Big Hunting Creek, MD?

[jkratty]

Planning a trip this weekend with some work colleagues. We're considering Big Hunting and/or Owens.

Anyone been to either of those recently? How are the creeks fishing?

Thanks!

Jason

 

[jkratty]

Well I was flying blind, but I'll offer a report for the benefit of the community.

Big Hunting was a lot of fun. Beautiful stream with crystal-clear water. It was flowing hard from all the recent rain, but it didn't hamper our fishing. I had success with an emerger pushed deep into the pools. Even though there were decent hatches going on, there was no surface action at all. Landed several 10" rainbows on my 2wt. My only complaint: there is a lot of traffic noise from the road that parallels the river.

Also went over to Owens Creek. Wasn't enamored with it at all. Didn't get any action whatsoever and the water didn't appear to have nearly the amount and variety of holes and runs that the Hunting has. Maybe we were just in the wrong section (between the two railroad bridges).

 

[Tracker12]

Thanks for the report. Always looking for another place to fish in the DC area especially if it has trout. How was the crowd?

 

[jkratty]

It was the first nice day without rain in quite a while. It was busy, but I didn't feel overly pressured. I encountered one guy who said the day before he "stopped counting" after landing his 15th trout!

 

[Tracker12]

Thanks for the info mind letting me know what was working for you.

 

[jkratty]

There wasn't much of a hatch that day, so I stayed subsurface. They were hitting on a #18 grey loop-wing emerger. The two nicest rainbows I hooked both hit at the exact same spot on the swing. I only took one on the drift.

 

[Rob Pallace]

Planning a trip this weekend with some work colleagues. We're considering Big Hunting and/or Owens.

Anyone been to either of those recently? How are the creeks fishing?

Thanks!

Jason

I fished Big Hunting Creek last Friday (May 16) and today (May 23). The water level is great, high enough so that the fish are not too spooky, but low enough to do a bit of sight fishing. I did not see any rising fish. Last week I took two rainbows in about the 8" range on a dead drifted soft hackle with a pheasant tail tied to the hook bend, one split shot above the soft hackle-- I fished deeper runs at the heads of pools. I also took a 9" brown out of a riffle on a #14 elk hair caddis. Today I hooked two fish but did not actually land any fish. To be honest, I am not a great hatch matcher, so I rely on attractor patterns. I would definitely recommend going to Big Hunting. I also took a ride along Owens. The water looked beautiful, but I have never fished there, so I cannot give you any advice. Enjoy your trip.

Rob Pallace
Alexandria VA

 

[Tracker12]

Great post Rob. I am heading up to PA next week and may stop for a couple hours on the way up. Thanks for the info.

 

[webdevl]

Fished Big Hunting for the first time today ended up landing 15 fish in 3.5 hours in the middle of the day all. Most of the fish were taken on Light Cahill's and Blue Dun's. I was not expecting much to be moving as sunny and warm as it was. Here are a couple pics