of Falls Rd. We hopped in at the big bend where we spotted somewhere around a dozen Browns. We had quite a few follows but no lovin'. So we headed down to the pools. We spotted so many fish, I mean, big and small. Zach landed a nice Brown again, somewhere in the 6" range. I jumped two fish on a Green Weenie but lost both...I was hot to trot.  Zach eased down to the next pool where he landed two more Browns, a 6" and 7" on a tandem rig (a Pheasant Tail as the anchor and a size 16 Copper Nymph as the dropper, one fish taken on each). I threw on the same rig and finally, after Zach's 5th Brown (around 6"), landed a nice 7" Brown in the last pool before Whale Rock. We waded some more, past the Falls Rd bridge, where we fished the small pools and I landed a 5" Brown, bringing us to a total of 7 for the day.

I landed one more Fallfish and a White Sucker in the 9" range when we decided it was time to call it a day. Drenched in sweat and slightly dehydrated, we loaded up, ate a quick snack, recapped the day and made the 45 minute drive home. Overall, for our first time in almost 3 months to the GP, we called it a great day. I would love to get some of you guys up there to fish, I know a few of our followers have expressed interest. Contact us at tightlinedtalesofaflyfisherman@gmail.com for info and we'll see what we can piece together.

Boom...Morgan