Deer Creek and Susky water quality report

[decoy]

Today Deer Creek was in very good condition.

Water, high fast and off color but not muddy, visibility maybe 2 feet. Water temp 44 at the fish ladder and 46 under Stafford Bridge. The water level at the mouth was less then 6 feet from the under side of bridge and most if not the entire fisherman’s path north of the bridge is under water. Conditions are just perfect in the creek for the start of the shad run, but very poor in the river. I saw no fish, not a splash, not even a fisherman in the 3 hours I was there. Hopefully any day now.

As for the Susky, not much to report except high, fast, dirty, and some very large debris ( whole trees) floating down stream. The good news is, with no new down pours this could turn around in a very short time. Better yet the farmers haven’t turned the soil under yet so it could have been worse. Soooooo, the water temps today 45 degrees. Water quality was very dirty but not really muddy as in the past, visibility 1 foot or less.

[Wild Bill]

Thanks Wayne for keeping us posted.

I called today about Roanoke Rapids. The river is clear enough, they are catching plenty of fat hickories but the stripers appear to be two weeks late because of colder than normal water temps. I thought about going down there for 3-4 days, but it is too early.

Hopefully something besides CCNPP will come around soon. I fished the power plant without company in February but am not interested in the bumper boat that is going on now.

[Ladyfish]

wrong Name

[Ken Tidy]

The creeks around North East are clearing, and the herring are starting up the creeks. The stripers caught at CCNP are full of sea lice. If we can just some warmer weather things will break loose.

[decoy]

Bill, followed your post and pictures on the super trip down south with envy. Several years back (5) fishing the flats and creeks were so good it was hard to decide which species to target. This time on a normal year catching large rock on the flats was a no brainier and April 1st was always the target date for catching large numbers of shad in the creeks and river.

Ken, getting harder to stay positive.

[HJS]

Considering how high the Susky is, Deer Creek must have been backed up almost to Stafford Bridge.

[EricMagsamen]

The end of Next week might be good for deer creek, we're due to get another 2" this weekend but the creek recovers pretty quickly. Saw this morning that the temps will be in the 70's next week, so let's hope they can make it up the through the coffee to get under the bridge.

Spring sure is late this year...

[HJS]

Went hickory hunting in the lower Gunpowder on Friday, April1, but came up with zip. Just not happening yet. Flow med/heavy but color was just right... but no fish seen. No herring either. Did snag about 6 gizzards.

[EricMagsamen]

HJS, Where did you go in at on the GP?

[HJS]

From the parking lot just off of Rt40, I forget its name. Unlike Deer Creek, the hickories don't always show up in the Gunpowder in good numbers. Each year is different. But when they do, fishing is great. Its about a 1/2 mile walk to the good structure. This section has class III rapids, much more rocky than Deer Creek. I think parking at Rt7 is a no-no.

[Patapsco Mike]

HJS- the North Branch Patapsco has been discharging all spring- wonder if we'll get a small run of hickories in the Patapsco?

Might be the last run ever, with the new Liberty withdrawals slated to start this summer, the North Branch may never run again (except during massive flood events).

[EricMagsamen]

HJS, yeah I know where your at. What about off of Rt. 1 on the GP. Anyone ever do anything up that far?

[HJS]

jackspot - 1998 was the first year I fished (and investigated as part of my job) the hickory and herring runs in the lower Gunpowder. For many years previous to the late 90s the hickory/herring run had pretty much vanished on the Gunpowder due not only to low/no flow but also due to low shad populations everywhere. During the late 1990s the hickory/herring run began rebuilding and 1998 was an excellent year on the Gunpowder. Hickories were thick and numbers of herring were near Biblical. Hook&line hickory catches ran 20-30-40 fish per outing. But very strange though, the upstream movement of this major run of hickory & herring petered out suddenly at a major rapids just below the Rt7 bridge. Yeah, the rapids are rough but no way should that rapids have stopped hickories and herring... but it did. And to this day I haven't a clue as to why they don't go up any farther. It seems like that heavy rapids below Rt7 knocks the wind right out of the run. A few hickories straggle up a little past I-95 but thats about it for upstream momentum. Gizzards, on the other hand, go all the way up to the little dam at Lock Raven. I swear... gizzards could climb a ladder... no, I mean a people type ladder... they're good climbers.

Both 2000 and 2004 were also fairly good years on the lower Gunpowder. Others years have been a bust, especially the springs when Loch Raven Dam is not spilling over, total bust then.

Mike - I monitored the Bloedes fish ladder for 2 years and they never showed up at the dam although I've heard rumors that they do get that far some years. Herring get that far up almost every year but not in any numbers to get excited about. I've caught more stripers (~10 smalls) at Bloedes than hickories (0 caught). While fishing I've never hit hickories bigtime on the Patapsco. Ten was my best day and only as far up as I-95. Lots of skunks. I lost count of the number of time I trudged from I-95 downstream almost to the Beltway hunting for the motherload... but never did. Another one of life's imponderables.

[EricMagsamen]

HJS, Thanks for the Info.

I'm heading up to the creek later on just to check things out and see what all this rain did...