Just Cleaning Up Around Here

After fishing western Maryland a couple of weeks earlier, I thought what better way to give back to a resource than to participate in a stream clean-up on the main branch. It's also a good (justified) excuse to go fishing again.

This trip would also be the first outing of the year for my son, Ross. He always looks for opportunities to get out on the water - even if there is a little bit of work to be done first. He also doesn't mind the 4:30 AM wake up call because he can sleep for the almost 3-hour car ride.

We met a couple of friends in Morgantown, then it was on to the river for the clean-up.

The Youghiogheny chapter of Trout Unlimited sponsors this clean-up every year. The turnout was low, but so was the trash - of course I'm comparing this to the Elkhorn clean-up.

After walking a few miles of road and maybe collecting a bag of trash (that's a good thing), Ross commented that, "compared to the Elkhorn clean-up, this is more like a scavenger hunt than a stream clean-up".

We had a nice lunch, provided by the hosting TU chapter, but I could tell Ross was getting anxious to hit the water. While our friends decided on a nearby delayed harvest stream, Ross and I decided to hit a new brookie stream.

We only took one rod in - I wanted Ross to do most of the catching!

I was wet wading and I could tell by the water temperature that they were still feeling the effects of the heavy snow two weeks earlier. I guess what I'm saying is the fish weren't cooperating for Ross.

I started him out on a dry fly, then switched him over to a small green woolybugger - both with no luck. I let him fish the first few runs by himself, then I grabbed the rod to give a nice pool a second go at it. I knew he wanted to get his hands on some fish!

Sure enough, we landed our first brookie of the day, and I let Ross release him.

 

We continued this operation as we worked our way upstream. I would let Ross work the pool over pretty good, then I would grab the rod and give it a try.



 

 

It worked out several times as we landed several nice brookies. Ross seemed alright with this - he enjoys handling the fish and releasing them.

 

 

We fished as late as we could, keeping in mind it was a Sunday, we had a 3+ hour ride home, and Ross had school the next day. 

 

He was very patient but I could tell he was disappointed he hadn't landed any by himself when I told him we had to start the hike out. I did tell him we would hit a few more pools on the way out and we did.

 

The first nice run I spotted, we stopped to check it out. I spotted a nice brookie feeding actively in the tailout and while I found him, Ross spotted another one on up in the pool - and he didn't have the benefit of polarized sunglasses. I was impressed!

 

I put on a dry/dropper rig and let him try for the first fish in the tailout. The fly line got caught on some woody debris and put the fish down, so he moved on up the run.

 

His first drift through the run and he hooked his first brookie of the day/year! With the excitement of Ross landing his first brookie of the year, I didn't get any photos.

 

This was also Ross' first Maryland brookie - to go along with West Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. He's only a few states behind me but I have a few years on him.

 

I look forward to returning to this clean-up next year and Ross made a recommendation for next year. He wanted to know if we could clean up along this stream, which is maintained behind locked gates at both ends. The TU chapter is looking into it!

 

So, with this clean-up on Sunday, I also had the annual Elkhorn clean-up the following Saturday. I was tired of driving (which doesn't happen often) but I owed it to my mentor and friend who recently passed and was the coordinator of this event.

 

I was on the road at 4:30 AM again but this time I didn't even pack a rod. We knocked out the clean-up in no time. I heard comments that things are starting to look up in the area - but it's all relative. In the same amount of time we filled maybe a truck bed full of trash on the Savage we filled up 2-3 roll-off dumpsters on the Elkhorn. We also had many more volunteers on Elkhorn - a true reflection on a great man. Ernie Nester will be missed!

 



 

 I had a nice lunch, chatted fishing and fishing trips with some good friends, then it was on the road for the 4-hour ride home.

 

Chris

This Crazy March Weather - Part Two

I had planned this Good Friday trip a few weeks in advance so when Maryland received nearly twelve inches of snow earlier in the week, there was no backing out. In addition, I hadn't fished this area of western Maryland in almost nine years!

It's hard to believe just two weeks prior to this I was wet wading in near 80 degree weather. What do they say about March coming in like a lamb?

When we got to the stream, there was still 6"-8" of snow on the ground - and it was cold! Other than the Elkhorn Clean-up, I hadn't worn waders in three years.

I hadn't fished this area since the cicada hatch of 2004 and since that time there was a 5-year brook trout "no kill" study completed.

We fished the main branch first but the cold temperatures and some snow melt kept us from moving any fish.

After fishing a short section of the main branch, it was off to the tribs.

Rick was the first to strike with a nice two-hander brookie on a small olive woolybugger.

After Rick picked up the first brookie of the day, he gave me the lead on several nice runs. I know there were brookies in there but the cold water temps gave them a bad case of lockjaw.

I knew it was only a matter of time and, sure enough, I soon caught my first Maryland brookie in nine years. A nice, dark specimen was my first of the day.

After getting rid of that skunky smell, I soon picked up another brookie. This one was a little bigger, had much better coloration, and had a unique defect.

In all of the thousands of brook trout I have seen, I've only witnessed this on one other fish - he was blind in one eye.

You can see it better in the next photo. The only other blind brook trout I have encountered was actually blind in both eyes.

These guys are survivors!

After both of us picking up a couple of brookies, it was back to the vehicle for lunch, then off to one of the other tribs in the vicinity.

The second trib we fished was much smaller. The air temps had increased enough to where I could stop dredging the woolybugger across the bottom and switch to my favorite rig of stimulator with a pheasant tail dropper.

The brookies were digging the small pheasant tail.

This stream was mostly runs and riffles versus the plunge pools in the previous stream.

I spooked a few brookies before I finally landed another nice brookie under a root ball in one of the larger (albeit small) runs in this stream.

We fished only a short distance on this small stream, but it was nice to add another new stream to my list.

We returned to fish the main branch one more time before calling it a day. I moved one fish off the bottom a deep run, but by this time the increase in air temps had added a good bit of snow runoff to the stream.

I did buy an annual Maryland license so I will be back to explore more of this watershed to see what a 5-year no kill regulation does for a fishery - even though this was an outstanding fishery to begin with.

Chris