Beaver Creek Outing Report January 2025
When: Saturday, January 25, 2025, 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Where: Beaver Creek, Hagerstown, Maryland
Participants: Peter Anderson, Jouky Chang, Steve Dunkleberger, Doug Johncox, Sean McCarrun, Chris Newkumet, Lou Reichel, and Ron Kerrick.
The morning was cold and the trees, having lost their leaves, raised their bare limbs up towards the Heavens as if pleading for Spring and warmer weather to arrive. Despite the cold, eight hardy souls, whose names shall be forever recorded in the Conservationist archives, ventured forth to fish the Beaver. We met up in the parking lot across from the Beaver Creek Fly Shop at 10:00. Doug Johncox brought a friend along (Sean McCarrun), to fish the Beaver with us and Pete Anderson and Chris Newkumet joined us later in the day. When we arrived, the temperature was 28 degrees. The sky was sunny with no cloud cover and there was no wind. But first we headed into the Beaver Creek Fly Shop to get the latest intel, stock up on flies and of course just talk. As a result, we did not head out to go fishing until about 11:00 and with the late start we decided to have a late lunch, at 2:00. At that point, people spread out to explore the stream and try their luck.
Steve Dunkleberger and I fished the middle section from the DNR lot. Steve went upstream and I went downstream. Beaver Creek was clear as expected and when I checked the water temp, I got a reading of 44 degrees, but the water level seemed a little low. I had no bites and didn’t even see a fish. At 1:45 I headed back to the Fly Shop parking lot to start lunch and to see how everyone else had done so far. On my way back, there was a tow truck parked in the middle of Beaver Creek Church Road blocking my lane completely. So, cussing under my breath, I slowly went around the truck from Uncle Buck’s Towing.
I reached the parking lot, started setting up for lunch and the other members began arriving. As it turned out, the tow truck that I had to go around was there to assist Jouky and Lou. They had pulled off the road into a farmer’s field (he allows parking there) to fish the middle section and Jouky got stuck. Jouky and Lou spent a lot of time using car mats and sticks, trying to get the car out but finally gave up, called AAA and had a tow truck sent. However, the tow truck guy refused to go into the farmer’s field because he didn’t have 4-wheel drive and was afraid that he would also get stuck. Eventually the Farmer came out to see what was going on and told Jouky and Lou that there was another exit from the field that didn’t require going uphill. So their ordeal finally ended, but they had spent the entire first half of the day playing with the stuck car and didn’t get to wet a line at all before lunch.
For lunch we had grilled hotdogs, baked beans and some pretzels. No one in our group caught any fish and only Steve Dunkleberger reported seeing a fish.
After lunch we spread out again. Half of our group went to the DNR lot at the middle section while the rest of us fished behind the fly shop. As the day progressed, the air temperature rose into the mid 30’s and it became partly cloudy with an occasional light breeze. Unfortunately, the afternoon was the same as the morning. None of us caught any fish and only Chris Newkumet reported seeing a “healthy looking guy” in the pool below the second bridge off the Beaver Creek Church Rd access.
Temperature notwithstanding, it was a nice day for our first chapter outing of the year. I think that everyone had a good time (except for maybe Lou and Jouky) and enjoyed the great camaraderie.
Our next fishing adventure will be held on Saturday, February 15th from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM at Big Hunting Creek, near Thurmont, MD.
Ron Kerrick (Assistant Outings Coordinator)
