Last Christmas, I took a run at the fly fishing only section of Beaver Creek without much success. This fall, I watched the stocking report in anticipation of returning to Beaver Creek when there was a guarantee of a higher density of fish. On October 31st, I realized that goal when I visited the lower “put and take” section of Beaver Creek near Kline Mill.
After making the turn onto Roxbury Road, I drove the short distance to the small bridge and found an equally small parking area just on the other side of it. I hopped out of the truck and looked at the water. I was pleased to see many trout finning in the water below. There were even a few golden trout sticking out like sore thumbs where the water swirled underneath the bridge. Looking upstream, I recognized that I had about 100 yards of fishable water before the stream ran into farmland past the bridge across the main road.
My first challenge was how to attack the pod of fish under the bridge. As you can see from the picture below, the trees are fairly dense on the bank, with low overhanging branches reaching all the way to the road. What you don’t see is that there is an obnoxious power line with its support cables directly in the back of the picture, which makes backcasts problematic. I started to work the hole using roll casts, but my sloppy technique only served to stir up the fish and scatter them. Recognizing that I had blown this hole, I decided to walk upstream a bit to a spot where I could actually get into the water and leverage the clear area next to the road to make better casts.
Just up from the first picture there’s a riffle that spills into a fairly deep pothole. I picked up several fallfish there, but no trout. I fished upstream past the bridge over the main road and continued to have good luck harvesting fallfish but no trout were deceived by my presentation. There were plenty of fish in this stretch of water — you could see them as you walked along the stream from the road. I have a problem telling the difference between trout and large fallfish from a distance, but given that stocking had just occurred, a substantial number of what I saw had to be trout. Granted, I was working flies on the top, and I missed a number of fish as I attempted to set the hook when they hit my fly. My ego claims that a substantial number of them had to be trout.
On my way back down to the truck, I ran into another fishermen who was using Powerbait and he told me that he had had no luck either. While that made me feel a little bit better, it did not hide the fact that I was skunked on trout in this section. Before going back to the truck, I walked across the field to the south of the bridge to work back up the stream to the parking area. Beaver Creek is very narrow with a sandy bottom covered with small pebbles in this section. The water level on this late October afternoon was about a foot in the deepest sections in this stretch. I had no luck here — no trout, no fallfish.
After fishing for an hour or two, I decided to go upstream to the Tom’s Road bridge. That’s the only other stock truck access point in this section of the creek. When I drove over there, I saw a number of other guys flailing at the hole underneath the bridge, so I decided not to get out of the truck and add to the crowd.
Beaver Creek Trout Fishing Bottom line: This section of Beaver Creek does not constitute an all-day fishing excursion. Maybe it’s a bit different when the water levels are higher which would allow the stocked fish to disperse broadly across this section. The good news is that you can fish in this section of Beaver Creek and then jump over to Antietam Creek which is only minutes away. So, between the two you can do a good day of fishing in this area. Of course, you can always go a little farther upstream and visit the fly fishing only section of Beaver Creek up by Interstate 70.
Mikescatchreport.com has a large number of posts on Beaver Creek if you want more insight into this stream.
Getting There: From I70, take exit 49 to US 40 west towards Braddock Heights. Stay on US 40 for about 15 miles. Once you pass the town of Benevola, stay alert. The next small town is Kline Mill. Turn left on Roxbury Road. Beaver Creek will be on your right.
Google Local Coordinates: 39.550995,-77.681837
Secrets Revealed? No. This is a very public location that is documented in the Maryland DNR stocking table
Upstream from entry point at the small bridge
Downstream from entry point at the small bridge
Upstream from the main road bridge
Turnaround point upstream
Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore