Catoctins 4-29-07 (pics)

[Jeffrey Rasband]

Went to try out the new three weight rod today at LHC and BHC. The day was gorgeous and believe it or not wet wading was quite tolerable. I started out fishing below the highway and was pleasantly surprised to find an abundance of willing brown trout, all happy to rise for a simple attractor dry.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/7448/lhc2vx6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Nothing like the remote ambiance of fishing under the highway :rolleyes:

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/9870/broww1ji6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Typical LHC brown

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/1781/brook1js2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Apparently the big browns haven't eaten all the brookies yet!

http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/8435/lhc5kp4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Without question fishing this lovely stretch of water has one major flaw: theres too little of it! Its hard to "get lost in it all" when one knows the private property boundary is rapidly approaching.

With that said, it was off to big hunting creek to try target more wild browns. Fish were rising everywhere and I immediately started hooking up on a parachute adams size 16.


http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/3383/brown2lb6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I've always been curious why BHC is stocked with rainbows and brook trout when the brown population is so robust. I thought MD dnr policy was to minimize stocking over wild populations? Oh well, I guess im just biased for the wild browns.


http://img252.imageshack.us/img252/5049/brown3fw7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)



http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/5966/bhc2ag0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Mandatory scenery shots of BCH.
http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/6563/bhc3xi9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

the catoctins were about three weeks behind DC in terms of evidence of spring. The woods in my backyard in Kensington are choked with green, so it felt like going back in time three weeks or so:cool2:

- Jeff

[Dave Fulton]

Hi Jeff,

I believe that the DNR policy is not to stock fish of a given species over a wild population of the same species, i.e., not to stock brookies over wild brookies. I may be wrong and, if so, someone will correct me.

Nice shots of both fish and scenery BTW. I was thinking about hitting LHC yesterday, but took my son out to a few ponds instead. I like wild browns ... and wild brookies.

Dave Fulton

[goose70]

This is yet another reason why I need to stop watching and actually learn to flyfish. Great report.

[riverwade]

great report and sweet day on the water!

[mikehn]

Beautiful! Thanks for the report.

[chesapeakeblend]

Nice pics! Yeah that skunk cabbage has been popping everywhere the past couple of weeks - way behind schedule.

mike

[Salmo trutta]

I'll be out working in the field out that way this week and next. :clapping2: It's amaizing the trasformation those streams go through from spring to summer. Take those same pictures in August and you wouldn't think anything bigger than a 1 inch black nose dace could survive in there.

Nice photos. Makes me really want to go to work, I mean fishing. I still really havn't used my 3 wt I got for Christmas either. Yea I've used it in ponds for bluegill and bass but it was tailor made for throwing #16 adams in a stream where you wear out the knee portion of your waders long before the soles.

[Jeffrey Rasband]

I know, one can get spoiled fishing for trout in our area in springtime; great flows and trout spread out everywhere in the streams. Come summer and its a whole new ballgame. Maybe thats why god invented tailwaters:D

[OneMoreCast]

This is yet another reason why I need to stop watching and actually learn to flyfish. Great report.



great report... Nothing is better than springtime in the Catoctins!!! Those browns are spectacular..

Hey Goose... you have a ton of guys within spitting distance that would be more than happy to help you learn. Just say the word...

[Salmo trutta]

Lucky for us man invented tailwaters and man invented hatcheries. Those streams never had the carrying capacity to support all the fish MD stocks in those streams but somehow a few natives hold on and so do the naturalized browns.

Were those brookies in your photos stocked? I guess if they came from BHC below the dam they were stocked. Other wise, that's a nice native.

Ever since I figured out what a shad was and a striper, I've done very little trout fishing. Plus leaving WV didn't help matters either.

[Flying Fish]

Nice post of a good trip and great photos. I always forget about the trout fishing in spring because I'm obsessed with shad and stripers, but that's no excuse....Thanks for reminding me.

FF

[Jeffrey Rasband]

Mr. Brown trout,

the brook trout was caught in LHC just above Rt. 15. It was a wild fish im assuming. On the other hand every brookie ive caught in the BHC tailwater was rediculously big and almost certainly stocked. Here is one I caught upon my last visit to BHC.

http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/3848/brooktroutcloserd0lw5.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Marcel_Karssies]

That is a lovely stream you have there.
Also like the coloration of the brown trout with the red spots!

[mikehn]

Im tired of trailering my boat from Mount Airy to the Bay. Im gonna be spending a little more time right here in Frederick county.

[Jeffrey Rasband]

thought you guys might enjoy the rest of the pics from Sunday so...

LHC looking upstream toward Rt. 15.
http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/4931/lhc8pm8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

endless pocket water at the lower end of trout run property:
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/4826/lhc6ms8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

great looking water on LHC:
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/2827/lhc4ce9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Another shot of the chest deep bridge hole full of spooky browns.
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/5239/lhc3fq8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

BHC pocket water
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/9218/bhc1lj9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

More BHC scenery
http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/7679/lily1ea6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

enjoy!

[spilunkr]

ST,

There are actually quite a few wild brookies in BHC below the reservoir but they tend to be concentrated in a handful of spots. They continue to hold on despite pressure from the naturalized browns and the stocked fish. MD DNR's avowed policy is to not stock fish over a wild population but for longstanding reasons BHC has been managed for years as an exception to the policy.

The permit under which fish are privately but co-operatively stocked in BHC does not allow for brookies under 12" to be stocked - although some 11" fish do get in. So it is pretty easy to tell if a brookie is wild or stocked. The stocked brookies while hatchery fat when stocked soon become pretty snaky looking. Although I have caught numerous wild brookies in BHC below the dam, I don't recall any of them as having been much larger than about 7" with most being in the 5" to 6" range.

The naturalized browns on the other hand are a lot more numerous than people realize and a fair number get to be 12" to 13". But in order to catch them consistently you have to target them specifically. In the spring the stocked hatchery fish force the resident fish into very small holding/feeding areas that require specific fly placement. By mid to late summer when 90% of the spring stockers have disappeared many of the resident fish move back into more traditional locations.

Guy