Winter Trout to Beat Cabin Fever

In Maryland, February can be an arduous time for hunting and fishing. Duck and deer seasons have come to a close, and safe ice fishing conditions don’t exist in most parts of the state. In this down time most hunters and anglers I know spend their time on the couch. The four to six week intermission is only concluded by the arrival of early prespawn bass fishing and the spring trout stocking. I have spent the last ten years trying to find ways to beat the restlessness induced by my cabin fever, but could never quite find an activity outside that scratched the itch. That was until I was cued into a hidden gem by an older gentleman at a Christmas party. He told me about a small river in Central Maryland that offered a great opportunity to fish for wild brown and brook trout in the dead of winter. Naturally I hopped right on google maps, found public access, and began planning my trip for February.

Trout fishing is not customarily what Maryland hangs its hat on, however, opportunities may present themselves if you are willing to put the time in and know where to look. Brook trout, rainbow trout, and brown trout can be found swimming in Maryland’s rivers and streams. Brook trout being the only native species to Maryland with brown and rainbow trout being introduced in the early 20th century. Today, many trout fishing opportunities in the state come from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources put-and-take or delayed-harvest programs, in which the state stocks rivers and lakes with three hundred thousand brown and rainbow trout annually. In 2020 just over 51 thousand trout stamps were sold in the state of Maryland. When you run the numbers this works out to around six trout stocked per angler. These stockings provide an amazing opportunity for all anglers, as most of the stocked fish can be caught from the bank in areas with impeccable public access.

Without taking anything from this amazing fishing opportunity, the charm of chasing wild fish in harder to reach places better speaks to my sense of adventure. While the river we are fishing is mostly non native Brown and Rainbow trout, with a few native Brook trout sprinkled in, the romanticism of a wild and naturally occurring fish population has deeply seeded itself in my imagination.

The first weekend in February a buddy and I pulled into an empty trailhead parking lot on a cold Saturday afternoon. A cold front had rolled through that morning and dropped the temps into the upper twenties and brought a light snowfall along with it. These conditions could not have been more different than the warm and sunny bass fishing weather I was accustomed to.

Donned in our warmest waterfowl waders and ultralight rods in hand we waddled down the trail towards the sounds of rushing water, without a clue what to expect from the outing. Our strategy was one that I have developed a great deal of faith in growing up fishing the Patapsco river and other small streams. It involves casting light split shot rigs, with various types of Berkley Gulp, upstream of current breaks, deep pools, and any place a fish could ambush disoriented bait, washed out through fast moving water. The idea is to cast the bait as far up stream as possible and reel in the slack as it comes past you and then pull drag quickly to allow the bait to flow freely past you all the while keeping your line just tight enough to see or feel a bite. If you do it right you will keep consistent action and tension on your bait without ever altering its natural flailing action in the current.

The split shot rig is an extremely versatile rig and I have scaled it up for fish as big as Tiger Muskie and as far down as for eating size yellow perch and crappie. It is my go to setup to find finicky fish. Given the very cold and clear water temperatures, I went as light and finesse as possible. This included the following, a two foot long, four pound fluorocarbon leader tied to a size 4 offset circle hook with a nose hooked 2 and a half inch Berkley gulp. Two small pieces of split shot were about 18 inches up from the hook eye, each a little smaller than a pea in size. Using a few smaller split shots gives you the option to adjust your weight for your drift. With not enough weight and you cannot effectively cast and your bait and it lacks action in the current, but too much weight and your bait drifts too slow to trigger bites or it holds bottom and won’t move at all. By adding and subtracting smaller weights you can find the sweet spot for the perfect drift speed without having to retie your whole setup. As a word of advice, start small and work your way up. When placed a good distance up the line from your hook, a couple extra split shots won’t affect your bites from even the most pressured fish.

As the trail wound its way through the trees down to the river bottom, the first spot presented itself. We immediately hopped in the river and worked upstream, slowly fan casting to each point of interest. Truthfully, I didn’t really expect to catch much on this trip, it was more of a scouting mission to validate a tip given by a friend, but validation did not take long, and it came undeniably. Within the first dozen casts I had hooked into my first ever wild trout, and first ever Brown Trout. Not a trophy sized fish by any means, but one of the prettiest fish I have ever caught, and lots of fun to fight on a five foot six ultra light setup. That fish was not the last and the action was everything you could ask for. We landed a few fish out of each spot, and missed more bites than we could count. It was safe to say our fishing skills had gotten rusty during hunting season. As the day came to a close we had each caught and released six Brown trout a piece.

My whole life I had been told that you won’t ever catch any fish in this weather, my dad even reminded me of that fact as I walked out the front door. Somehow here I was fish in hand, snow falling steadily around me, in what looked very similar to the winter Terry Redlin painting hanging above my parents fireplace. It goes to show the importance of heading out in search of your own hard earned knowledge through trial and error. I am not implying that you shouldn’t listen to the advice of others, hell, my tip to fish this spot came from someone else. My point is, don’t let others talk you out of trying something new and failing. Failure is how you begin to pattern fish and become a better angler, it is a requirement for becoming an expert and well rounded. While this experience was not a failure by any means, I did learn that if one can get over being wet, cold and tired, there is always fish to be caught no matter where you are and what time of year it is.