Dam Removal in MD

Interesting post on the MD DNR Angler's Log page from today...

"I have fished this part of the Patapsco River for about 10 years. Before the dam was removed, I would routinely catch 15- 20 fish per outing (smallmouth, sunfish, pumpkinseed, rockbass). I caught my largest smallmouth of 4 lbs in this stretch of the river. After the dam removal in late 2010, I fished this same part of the river and never saw one fish for the first year. The second year I might have caught 5 fish for the whole year. Went there on Saturday September 6th and for the first time I ended up catching over 30 fish including this 11-12 inch smallie. Hopefully, the river has recovered, and will produce better than it did with the dam in place. Have other dam removal projects required several years for the river to stabilize?

DNR Response: Yes, other river systems have taken multiple years to recover from a dam removals. In the Baraboo River (Wisconsin), macroinvertebrates and fish assemblages intially declined in abundance but then recovered within 2 years after the dam removal. In the Milwaukee River, removal of a mill dam resulted in the decrease of Smallmouth Bass abundance and biomass. However, after 5 years, water quality improved, smallmouth abundance and biomass increased, and biotic integrity changed from poor to good. Fish abundance responses to dam removals vary over time and according to specific site characteristics.

Your fishing report supports what we expected would happen to the fish community on the Patapsco River when the Simkins Dam was removed. From our monitoring of the river morphology and water quality, we confirmed that there was a shift from a lake-like ecology to a riverine ecology immediately after the dam was removed. The passive release of sand and gravel from behind the dam temporarily filled the river bottom and scour pools and eliminated areas where fish tend to congregate. With time, storm events and natural flow moved the sand and gravel downstream uncovering pools and creating cascades and riffles. This has resulted in the type of habitats preferred by river fish and most likely accounts for your improved catch rate. We expect that when Bloede Dam is removed, the dam furthest downstream on the Patapsco River, we will see additional improvements in water quality, river connectivity and fish communities."

Dam removal is a weird thing to most Marylanders, we don't have many of them and the ones we do have supply a great population of people with water through the reservoirs. We don't have big river run spawns with species and therefore its not looked at as much of a conservation cause. That said, I would be interested to see locations and numbers of dams in the state...may have to delve into this one.

Boom...Morgan

Trip Report: Patapsco River at Daniel's Dam

So Zach and I decided kinda last minute to take a trip out to the Patapsco last weekend for more of a scouting session than a trip but of course we brought all our gear (I mean, they did just dump 2,000 trout in there). After hopping out and checking out the area, we did decide to wader-up and hop in despite the wind gusts and outside temps of around 20 degrees F (ok, thats kinda cold for Maryland).

We immediately noticed that the water was amazingly clear for a Central Maryland trout stream (and one guy we ran into who regularly fishes the stream said it was actually "gnarly today", my kind of guy). We were pretty mesmerized by the speed of the water and depth. There were some holes that probably got to around 8 feet deep, widow makers. The best part of these holes is that you could see the bottom.

We managed to move down stream some where we ran into a few guys who had just missed "a 16" Brown Trout". We decided to walk downstream a bit and thats when we spotted about 5 12"+ Paolmino Rainbows...just sitting there waiting to be caught. We'll, we threw everything at them and they got the best of us. I was able to get a few follows on a White Zonker but thats about it. Sucks, still haven't gotten my trout on in 2012...tricky fuckers.

Anywho, we had a great scout day and really got to take in some natural beauty of our home state (and waters within 30 minutes of us). We did some more scouting on a new area even closer to us and...well, lets just say, Fly Fishing Bucket List #17 may be knocked off sooner than later. You hear that, we're comin for ya, you "Urban Bonefish" you!

Skunked and tired, we called it early. But I'm tying up some new flies for the weekend hoping that moving into our new house doesn't take the whole weekend, hoping... Yea, thats right, we became homeowners today, super stoked about it. I'm really most excited to finally have my very own "tying room". Check and respect the pictures and keep your eyes out for some upcoming action.

