OOh Baby It's A Wild World

Most of my fishing trips begin sitting in traffic in the heat of the south. In an Urban Southern setting it's hard to stay cool and collected and you can get pretty frustrated trying to escape. IT took me quite a while to get on the freeway and I was headed AGAINST traffic last week in the morning. Crazy right?

It's worth the headaches when, while other anglers are praying for rain, I get to jump into 50 degree water in late August. Just look how cold it is!!!

There was some GREAT fog on the river and it was almost enough to keep you cool in the 90+ temps.

I've honestly lost touch with the days of the week and I couldn't tell you what day I fished the Gunpowder last week. There weren't too many anglers except for the ones who parked down near the bridge on Falls Rd. where the paddlers have ripped out the no-parking signs. The actual lot was empty.

When I started out there were white tricos everywhere and only a few fish rising. I thought I was going to be a victim of "The White Curse" but the caddis began coming off and I was ready with a half dozen freshly tied Elk Hair Caddis.

Fishing upstream from Falls Rd., I worked the newly formed chutes and pockets created by the increased flows. While most of the fish I caught were around 7=10 inches there were a few larger Moby-Trout style. I just wasn't lucky enough to hook up. I'd say I only hooked 1-4 fish that hit my fly. Their takes were just too wild!

Back up at the parking lot there was a nice toad hanging out in the road looking for some easy pickings. He was patient while I crawled around him and snapped pictures like an idiot.

Here's another shot of a pretty little brown with an Elk Hair Caddis deep in his mouth. He was Hungry!

After drinking lots of water and having some lunch I headed down to Big Falls Road. Just checking out the bridge area I was burning up in the heat. Looking over the bridge, where there's a giant eddy, the fish were stacked up facing downstream. I managed to get one on a first cast with a woolly-bugger. I'd planned to fish downstream but with the heat I bagged it and headed home.

I had to toss in this snake! There were two young guys poking around the woods and they uncovered a dozen of these little guys. Pretty cool.

I was going to fish down near Blue Mount Road BUT it's now been Posted by someone who was too chicken to pu their address on the signs. I was pretty sad when I saw this. I thought "I'll just park across the street" ....

That wasn't an option either! They'd posted 1/5 of a mile down the road from this.

I understand why:

Even on a weekday there were tubers floating along the river. On a weekend this lot would be jammed with drinking & littering tubers. Frankly driving down the road can be pretty hairy with drunk idiots careening down the hills with trucks overflowing with tubes. One afternoon an SUV piled with tubes and bearing tubes strapped to the sides nearly ran me off the road.

While I don't think it's OK to put up Private Property signs on a Park Green way, I think someone needs to get a handle on the tubers. It's pretty out of control.

Thank GOD fall is coming. If anyone hears more about the posting please let me know. I'd love to hear about it. I think with cooler temps a lot of this will die down and the signs may come down. I wasn't about to park there with my DC tags and have to call (no cell service down there BTW) to get a truck to fisx my flattened tires or get a new window. I've been in that movie before.

Hey, keep your stick in the water! I have more to come...from PA and tales of my first STEELHEAD!!!! Micah