Sunshine dappled the banks of the Gunpowder Falls yesterday, and the first golden leaves of autumn dropped into the rushing water as Lloyd Lachow ditched work to step into the water and match wits with brown trout.
"This is unbelievable," said Lachow, 50, of Reisterstown, as he worked happily to untangle his line and tie on a fly. "It is as beautiful as any place in the world. ... It would be incredibly awful if the trout were to expire."
As untroubled as the Gunpowder Valley looked yesterday, anglers, tackle shop owners and natural resources officials say the trout had a narrow escape from this summer's drought.
Low water levels and water temperatures in excess of 72 degrees threatened to make the falls too warm for the temperature-sensitive fish.
Cooler temperatures and renewed rainfall have ended the threat for now. But next summer could be even worse, they say, if customers of Baltimore's water system don't continue to conserve, and if winter rain and snow don't refill Prettyboy Reservoir.
Theaux LeGardeur, owner of the Backwater Angler tackle shop in Monkton, worries that "we might not learn to conserve water until we can't flush the toilets at Ravens Stadium."
Prettyboy Reservoir, the source of all the cold water that keeps the Gunpowder's trout fishery viable, fell from 37 percent of capacity in June to just 17 percent last month as Baltimore's water managers worked to meet the demands of the city and its suburbs.
As the reservoir fell, the frigid bottom layers were depleted, and the temperature of the water exiting Prettyboy dam and entering the Gunpowder climbed into the 60s.
Downstream, the falls warmed into the 70s and began to take a toll on the fish.
"We've been gritting our teeth," said LeGardeur. "The mantra has been, `Fish while you can.' We're really lucky we haven't had a major event, like a fish kill."
Some fish did die. Mark W. Staley, a state fisheries biologist with the Department of Natural Resources, said surveys in the Gunpowder this month found fish populations down by about a third.
"I'd say we just squeaked through, right under the wire, as far as the water-temperature issue," he said.
There is still worry that low water in the falls and tributaries will imperil the autumn spawn, or that predatory birds or high silt levels in the Gunpowder will kill too many fish or their eggs.
