Western Region:

Fishermen at Deep Creek continue to enjoy good fishing for smallmouth bass and now the walleye fishing has really taken off. Fisheries Alan Klotz sent in this short report and a picture of a pair of nice walleyes. The walleye bite is underway on Deep Creek Lake – try fishing under the Rt. 219 Bridge or the State Park shoreline at dusk. Try Texas-rigged white tube lures, floating minnow lures with enough split-shot to get them down deep, or slip-bobbers with live shiners. A slow retrieve works best. Fishing should be good right up until the lake freezes.

Dan Hodkinson sent in this report from the North Branch of the Potomac and a nice picture of a brown trout he caught and released. Now that we are into cooler water temps, it is finally benefiting us by allowing for some spectacular sight fishing on streams such as the North Branch Potomac. Three of us fly fished the river on Saturday and we were able to see lots of fish. Fishing was slow, but the two fish that we did hookup were both over five pounds. Here is a photo of a 25 3/4" brown that took a weighted Action Jackson, which is a custom weighted nymph pattern developed by local fly tier Paul Alcorn. We are consistently finding that heavy tungsten head nymphs in sizes 14-18, fished in tandem, are really producing in the faster waters of the river on both rainbows and browns. Our theory is that that are lots of bottom hugging big fish in the river that rarely see anglers offerings because it is difficult to get a fly to bounce bottom in fast water. These heavy nymphs help solve that problem, while still allowing for a natural presentation.

John Mullican sent in this report from the upper Potomac and Beaver Creek. Fall with its pleasant weather and colorful scenery is great time for outdoor pursuits. As a hunter and a fisherman I know it can be hard to choose how to spend the available recreation time. With the opening of deer season this past weekend fishing pressure on the Potomac River was pretty low. Good fishing, however, awaits those who choose to go fishing. Steve Peperak and I snuck out to the Potomac for a quick trip Sunday evening landing several nice walleye and smallmouth bass. Our best action was fishing jigs slowly near the bottom in the deeper pools. The decaying vegetation that was such a nuisance during past weeks is not nearly as abundant and fishing is easier.

I recently walked the banks of Beaver Creek in the Fly Fishing Only, Catch and Return Area to look for spawning trout. Brown trout were observed making redds in shallow riffles and at the tail outs of pools throughout the area. Thanks to habitat improvement projects and many tree-planting projects in the watershed, natural reproduction has been increasing. To help insure their success, please do not disturb spawning fish and avoid wading through areas with redds.

Central/Southern Region: