BLOOMINGTON -- Eight miles west of this small Garrett County town, the North Branch of the Potomac River is being reborn through a progressive system of trout management, and the river below Bloomington Dam eventually may become a Mecca for fly fishermen on the East Coast.
But already in Maryland, there are two trout rivers that are the stuff of dreams made from what once were close to being nightmares.
Those rivers are the Lower Savage in Western Maryland and the Gunpowder in Baltimore County.
In the Gunpowder River, brook trout and brown trout have been reproducing naturally for some time -- and now there is evidence of natural rainbow trout reproduction for the first time.
On the Savage, a stream that once was heavily stocked with rainbows and heavily fished by a brigade of anglers who had memorized the routes of the hatchery trucks, there is strictly wild trout management.
That the Gunpowder and Savage thrive and the North Branch may follow is due in no small part to the cooperation of Baltimore City and the Army Corps of Engineers.
Baltimore controls Prettyboy Dam and has for several years agreed to keep the flow of water from the dam into the Gunpowder at levels that will most benefit its trout populations.
The Corps of Engineers has done the same on the Lower Savage and the North Branch.
In all cases, the flow keeps the water temperatures at a low enough level to support the aquatic insect population that is essential on good trout waters, said Dr. Robert Bachman, chief of freshwater fisheries for Maryland's Department of Natural Resources.
In the case of sections of the Gunpowder and Savage, special regulations have helped to protect the fish.
"We know that we have brown trout reproducing very well in the Gunpowder," Bachman said. "But these rainbow fingerlings are starting to show up that are big enough to catch on a fly."
Bachman said there are no numbers available on the extent of the rainbow reproduction because the DNR does its stream surveys there in September, but he already is certain that brook, brown and rainbow trout are reproducing naturally there.
"And that's in 8 to 10 miles of river, and all of it on state land with a trail alongside," Bachman said. "There is no question in my mind that catch-and-release regulations are responsible for it.
"You have to keep the fish protected long enough to get big enough to find whether they will spawn successfully."
