Patuxent River Fishing Report

Got out Thursday 02/28/2013 and fished with Jon again for a little bit.  I was pressed for time given the current amount of fly orders so I decided we could chase some trout at the Patuxent River.  The area we were going to fish was only about 20 minutes from my house so it would be perfect.

When I left the house, the temp was around 45 degree.  By the time I met Jon in the parking lot, the temp had fallen and so had some snow.  My hands were already freezing.  Determined, we headed out down stream.  This "river" is really a stream.  The stream had been stocked with about 1000 rainbows the week before.  It has a terrible aquatic inset life it seems and a ton of silt.  That coupled with the warm, low water in the summer, it usually has very few hold over fish.  A shame really.

I decided to stick with the Eagle Claw 6'6 Featherlight with 5wt line.  I also decided to throw the Fish Skull pattern again.  The first run we stopped in, I pulled off some line and started stripping the fly.  Almost immediately, I got follows.  Within a few casts, I had a hook up and just as quick lost the fish.  Damn.  Rainbows 1 J&M Flies 0.  Over the next two hours, I managed to move a few fish with the chartreuse Road Kill.  I lost another small Fish Skull in white to a fish.  The 'bows really seemed to love it.  They would chase it almost to shore.  It was a shame to lose both of them to fish.  They loved them so much they decided to keep them as lip rings.  Bastards!

Overall, it was a cold day with some follows.  I managed to land 1 'bow and two creek chubs.  In the end, I lost 7 rainbows.  Not my finest outing by a long shot.  Jon hooked up a number of times but could not bring anything to hand.  I am really diggin the Fish Skulls and can't wait to try them for smallies and panfish in the summer.