Prettyboy

The drought that has gripped Maryland for more than a year has lowered levels in nearly all rivers, streams, lakes and ponds across the state, limiting access for boaters to favorite fishing waters but also opening new territory to waders and shoreline anglers.And anglers who take cameras with them while waters are low can map out a plan for improved fishing once rivers, streams and lakes return to normal levels.Sound fishy? Not really.Duke Nohe, head of the Maryland Aquatic Resources Coalition and a top notch fisherman, has had great success going for bass and white perch on Prettyboy Reservoir for years.

I feel lucky for having been in the right place at the right time Saturday morning. At 7 o'clock, I hiked a fire road covered with pine needles into the Prettyboy Reservoir watershed in northern Baltimore County. As I stepped down some stone ledges to a silent cove, I saw a ghost - a wide, white gauzy veil sailing across the reservoir, just inches above the water. It was a morning mist that moved quickly, pushed by an erratic breeze into a surreal dance, rising and curling, dropping, then running fast and straight.

FireHampstead: Firefighters assisted Baltimore County at 3: 06 p.m. Tuesday, responding to a woods fire on Beckleysville Road at Prettyboy Reservoir. Units were out several hours.Pub Date: 4/10/97

Doris L. McPherson, a retired reading specialist with Baltimore County schools who seemed to always have "a trick up her sleeve" to teach students, died May 4 of cancer at her Parkton home. She was 54.Mrs. McPherson began her education career as a first-grade teacher at Owings Mills Elementary School and became a reading specialist at Prettyboy Elementary in the mid-1970s."She had great rapport with the students. She had great knowledge of how to reach students with reading problems," said Margo Kwoka, who worked with Mrs. McPherson for many && years at Prettyboy Elementary.

Generations of children in northern Baltimore County have grown up in a homogeneous community sharing a common rural heritage, but suburban development and new living patterns are changing that.The 480 children at Prettyboy Elementary School in Freeland are being introduced to that wider, multicultural world through their own history.This week, the school opened the Freeland Heritage Gallery, a display of old photos, books and documents, as well as old household and farm implements, to illustrate the area's history.

FireMount Carmel: Hampstead assisted Baltimore County at a fire in the 17000 block of Prettyboy Dam Road at 7:59 p.m. Sunday. Units were out 31 minutes.

Rather than moan about winter, I went out to have a good look at it, and I did this on foot Saturday afternoon along a creek I call George, in northern Baltimore County. Six months ago, poor old George had been profoundly drained by drought.Six months ago, acres of the creek bed had been exposed long enough to dry; you could hike out 20 yards without getting muddy boots. The flow was reduced to a relative trickle, no more than 6 feet wide in places, as Prettyboy Reservoir, which takes water from the creek, had been tapped and unreplenished.

Duke Nohe powered the trolling motors down to an almost inaudible hum and his voice dropped away to a whisper as he edged his reservoir rig into a warm cove at Prettyboy Reservoir."

Duke Nohe unhooked the fat 14-inch white perch from his spinnerbait lure, admired the catch and flatly proclaimed, "I fully believe that this is probably the best white perch water in the state."What Chesapeake Bay tributary were we fishing? None of them, but rather we were in picturesque Prettyboy Reservoir in northern Baltimore County.How those fish got from the Bay to Prettyboy is a mystery.The most popular theory is that the Department of Natural Resources either mistakenly or covertly planted them when they released hybrid striped bass in the reservoir some years back.

Duke Nohe unhooked the fat 14-inch white perch from his spinnerbait lure, admired the catch and flatly proclaimed, "I fully believe that this is probably the best white perch water in the state."What Chesapeake Bay tributary were we fishing? None of them -- we were in Prettyboy Reservoir in northern Baltimore County.How those fish got from the Bay to Prettyboy is a mystery.The most popular theory is that the Department of Natural Resources either mistakenly or covertly planted them when they released hybrid striped bass in the reservoir some years back.

After all this rain, Greg Koppenhoeffer of Ellicott City wondered whether Baltimore's reservoirs were full yet. He looked for numbers online but found none. The city hopes to post reservoir data on a new Web site sometime this summer. Call Public Works, and they'll say Loch Raven and Prettyboy are full. Liberty is rising at 98.9 percent. Combined, they're at 99.4 percent. Plenty.

D on Roberts is a fisherman. Nearly four decades ago, he was lucky enough to marry a kindred spirit. Every year Don takes Letty Roberts out fishing for her birthday. So when Aug. 12 rolled around, instead of lighting 67 candles, the couple launched their boat at their local fishing hole, Prettyboy Reservoir. Don knows a thing or two about Prettyboy. For 35 years, he fished the reservoir with Duke Nohe, the acknowledged guru who knew every hump, bump and lump where bass hang out. Nohe, who died almost four years ago, could land a bass the way Chuck Yeager landed jets.

D on Roberts is a fisherman. Nearly four decades ago, he was lucky enough to marry a kindred spirit. Every year, Don takes Letty Roberts out fishing for her birthday. So when Aug. 12 rolled around, instead of lighting 67 candles, the couple launched their boat at their local fishing hole, Prettyboy Reservoir. Don knows a thing or two about Prettyboy. For 35 years, he fished the reservoir with Duke Nohe, the acknowledged guru who knew every hump, bump and lump where bass hang out. Nohe, who died almost four years ago, could land a bass the way Chuck Yeager landed jets.

The Prettyboy Dam, completed in 1933, created Prettyboy Reservoir. Gunpowder Falls, the river below the dam, has become an ideal spot to cool off, hike along the trails and get away from the city.

Duke Nohe was the best friend Maryland fishermen didn't know they had. As president of the Maryland Aquatic Resources Council, he worked tirelessly on everything from lobbying for new fish stocking trucks to holding certain officials' feet to the fire. Quietly. Duke died Tuesday morning the same way. "There wasn't anybody who worked harder and longer for Maryland fishermen than Duke Nohe," said Jim Gracie, a founder of the Maryland chapter of Trout Unlimited and former chairman of the governor's Sport Fisheries Advisory Commission.

Governments in Baltimore, Baltimore County and Carroll County should intensify efforts to monitor water quality and preserve forests and farmland in the Prettyboy Reservoir watershed, according to a report released this week by a national conservation group. The Trust for Public Land spent more than a year studying the watershed, an 80-square- mile expanse in Baltimore County, Carroll County and York County, Pa., that serves 1.8 million water customers in the Baltimore metropolitan area.

Our cups runneth over. At 3 p.m. yesterday, Baltimore's Liberty Reservoir reached capacity, the last of the city's three water storage lakes to fully refill after the drought of 2001-2002, city public works officials said. Loch Raven Reservoir, which suffered the least during the drought, was the first to fill up again, in January. Prettyboy Reservoir was full by April 1, after draining to just 16 percent of capacity at the depths of the drought seven months ago. Liberty topped out yesterday after falling to a low of 34 percent in October.

Seeking to protect the land surrounding a large portion of the metropolitan area's water supply, a group of conservationists, government officials and neighbors of Prettyboy Reservoir is working this week to find ways to protect the reservoir's watershed. As a weeklong conference on the health of the watershed started yesterday, participants said they would explore issues such as agricultural pollution and runoff from development. Among the primary concerns of the "stewardship exchange" is the declining amount of forestland in the watershed, which extends from Baltimore County to Carroll and to York County, Pa. "The forests are the best things that can happen for water quality," Rob Northrop, watershed forester for the state Department of Natural Resources, told a group of about 50 people gathered at a restaurant near the reservoir.

Seeking to protect the land surrounding a large portion of the metropolitan area's water supply, a group of conservationists, government officials and neighbors of Prettyboy Reservoir is working this week to find ways to protect the reservoir's watershed. As a weeklong conference on the health of the watershed started yesterday, participants said they would explore such issues as agricultural pollution and runoff from development. Among the primary concerns of the "stewardship exchange" is the declining amount of forest land in the watershed, which extends from Baltimore County to Carroll and to York County, Pa. "The forests are the best things that can happen for water quality," Rob Northrop, watershed forester for the state Department of Natural Resources, told a group of about 50 people gathered at a restaurant near the reservoir.

The yellow perch run was pretty much a bust. The Susquehanna Flats is colder than my ex-mother-in-law's heart. And the Potomac is high and muddy. Good thing St. Patrick's Day is tomorrow and spring begins Thursday. Looking for a little cheering up, I called Kevin McComas at the Loch Raven Fishing Center. "We're waking up, stretching out and knocking the ice off things," he said. "There's 4 inches of ice in the coves, but it's spongy. A couple of warm days and it should be gone. The main lake opened up last week."