{Tidal Potomac Fly Rodders} Re: Solid Couple of Days...(Gunpowder and Seneca Creek)

I'm late on this one, but within the 3ish hour range you have a ton of stuff you can see. I've been trying to explore more in this range this summer. I'm targeting spots that you have to at least walk in to fish, and preferably hike to get there. That way if I get skunked, at least I got a good walk in. 

With this range, you can get to all the of the Shenandoah streams near the Swift Run Gap entrance. I'm not sure if they've got much rain the past couple weeks, but I think they are still pretty low at this time. I did Big Run, camping overnight, about a month ago. The Shenandoahs are open for backcountry camping, but I'd check the regs before heading to any particular spot. I can't remember how restrictive they are. Once you get away from the north end of the park, it gets much less congested. If you're accessing these streams from the park, it'll be a hike down and a hike back up to get out. You'll see some reviews of the Big Fork that talk about how terrible the hike is, but I didn't find it any harder than any other ridge climb that I've done in the Shenandoahs. Yes, it sucks, but it is only around 2K elevation gained.

Two weekends ago I did a trip to Laurel Fork/Upper Jackson River/ St. Mary's River. The Laurel and St. Mary's were unfishably low. The Jackson was fine, and I camped at the campground, which was $5 for America the Beautiful pass holders, and $10 without. You can't camp by the Jackson outside of the campground as far as I could tell. For the Laurel Fork, i'd plan on camping at the parking area at Locust Point area and hiking in and out. About 6 miles round trip, but not terribly challenging hiking. Well, I'd bet it would be a better hike if you weren't carrying everything for an overnight :/

Hope this helps. I know I'm always interested in hearing more options in this range. I'll likely do another over Labor Day weekend, but I'm not sure where.

On Sunday, July 20, 2014 6:38:43 PM UTC-4, Jason Hanerfeld wrote:

I had a few days off of work this week so I decided to head up to the Gunpowder River to give it a go.  I parked at masemore road and fished my way up almost to the prettyboy dam.  Landed a couple of decent browns, all of which were on nymphs, and had one that was about 13-14 inches.  Spent some time fishing with caddis and terrestrials but couldn't get any action on dries.  Around the bridge at falls road I saw tons of decent sized fish, and a few large ones, that were laying on the bottom.  I threw nymphs and streamers at them but couldn't get them to move.  Are these carp?  Does anybody know?  

Today I decided to head out to seneca creek, right below river road, to see if I could find any fish there.  In only about 2 hours I caught a smallie, a few largemouth, a rockbass(which was my first),  countless bluegill, and what I think was a red breasted sunfish.  All bass were on a chartreuse clouser size 4, and many of the bluegill were on poppers and terrestrials.  Was a great time and will hopefully be back out there soon.

Also, I'm looking for a place somewhere in Virginia, West Virginia, or Pennsylvania, within a 3 hour drive or so of DC to do some backpacking, camping, and of course a lot of fishing, preferably for trout.  Does anybody know of any good trails/trout rivers where camping is permitted within 3 hours or so of DC??

Thanks,

Jason  

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