Fall Dry Fly Fishing on the Gunpowder River

The last few weeks have been excellent fishing on the Gunpowder.  Morning blue winged olive and caddis hatches have offered anglers some great dry fly fishing opportunities. The middle stretches of the catch and release area have offered some of the best action.  Long leaders and 7x tippets have been the norm.  Fish have liked patterns like parachute olives in a size 20 and small x caddis or henryville specials size 18.

Fishing should hold up through the fall as long as temps stay moderate and  weather holds.  Flows have been good, around 70 cfs and have been excelent for fishing dry flies.

We have been fishing for rockfish out of the Kent Island in our normal fall haunts.  The morning topwater fishing has been great and there are alot of breaking fish to chase through the mid day.
We have had a few nice bluefish mixed in, and some of the rockfish have been nice up to 26".

I expect fishing to be good through mid November, again weather dependent.

Fly Fishing low flows on the Gunpowder River

Stream flows on the Gunpowder river have been low the last couple of weeks averaging about 39 cfs. Low flows make already wary trout even spookier and make for challenging fishing.  Despite the stream flows, we have been catching a bunch of fish.  We are seeing the last of our trico mayflies in the mornings and have scattered action on caddis through the day. There are lots of rising trout and we are having success on dries with a cautious approach. Best fly patterns have been cdc tricos in size 22 and size 18 or 20 henryville specials.

Small nymphs have been working well in the pocket water.  We have been fishing dropper nymph rigs under an indicator with added weight when needed.  Small seems to be the bet lately and our best flies have been size 20 and 22 zebra midges and other pupa patterns.  Small pheasant tails have been working well too.