In a Tough Spring, State Stocking Trucks Are a Fisherman's Friend

Some days are better than others, and some are even better than that. Say you're trout fishing on the Little Patuxent River at Savage in a chilly rain shower one weekday morning and have the place all to yourself. That's pretty good.

Better yet, the water's clear and running at a near-perfect level. You've been wading warily through rough whitewater stretches, hopping from rock to rock, stumbling around on slick boulders while casting olive-colored woolly buggers across the current and twitching them through deep holes, and from time to time you're getting a strike.

After an hour or so, you and your buddy each have a nice, 12-inch rainbow trout for the creel and every expectation of landing a couple more if the rain doesn't get too fierce. That's the hard part of your two-fish limits and a good morning.

Now what's that noisy vehicle rolling down the streamside gravel road with big old government markings on it? Could it be, would it be? Well, lookee here -- it's the state stocking truck! Who wants to be a millionaire?

Such are the makings of a better than average fishing day, particularly in this year's challenging spring environment. It's been a frustrating season, with too many chilly nights and cold fronts and rainy patches. With all the bad weather, we may have missed the white perch run altogether, which usually is a high point of April in these parts.

My regular Wednesday fishing partner Larry Coburn and I planned to chase white perch on the Eastern Shore last week but reports were grim. "The run's already gone by," said the counterman at Tuckahoe Sporting Goods in Denton. "They were catching them two or three weeks ago but the cold snap must have put them down."

Charlie Ebersberger at Anglers Sporting Goods in Annapolis said he'd been throwing away boxes of grass shrimp baits for lack of customers. "They're starting to stink," he said (the shrimp, not the customers). "If you find some perch, please let us know where they are."

Perch, shad and rockfish should have been thick around the Susquehanna River near Havre de Grace, as well, but last week those fish were hanging in deep holes, waiting for a warm, sunny day to make their runs to the shallows to spawn. Mike Benjamin at Herb's Tackle Shop in North East said he'd been out twice looking for perch and rockfish around the Susquehanna Flats. "I saw plenty of marks on the depth finder but we couldn't get them to bite."

Benjamin reckoned it all would change with the arrival of fair weather late in the week. When all else fails this time of year, the last, best hope is trout fishing, which isn't a bad fallback. Stocking trucks have been rumbling to creeks and streams in Maryland and Virginia for a month and more, dropping off trout by the thousands, and these fish have the advantage of being coldwater creatures. Fifty-degree water means nothing to them -- that's how they like it.

When the state truck rolled up the Little Patuxent above Savage Mill in Howard County on Wednesday, we hiked up to the roadbed and intercepted the stocking crew, headed by Todd Heerd from the Department of Natural Resources. He had a bucket brigade of volunteers along to ferry fish down to the river. The smallest stocker was Laurel Brinker-Cole of Catonsville, tagging along with her dad, David. "Make sure to give me the little bucket," she pleaded, all bright eyes and plastered-down hair.

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I followed a 10-year-old with a loaded bucket down to the stream and pointed to a good place to toss in the trout. Ten minutes later, when truck and crew vanished upriver to stock the next hole, I was standing in her footprints, shamelessly trying to catch the other half of dinner.

It may not be moral, but it's legal on the Little Patuxent, an urban trout stream where the daily limit is two trout per person and there's no closed season. Most other streams in Maryland have a five-fish limit, but close for a week during stocking to let the fish settle in. Details are on the Maryland DNR Web site. In Virginia, there's no closed season; if you can find the stocking truck, have at it.

I'd never been lucky enough to stumble on a fresh stocking situation and always heard trout can be finicky right after they're stocked. So it proved to be. You could see trout swirling where they'd been dumped, but it was all we could do to get a bite.

I finally gave in and threaded a salmon egg onto my fly in hopes of luring the finicky fish. All that succeeded in attracting was a pair of little sucker fish. Finally, the strike-indicator went down with authority and I had my limit. And not a moment too soon, for the sky went black and another pounding rainstorm rolled in. We ran for the truck, happy to call it a day. A very good day, at that.

* * *

Spring fishing is on in earnest today with trophy rockfish season in full swing on the main stem of the Chesapeake in Maryland and trout season open on most of the streams around Washington. Great Seneca Creek in Montgomery County was freshly stocked with over 2,000 trout last week and Northwest Branch, the Patuxent at Laurel and the Little Patuxent at Savage all were recently stocked and are open to fishing.

Virginia's stocking program focuses more on the mountains. For those who favor the highlands, the Hughes River near Old Rag Mountain was stocked last week and is open. Check Virginia's Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Web site for full details.