RE: Fly selection for the Gunpowder

[wayneb]

Hi All;

One of my goals for 2011 is to get out and fish the Gunpowder, I know there are quite a few members here that are familiar with it.

Could someone help me out and list some wingless wet patterns & sizes for this fishery?

Thanks in advance;

Wayneb

[William Anderson]

I would be very curious to read this as well. The fish I have taken on this water were taken on sparce dark spiders #16's and for no particular reason. No hatch to match. There were often times I saw #16 caddis on the water but didn't connect using them. I'm looking forward to hearing some responses for this thread.

w

[wayneb]

Hi William;

Interesting, I was at Great Feathers Friday talking about patterns for the Gunpowder but forgot to ask about soft hackle patterns. From what I recall, winter is mostly midge patterns and small streamers, then size 18 black stonefly. Spring the hatches start, first, a BWO sz20 followed by two different caddis flies, an golive bodied and a tan bodied. the caddis start out as around a size 12 then get progressively smaller down to a size 18. Then come a mahogany colored sz14 Hendrickson followed by sulphurs in summer, sz14 to sz18.

I was wondering if a Tups indispensible would be good for the Hendrickson, the hendrickson has a mahogany body with a dirty pinkish brown thorax. Perhaps if I tied a Tups with a mahogany silk body and then tups mix thorax, it would be a closer match.

I'm kinda new to all this but was thinking that soft patterns would be used to mimmick emergers of the various hatches and could be a size or two larger than the dries since I've heard emergers tend to be larger than the dry.

Wayneb

[tie2fish]

Probably the best source for info about wingless wets on the Gunpowder is rdeitz, a forum member who posts quite frequently. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Bob doesn't chime in on this topic. I have had a modicum of success on the Gunpowder using wingless wets, including one using brown Brahma hen for the hackle and tail and a copper wire rib over a seal brown rabbit dubbing body when the Hendricksons are about. Spiders such as the Tups, along with versions that incorporate blue dun tail whisks and CDC behind the hackle a la Davie McPhail have worked well during the sulphur hatch.
#18-20 spiders and quill or biot body wingless wets have also been productive for me on those gloomy days that bring the little olives out to play. I've had some success in higher flows or when there's trib runoff coming in using larger wingless wets such as a #8 Gosling or one of Ray Tucker's POP series. However, my best year-round wingless wet on the Gunpowder is the Enhanced Orange Fishhawk that Ruyard was kind enough to post for me a while back.

[redietz]

Here's what has worked for me pretty consistently over the past eight or ten years in the Gunpowder. I'll stick to spiders, even though I frequently use winged wets as well.

Be aware that from about February to mid-April, the didymo can make fishing in GP unpleasant. You can still catch fish, but you'll be cleaning your fly off a lot.

Starting late February, there should be little black stoneflies, use a Light Spanish Needle when these are around.

March brings little brown stoneflies; a Grouse&Herl (or substitute brown speckled hen for the English Grouse, and call it a Brown Hackle Peacock) works exceptionally well when these are around. The insects are quite active, and this is one of the few times of year where you really want to fish a down and across swing.

At about the same time, you'll start to see olives, a small (#18) Pheasant Tail Soft Hackle is the way to go. (BTW, the same fly can work well fished on bottom as a nymph during March.)

April brings the "April Grays" -- Quill Gordons and Hendricksons. I use a Waterhen Bloa for both of these; a Partridge&Orange is great spinner imitation for the Hnedrickson. There are grannoms in the river at the same time if you want to fish the riffles. (I generally don't, so I can't give you any advice on these.)

There are a few March Browns in the river after the Hendricksons are gone and before the sulfurs start. While I never see very many of the actual insect, I have caught fish on a March Brown spider during this time.

The sulfurs start in mid-May and can last into July. Use a Pheasant Tail soft hackle with a yellow thorax as an emerger, teamed with a Partridge&Yellow or a Tups during the hatch, and use a Partridge&Orange during the spinner fall. As the season progresses, you'll have to do more mixing & matching with dries and winged wets, as the fish get really educated about sulfurs after a month or so. What works one day probably won't work the next under seemingly identical conditions.

Summer is tricos in the morning and terrestrials the rest of the day. I haven't tied any wingless wets small enough to use as tricos, but I always suspend a Partridge&Orange below an ant in the PM; you'll catch fish on both.

There are often winged ants swarming around Labor Day and a wet ant can be killer around them. I've also done well with a Partridge&Green in September; presumedly it represents a caddis.

There are supposedly iso's in the lower river in late summer, but I've never seen them. If you encounter them, go with a Grouse&Herl, actively swung, the same as for brown stones in March.

In the fall, the olives return. Also, a Hare's Ear soft hackle seems to work when autumn caddis are on the water.

There are midges pretty much all year. Size 18 and 20 Snipe and Purples or Snipe and Claret work well almost any time, if the fish are sipping midges. (Of course you can sub. starling for snipe.)

I can almost always catch a fish or two on a Partridge&Orange, although it may not be the best fly on any given day.

That's a start. Try teaming the wingless flies with either winged wets or dries. (The soft hackle should be the point fly.) Remember that Maryland restricts you to two flies per rod.

[William Anderson]

Bob, thanks for sharing your years of experience. That kind of information is invaluable. It will certainly make my next trip up there more enjoyable to have some of the mystery revealed. It's a beautiful stream. I hope I can get up there a couple times this season.

Thanks

w

[michaelgmcgraw]

Talk about great river report redietz . Git er done!

[letumgo]

Outstanding summary Bob! Simply outstanding...

[hankaye]

redietz, Howdy;

With a report like that all one has left to do is ..... add water!!!

Someone has been payin' attention to his surroundings.

hank

[wayneb]

Hi redietz;

Wow! Thanks a bunch!

A very thorough report.


Wayneb