One of the first places I went fishing this year was Morgan Run. Coming out of the National Capital Angling Show with a strong recommendation on this stream from the TU guys, I knew it had to be one of my first stops of the season. In addition, Morgan Run was highly rated in the Gelso/Coburn book – Guide to Maryland Trout Fishing.
Bowers Road is the northern/western access point to the catch and release section of the creek. The walk to the stream from the parking area is quick and easy down an access road to the remains of a bridge. I hopped into the stream, crossed it, and found the path west on the far side. I walked up a bit as I always do and then began fishing.
The stream winds quite a bit with the deeper pools forming at the numerous bends. As you can see from the pictures, there is plenty of structure leaning into the stream to hold fish. The stream is fairly wide at about 25 feet across, making it a good place for a new fly guy to take his first halting steps into the sport.
The real challenge here was trying to figure out what to use. The bends were deep – deeper than I could wade across in my chest waders, yet the stretches between the pools could be quite shallow. You can do fine in hip waders if you chose your crossing points with care.
This trip was about a month into my entry into fly fishing, so my technique was as enthusiastic as it was poor. Torn between the need to nymph (it’s a real easy thing to do for a new guy) and the desire to pinpoint cast with streamers to that perfect spot, I quickly settled on the nymphing approach. Face it. A month into fly fishing and there was nothing pinpoint about my casting.
I worked up the stream for about a mile, trying the limited number of tricks I had to coax a trout from the 50 degree water. No skill combined with no luck resulted in a great “on water” casting practice. But, it was a nice day, and I followed the morning spent here with a much more successful afternoon fishing upstream from the London Bridge access point – a success I attribute to my ritual delivery of a number of fresh flies to the tree gods who overwatch the trout on any nice stream.
This water is certainly worth coming back to.
Morgan Run Trout Fishing Bottom Line: A nice place. It is very level, no hard wading or walking. In late April when I was there, I saw no evidence of anyone else, but felt I had to rate this as “Y” for pressure since it is written up in the book and is a small stretch of water.
Getting There: From the intersection of Route 97 and Route 26, head north. Turn right on Nicodemus Road and then right again on Jim Bowers Road. Go all the way to the end. The road becomes gravel and eventually dead ends in the parking area. Continue down the road from the parking area to the stream.
The trail is pretty well defined on the western side of the stream
Nice pool right at the old bridge where the road from the parking lot ends.
One of the nice wider sections where it was easy to get some good “on water” casting practice
Typical bend with structure dumped into the stream
Deep water underneath this down tree
Another good casting practice spot.
Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore