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Home › Waters › Maryland › Wills Creek
Spring creek · Western Maryland, Allegany County, the Cumberland Narrows and the upper Potomac drainage · Maryland

Wills Creek Fishing Guides

A two hundred and forty seven square mile creek dropping out of Pennsylvania through the Cumberland Narrows to the Potomac, with a stocked trout fishery in town and smallmouth in the lower water.

A river bending away below forested hills in the Appalachians
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Wills Creek

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About the Wills Creek

Wills Creek drains nearly two hundred and fifty square miles of Pennsylvania and Maryland ridge country and enters the Potomac River at Cumberland. Its most striking feature is the Cumberland Narrows, the steep water gap where the creek cuts through Wills Mountain, with rock walls rising several hundred feet on either side and the road, the railroad and the creek all threaded through the same gap. It is one of the more dramatic pieces of stream geography in Maryland.

Above the Narrows the creek runs a broad valley through Pennsylvania farm and forest land. Below it, the creek drops through Cumberland itself and reaches the Potomac within a couple of miles. The bed is cobble, boulder and ledge, with pocket water through the gap and longer pools above and below. The drainage has a history of mine and industrial impact, and while water quality has improved substantially over the decades, this is not a pristine headwater and is best understood as a recovering one.

Maryland stocks trout in the creek and the put-and-take fishery draws good numbers of anglers in spring. Brown and rainbow trout are the stocked fish, brook trout hold in the coldest feeder water, and holdovers occur in the deeper pools. Below the Narrows the water warms and smallmouth bass and rock bass take over, with fallfish, bluegill, white sucker and channel catfish filling out the rest.

The gauge near Cumberland is worth checking because this creek is flashy and the gap concentrates flow into something genuinely powerful after heavy rain. Levels can change substantially within a few hours of a storm on the Pennsylvania side of the drainage, well before any rain falls in Cumberland itself.

Cumberland is right on the water and provides everything, including access to the Potomac, the C&O Canal towpath and the Great Allegheny Passage trail.

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The photo at the top of this page is not Wills Creek.

It is a regional stand-in, honestly captioned but generic — we will not put a name to a river we cannot prove. Send us a photograph you took here and it replaces the stand-in, with your credit on it.

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  • 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.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Wills 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 Wills Creek cfs

Now: 97.5 cfs, read 6:00 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 01601500, WILLS CREEK NEAR CUMBERLAND, MD).

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

Access

Cumberland - the city at the creek mouth, with full services and direct creek access.
Cumberland Narrows - the water gap above town, with roadside access through the gorge.
Potomac River - the receiving water at Cumberland, with public ramps.
C and O Canal National Historical Park - towpath and river access from town.
Great Allegheny Passage - the rail trail following the creek corridor north.
Hyndman, Pennsylvania - the upstream town on the Pennsylvania portion of the creek.
Allegany County road crossings - bridge access at several points in the valley.

Seasons

Spring: stocking season and the busiest time of year, with high water early and good trout fishing after.
Summer: low and warm below the Narrows, with smallmouth taking over from the trout.
Fall: quiet, cool and stable, generally the most pleasant fishing on the creek.
Winter: cold and low, with holdover trout in the deep pools and little pressure.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Wills Creek?

As of Oct 18, 6:00 pm, the USGS gauge WILLS CREEK NEAR CUMBERLAND, MD reads 98 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Wills Creek?

Anglers target Bluegill, Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Channel Catfish, Fallfish, Rainbow Trout, Rock Bass, Smallmouth Bass, White Sucker on the Wills Creek in Maryland.

Where can you access the Wills Creek?

Cumberland - the city at the creek mouth, with full services and direct creek access. Cumberland Narrows - the water gap above town, with roadside access through the gorge. Potomac River - the receiving water at Cumberland, with public ramps. C and O Canal National Historical Park - towpath and river access from town. Great Allegheny Passage - the rail trail following the creek corridor north. Hyndman, Pennsylvania - the upstream town on the Pennsylvania portion of the creek. Allegany County road crossings - bridge access at several points in the valley.

When is the best time to fish the Wills Creek?

Spring: stocking season and the busiest time of year, with high water early and good trout fishing after. Summer: low and warm below the Narrows, with smallmouth taking over from the trout. Fall: quiet, cool and stable, generally the most pleasant fishing on the creek. Winter: cold and low, with holdover trout in the deep pools and little pressure.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Wills 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