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Home › Waters › Maryland › Licking Creek
Spring creek · Western Maryland, Washington County, the Ridge and Valley country draining to the Potomac near Hancock · Maryland

Licking Creek Fishing Guides

A hundred and ninety square mile Ridge and Valley creek running south out of Pennsylvania to the Potomac near Hancock, with limestone-influenced water, wild trout up high and smallmouth throughout the lower miles.

Mist lifting off a river between wooded Appalachian ridges
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Licking Creek

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About the Licking Creek

Licking Creek drains close to two hundred square miles of the Ridge and Valley province, gathering in south-central Pennsylvania and running south through Washington County, Maryland, to meet the Potomac River a few miles west of Hancock. The gauge is at Pectonville, near the lower end. The creek runs in a long narrow valley between parallel ridges, which is the defining structure of this whole region and the reason the water behaves as it does.

Limestone and shale underlie much of the valley floor and contribute spring flow that a purely sandstone drainage would not have. That shows up as steadier summer flow, better buffering and a creek that stays fishable when nearby mountain freestone streams have dropped out. The bed is ledge, cobble and gravel with long flat pools between short riffles, and the banks alternate between wooded corridor and open farm ground.

Smallmouth bass and rock bass are the backbone of the fishery through the middle and lower creek and they run to respectable size in the deeper ledge pools. Trout are present in the cooler upper reaches, with brown trout the main wild fish and rainbows stocked in Maryland waters. Fallfish are abundant and take a fly readily enough that they surprise anglers expecting something else. Bluegill and redbreast sunfish fill the slower water, chain pickerel hold in the weedy backwaters, and channel catfish and white sucker occupy the deepest pools near the Potomac.

The creek is wadeable at normal flows along most of its Maryland length. It rises fast after heavy rain because the ridges shed water quickly, and the Pectonville gauge is the right thing to check before driving.

Hancock is the practical base, sitting where the creek, the Potomac, the C&O Canal towpath and the Western Maryland Rail Trail all come together.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Posting to Licking Creek.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Licking Creek cfs

Now: 67.4 cfs, read 6:00 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 01613525, LICKING CREEK AT PECTONVILLE, MD).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Pectonville - the gauge location on the lower creek.
Hancock - the nearest town, with lodging, fuel, tackle and river access.
Potomac River - the receiving water a few miles below the gauge.
C and O Canal National Historical Park - public land and towpath access along the Potomac.
Western Maryland Rail Trail - a paved trail giving foot access to the lower valley.
Washington County road crossings - several bridges give bank and wading access.
Pennsylvania state line - the upper drainage continues north into Fulton County.

Seasons

Spring: high and colored early, then the best smallmouth fishing of the year as the creek settles.
Summer: low, clear and warm in the lower creek, with the upper reaches holding trout.
Fall: cooling water, stable flows and the most consistent fishing of the year.
Winter: cold and low, with fish stacked in the deep ledge pools.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Licking Creek?

As of Oct 18, 6:00 pm, the USGS gauge LICKING CREEK AT PECTONVILLE, MD reads 67 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Licking Creek?

Anglers target Bluegill, Brown Trout, Chain Pickerel, Channel Catfish, Fallfish, Rainbow Trout, Redbreast Sunfish, Rock Bass, Smallmouth Bass, White Sucker on the Licking Creek in Maryland.

Where can you access the Licking Creek?

Pectonville - the gauge location on the lower creek. Hancock - the nearest town, with lodging, fuel, tackle and river access. Potomac River - the receiving water a few miles below the gauge. C and O Canal National Historical Park - public land and towpath access along the Potomac. Western Maryland Rail Trail - a paved trail giving foot access to the lower valley. Washington County road crossings - several bridges give bank and wading access. Pennsylvania state line - the upper drainage continues north into Fulton County.

When is the best time to fish the Licking Creek?

Spring: high and colored early, then the best smallmouth fishing of the year as the creek settles. Summer: low, clear and warm in the lower creek, with the upper reaches holding trout. Fall: cooling water, stable flows and the most consistent fishing of the year. Winter: cold and low, with fish stacked in the deep ledge pools.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Licking Creek?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Maryland agency site: https://dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/Pages/regulations/index.aspx