Antietam/Red Run Private water, 04/15/24

I met Colin and Ken at the farmhouse this morning at 8AM and we fished to just past 3:30PM. The water is in perfect shape. Antietam is stained, 51 degrees while Red Run is clear and 52 degrees. There were plenty of midges and tan and gray caddis hatching, but just a few splashy rises. We started on Antietam. Colin Euro nymphed almost the entire day. Ken indicator fished most of the time. They both tossed a few streamers. Colin had 1 take 2 follows. Ken lost a huge brown, had three follows and landed a rainbow. Colin had a 20+ inch rainbow toss the fly in a mid air ariel flight out of the water. Ken landed two mid-teen rainbows. All together they landed around 10 rainbows and 7 brown. We ate lunch and hit Red Run. They were both quickly impressed by the amount of wild browns. Ken landed three and he thought the run was done. I told him to keep fishing and he ended up with 7 more one of 17 inches. He went on to catch at least 6 more. Colin hit the water and quickly picked up three then things got crazy. He hooked yet another, I was up on a high bank. It took a turn downstream and to make a long story short, what we thought was a decent wild brown, ended up being a heavy 22 inch brown. Ken and I then watched Colin go on to land 2 more. If you want world-class water in SCPA this is the place. It was such a great time to get out with old friends.

michael Heck