Gunpowder River Fly Fishing Report

May has sprung the Sulfur mayfly hatch on the Gunpowder River to the delight of  fly fisherman who fish this hatch each year.  The hatch brings great dry fly fishing throughout the river on Spring evenings and continues typically through June.  Sulfurs are a favorite to fish being that they are large(relatively speaking) , visible bugs, and trout can be easily seen sipping them from the surface.

  The bugs start to apppear in early afternoon and can usually be seen hatching through evening.  Many fly fisherman on the Gunpowder River will stay until dark anticipating a spinner fall, when the bugs that hatched earlier die and fall to the stream as an easy meal.

 We use fly patterns that imitate all stages of the mayfly hatch.  Pheasant tail and other small dark nymphs in size 16 or 18 imitate the sulfur nymph and are good choices for morning fishing.   The emerging bugs are well imitated with a soft hackled wet fly like a partridge and yellow.  They work best when fished on the swing.  My favorite dry flies are cdc winged comparaduns in size 14 or 16, or a sulfur parachute.  The parachute doubles as agreat imitation of the sulfur spinner.  The photos above are from the past week's fishing.  We had good action on trips above Falls Rd, and had good reports from anglers fishing throughout the catch and release area.