River

At least once a year, Harford waterman Bill Gunther pulls in a hard-shelled catch from the Bush River that he can't steam, fry or eat."With our crab pots, we pull up bombs," he said Wednesday while boating toward Chilbury Point on Aberdeen Proving Ground.Stretching his arms wide, Gunther said, "Sometimes they're this long, and sometimes they're that long with fins and we have to call the Army to come get them."Gunther, a Maryland Waterman's Association board director who lives north of APG along the river, sees the odd catch now and then as part of the price of keeping the Aberdeen peninsula free of development.

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.

Jim Kennedy stood knee-deep in Big Gunpowder Falls, his waders protecting him from the water that was rushing by faster than usual on a cool September day. With a flick of his wrist, he cast his fly-fishing line into the water and watched as the tug of the current carried it downstream -- before pulling it back and repeating the motion. Three hours after starting his day on the river, the 72-year-old retiree had already caught one good-sized wild brown trout and a few small ones and was about to pull in another one. With his Reisterstown home just 25 minutes away, Kennedy said he makes the trek to the river as many as four times a week to catch -- and release -- the trout that are plentiful here.

WHARTON, Texas -- When the Colorado River seeped over its banks yesterday, Irene Edwards began to unplug the appliances and stuff her clothes into boxes.When it crossed the road and swallowed her lawn, she called her uncle to come over in a hurry and bring his trailer.By noon, when it crested the door jam, she was bouncing up the street with everything she owned."I'm getting out of here and I'm never coming back," said Edwards, 21. "I'm moving way out in the country where the river doesn't come into your living room."

Anne Arundel County police are investigating the death of a 65-year-old Burtonsville man who was found early Friday in his overturned car in the Severn River, outside the Bay Ridge community in Annapolis. Divers with the county Fire Department pulled Milan Hudak from the driver's side of a 1988 Buick, which was in about 3 feet of water. Hudak, who lived in the 2900 block of Cabin Creek Drive, was wearing a seat belt. He was pronounced dead at Anne Arundel Medical Center, said Division Chief John M. Scholz.

The state's Pfiesteria rapid response team is investigating a stretch of the Chicamacomico River where workers found a small number of menhaden with fresh Pfiesteria piscicida-like lesions yesterday.The site, near a ruined drawbridge on a slender, remote stretch of the river about four miles southwest of Vienna on the Lower Eastern Shore, was the scene of Maryland's fourth and last Pfiesteria-related fish kill of 1997. On Sept. 14, Gov. Parris N. Glendening ordered a six-mile stretch of the Chicamacomico closed after about 4,000 fish died of toxic Pfiesteria near the drawbridge.

A body washed up at the mouth of the Gunpowder River yesterday afternoon that matched the description of a Cockeysville man who disappeared on the river Tuesday night.Reginald Grier, 31, of the first block of Hogarth Circle was reported missing to the Coast Guard about 8: 30 p.m. Tuesday, said Lt. j.g. Toni Gay. Grier's wife, who expected him back from a fishing trip about 5 p.m., became concerned when he had not returned by nightfall.Coast Guard and Maryland Natural Resources Police boats and aircraft searched until 1 a.m. yesterday, then resumed the search at dawn, she said.

In quiet stretches where the river is sluggish, we paddle for a while. At other times we let the canoe drift along with the slow-moving current. From the stern I steer as we proceed down the gentle Battenkill, a river flowing from southern Vermont into New York state. Eventually, it empties into the Hudson River north of Troy, N.Y.As we canoe through southern Vermont south of Manchester, we pass occasional flycasters seeking trout, for the Battenkill is a famous fishing stream. Sunny meadows border the river; then we come upon a small settlement with a white clapboard church.

A rare combination of conditions -- man-made and natural -- could be to blame for the outbreak of one or more toxic microorganisms in the lower Pocomoke River, a state task force said yesterday."