Vacation

Well after almost two weeks of vacation I finally took a day to myself and went fishing. I drove up to the Patuxent River just south of Damascus MD. Since this was the first time I had fished this stretch of water I was not sure what to expect. I had done some looking up online for details of what to expect but being as this is a catch and release area and also a fly fishing only area the number of reports were on the slim side... or maybe I just didn't find the right place to get the info. In anycase armed with my trusty 3wt I went off to figure it out.

The first place I parked was the parking spot where the river flows under Rt. 97 - Georgia Ave. There is ample parking, how ever after about 100 yards of river the one has to cross over to the other side to keep from going into some privet land. And I do envy the people that get to live there because it is a nice piece of property and right next to the river... well who could ask for more.

I walked, waded and battle the rose bushes that grew in abundance along the side of the river for about 2 miles. This stretch of water did not yield much action though I was about to hook and bring to hand a number of small sunfish and also several whitefish or overgrown minnow-esk looking fish. 

Having spent about three hours in this spot and not wanting to head back I drove up and around to the next spot that the river was crossed by a road, which was about a 10 minuet drive to the upstream location. Having just battled rose vines for the last couple hours I was quite content when, arriving at this spot I noticed that the bridge was over a somewhat decent hole and I was also quite content to play around here.

I started casting to some of the smaller sunfish that where in this section and was bringing them to hand with not too much of a fuss. As I was taking a break and just watching the water trying to read it I noticed a long lean shadow cast by a trout. I cast out to it and after a couple tries were able to get the drift just right that the fly came right up to its nose and it was happy to oblige by chomping down on it.

I brought to hand a nice heathy looking brown trout that was about 11 inches long. Having got my trout for the day I set him back in the water knowing that he was going to be there the next time I wanted to get me a trout.

All in all a good day... Next time I might have to explore another section of the river up that way and maybe say hello to the rest of the trout clan.