Winter Fishing the Patuxent River

Yesterday I took a much-needed day off work to break in my new wading boots in one of Maryland’s up-and-coming trout rivers.

This is the first season in more than a decade that the Patuxent River, below Brighton Dam, is stocked with brown and rainbow trout. As a teenager, new to the sport of fly-fishing and frustrated by any low hanging branches, I remember drooling over this sacred section of the Patuxent (not because of the absence of branches). It’s deep holes and undercut banks were perfect for naturally chary trout. With private property surrounding the river, and landowners angered by a previous period where the DNR managed this section as a put-and-take trout fishery—attracting the can of corn, six-pack crowd, this prime trout water ran void of the treasured fish.

Now, thanks to the work of the Potomac-Patuxent chapter of Trout Unlimited, beginning 400 yards below Brighton Dam the Patuxent River is a regulated catch-and-release trout stream.

Memory didn’t serve me well on my way to the river. Coming from the direction of my old stomping ground in Scaggsville, I zigged and zagged my way from route 216 to route 650, finally conceding to prayer as the only hope of finding Brighton Dam. Thank God for the obvious. Brighton Dam Road appeared shortly after 108, and moments later I was parking in a lot offered by Maryland’s DNR adjacent to the dam.

The walk to the managed section of the river took me through a picnic area and a field before the hibernating briers cluttered the banks of the river. I quickly tied on a wooly bugger, full of flash, hoping to get a greedy strike before the clouds broke. Nothing. In fact, nothing for most of the day. Even with the frantic switching between nymph and streamer, the only strike I garnered occurred while I reeled my line in for another fly change.

Thank the Lord I ran into Nick Weber, president of the local chapter of Trout Unlimited, and a friend nailing catch-and-release signs on riverside trees. Nick informed me the trout were recently stocked and still adjusting to their new environment. This compounded with an abnormally high flow of 100cc killed any hope of me catching a fish.

Nevertheless, there is a lot of promise concerning this section of the Patuxent. The best news I heard—especially after experiencing the underfed, overstocked trout of the Gunpowder River—was that they are not stocking large amounts of fish in the Patuxent. The short-term difficulties are the scarcity of trout, but in the long run we’ll find healthy trout naturally reproducing in this river. For that reason, I am willing to wait.

As spring exiles winter’s cold, and the vegetation re-awakens to the warmth, this river will explode with beauty and (hopefully) energetic trout. I’ll definitely be back and look forward to roll casting to the edge of the riverside’s stunning rock formations, hoping for the slow rise of a Maryland trout.

[I feel a need to confess that I spent much of the morning and early afternoon pulling flies from overhanging trees. Practice your side arm and roll casts before you wet your boots in this tailwater!]