In the Shadow of Camp David

Spent about an hour and a half on Big Hunting Creek outside of Thurmont, Maryland Sunday evening. This creek is actually a small tailwater running through a state and national park in Maryland about half way between Frederick and Gettysburg. It is also a stones throw from the Presidential retreat at Camp David.

While nothing was rising regularly and the water was extremely skinny, the browns were hungry for size 14 stimulators and elk hair caddis. I only hooked up on about one out of every 4 or 5 rises, but still managed to land enough fish to have a blast.

BHC is a great destination if you only have a couple of hours to fish.

I take it you were fishing in "the canyon." Nice work, it's a great little spot with scenery to match the fish! If you're in the area again before the end of the month, drop me a line. I haven't been out to BHC since last year.

Marty

In Jimmy Carter's book An Outdoor Journal he wrote about how he would travel to Camp David for a weekend working retreat. As soon as the the press was settled in and no one was watching he would head out to fish Big Hunting Creek and really relax
Good book

Did you happen to check the water temperature? The stream is not a tailwater in the cold water, bottom release vein, so it relies on Mother nature to stay cold enough for trout.

With the heat and dry weather I would expect it would be near that 70 degree "don't fish it if you care about the resource" mark.

Didn't measure the water temp, but released all fish without taking them out of the water. I don't use a net and rarely even handle the fish, instead I just grip the fly with forceps and usually slide it out - an advantage of always going barbless. The section I fished was close up to the water release from the lake, and while it wasn't frosty, it was still plenty cold.