Boom...Morgan

Gears Packed

Z and I are headed up to the Patapsco today to try and catch some of those 2,000 trout they just dumped in there this week. I'm praying I finally catch my first trout in 2012... Thermometer reads 18 degrees outside right now... should be an interesting day. Good thing I have my nice Wright & McGill Neoprene gloves... cuz the wind is kickin a bit this am. Can't wait to give my NBD lanyard another go today and try out a few other products we received this week... Stay posted for some reviews this week and a gnar trip report (fish or not). To make it all that much better, theres some fresh pow pow on the ground.

Keep your eyes on our Instagram today for photo updates...

Boom...Morgan

The Most Recent Fishing Adventures...Trips 2, 3, and 4

So I have been pretty busy lately and keep telling myself to post about the adventures I've taken recently. With the MD DNR now well into their stocking schedule, I have done everything but trout fishing in Maryland since the first stockings on March 6th. I explored Allen's Pond in Bowie, MD only to go without a fish and get odd looks from the locals because I was using a fly rod. I went on a nice day hike with the wife at Patapsco State Park and had the opportunity to fish some of the beautiful streams that run through it. I also fished in Bethany Beach, DE with my cousin on his big bass pond as well as a new pond never fished by us and possibly get onto his new website Backwoods Productions which will be full of many adventures from fishing to hunting to surfing (will be going live shortly and the link will be provided).

I'll start with Allen's Pond...a nice little pond tucked right into the middle of Bowie, MD. This pond is stocked by the Maryland State DNR and holds a variety of species from Brown and Rainbow Trout to Largemouth Bass and Catfish. It is generally pretty busy because it is also a State Park and holds a lot of potential for fisherman trying to fill the pan. I went on a rather nice day during the pre-stocking and came up empty but had to opportunity to talk to one of the locals who was on his 5th fish and claimed he saw a man "catch 10 quick, send them back into the pond, and head out." Crazy to these guys apparently because they primarily catch to keep. I had 2 rises from trout on a midge pattern (only due to the fact that it was a nice 70 degree day and thats all that was hatching). Heres some pictures:

The next place, Patapsco State Park is possibly the most beautiful park I've been to in Maryland. The Upper Patapsco River is absolutely stunning. With its rapids, small waterfalls, little beaches, and ideal runs/eddies, it has so much potential. Again, on this trip I only had 1 rise and a few looks on terrestrial (unseasonal) flies only because of the fact I tried everything else. Its easy to sight fish here and there are more places that hold fish than the Yellow Breeches I was used to. I plan on returning soon, especially since the Spring will be in full bloom soon enough and the stocking has started up there. Its a Catch-and-Release area, which I love, and isn't too bad of a trip for me. Heres some pictures:

And finally, the most successful and best of my latest adventures...the trip for an unofficial Spring Break with the wife to my parents beach house. Bethany Beach, DE is amazing, I've grown up spending a lot of weekends down there with the family. I have a good amount of family members that live down there, one of which loves fishing as much as I do. My cousin, Colin Herlihy, co-founder of Backwoods Productions, lives on a 2.5 acre bass pond that holds some of Bethany's finest and largest. Some of the species it holds are Largemouth Bass, Mud Catfish, Eels, White Perch, Spot, Herrring, and thats just a few. The saltwater/brackish species have made their way through tax ditches to his pond. We always have a blast on it and if your lucky enough, and have a good day, you can get yourself on his Wall of Fame. I think I have one or two pics on there. We fished the shoreline and went out in his dingy and got quite a few bass. I ended the weekend with 6 bass total, one on the fly (which is also the first caught in the pond on the fly). Colin put me to shame with something like 20 fish in one day. We went and explored through a few corn fields and found a nice new spot neither of us had fished and pulled quite a few bass out and one White Perch. Colin pulled the largest which was somewhere around 2.5 lbs. Back at the main pond, Colin's buddy Critter pulled a nice fat bass looking like it had already started the pre-spawn. It was probably somewhere around 2.5-3 lbs as well. The best part about Bethany and the surrouding areas is there are plenty of bait and tackle shops that have fresh and saltwater tackle and many if not all have fly fishing gear/flies/tackle...awesome. I'm sure plenty more stories will be posted about the adventures on the pond so keep your eyes on the blog. Heres some pics form this weekend and a few form the past:

I'll do my best to keep everyone updated and stop procrastinating and I'll fill everyone in when Backwoods Productions goes live...get out and catch some fish, send some pics and I'll post them for you!

Tight Lines...Morgan