Monocacy River - Sept. 12

Participants: John “Jack” Caufield, David Engle, Jim Irons, Matthew, Michael Pochettino, Lou Reichel, Alan Williams and Ron Kerrick.

    Our outing to the Monocacy River was a first for most of the participants including Lou and I, so we were figuring it out as we went along. The weather forecast was sketchy, predicting an overcast day with the possibility of thunderstorms later in the day. However, the weather turned out to be great. The temperature was not as hot as it had been, it didn’t rain, and the clouds made it more comfortable for both us and the fish. For a couple of members, this was their first outing with our chapter, so it was good to see some new faces. One of our participants was new to fly fishing so Lou took charge and mentored him during the outing. In spite of that, Matthew did manage to catch a couple of fish and Lou came through as well catching several smallmouth. Most of our group fished the river where we met that morning at Pinecliff Park. There is easy access to the river here, easy wading (no big rocks to stumble over) and once you get into the water, it is wide open. It is a great area to practice casting with no bushes to get tangled in on your back cast and no tree limbs to grab your flies. The only hassle at Pinecliff Park was a lot of grass in the river. The river is slow here and mostly all “frog water”, so most of us used surface flies and did well, catching multiple fish (smallmouth bass and sunfish). Mike and Dave even got to watch a Baptism. A real Baptism, not just some chapter member falling in. This was a first for our outings as far as I know.

    After our usual lunch of hotdogs and beans, Jack, Lou, and I went over to Buckeystown Park where Alan and Jim had success in the morning. There was a lot less grass there, more riffles, rocks, and some pools. Like Pineville Park, there is a lot of room to cast your line without worries. Upstream from the park is a beautiful smallmouth area, but unfortunately the three of us didn’t have any luck there.

    During our outing I only saw a couple of spin fisherman at Pinecliff Park and that was it. I saw no fly fishermen besides our group all day long. Even though the fish we caught were small, I will definitely go back again. It is only a 45-50 minute drive and there is plenty of room to practice casting on the water with a chance of hooking a good size smallmouth.

Participants Comments:

“After initially using a larger popper that Jay S. gave me, I switched to this small green popper at Jim’s suggestion. I landed my first small mouth 5-6” and two sunfish upstream from Buckeystown park. At Pinecliff by the bridge overpass, I landed another small mouth in the same size range”.

Alan

“Caught two young juvenile smallmouth bass between 6” - 8” using a Woolly Bugger black body with purple/black marabou undertones in the tail. Like Mike stated below I was fishing next to them during the baptism and the only time I caught fish was during the service, so I’m not sure I should get much credit for those two fish, more than likely divine intervention”.

Dave

“I caught eight fish overall. Species included smallmouth, rock bass and red breasted sunfish. Flies that worked were a Patuxent Special and a Black Jig Crystal Bugger. Biggest fish was a 10 inch smallmouth.

No significant wildlife sightings, but I did see what I thought was a baptism that included about 20 people in the water”. 

Mike