On Saturday morning for the first time in a long time I drove south to fly fish. I headed to one of Trout Unlimited’s Top 100 Streams in America, the Gunpowder Falls River (“Gunpowder”), located in eastern Maryland. The Gunpowder Falls River is a tributary to the Gunpowder River, which eventually flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The Gunpowder is a tail water of the Prettyboy Reservoir and the water stays cool year around because of the bottom dam gate water release. The cool water temperatures make it the perfect environment for trout. According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources website, many years ago their fisheries biologists populated the river with brown and rainbow trout using fertilized eggs and fingerlings. In the years that followed, these trout flourished and began naturally reproducing and the stream can now be called a wild trout stream that receives no ongoing stocking in the first seven miles below the dam. This area is designated as special regulations, catch and release fishing with artificial lures only. In the fly fishing community the Gunpowder Falls River is also well known because it is the water that legendary fly fisherman Lefty Kreh grew up fly fishing. To this day I believe he only lives a few minutes from the river.