Big Hunting Cr., Frederick Co., Maryland, 1/15/2012

[3wt7X]

I finally made it out fly fishing this year. My mind told me to hit a limestoner, but my heart said go to the mountains. I decided on Big Hunting Creek. The air temps ranged from the mid to low 30s, and it felt significantly nicer in the sun, as opposed to the shade. The stream flows were moderate, and the water was gin clear. I did not see much hatching. A couple midges, and no black stoneflies to speak of. I checked the stream banks for them. I decided on a tandem rig with a large pheasant tail leading a small one. I fished from 1pm-330pm, and landed 3 beautiful wild browns. The first came on a pheasant tail, then I decided to switch up, to a larger prince nymph, which payed off with some larger fish. The highlight of the day was an 11 incher that was very acrobatic for the cold weather, jumping twice, including one jump that cleared a foot off the water. Overall, a great first day of trout fishing for the year. The fish seemed to be holding in the deeper runs with moderate current adjacent to slow water. Those Big Hunting Creek browns are truly beautiful, and it reminded me why brown trout are my favorite fish. Here are some pics...I hope you all get out soon, if you get the chance.

 

[Fishidiot]

Nice report! At this time last year many of our freestoners were frozen. This has been a pretty decent winter for fishing.

 

[doublelunger]

very nice!

 

[Squaretail]

Perty fish, perty creek. Glad you got out.

 

[midgeman]

Thanks for the post 3x7wt!!! I busted my ankle there on New Years Eve day in the canyon. I renamed the stream "Big Hurting" 😉-

 

[csoult]

Is it true that MD charges whatever your particular state charges (in my case PA) for a 3 day license? So since PA charges $26.70 for a 3 day, then that's what MD charges me?

 

[3wt7X]

csoult,
There is some truth to that...Maryland does a check on whatever state that you are coming from, and bases the license prices on what a Maryland resident would pay in that state. I don't know if the numbers are equal, but that is a factor.

Midgeman,
I hope your ankle heals up fast, I was also fishing the canyon stretch, which is normally the case for me. It seems like the wild browns are more concentrated down there, and I try and target them. I'd love to get a big brown out of there, but they are hard to come by. I found that they top out at about 14 inches, but that is not too big of a complaint considering the coloration on those fish. Just an observation.