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Home › Waters › Maryland › Gunpowder Falls
Tailwater · Baltimore County · Maryland

Gunpowder Falls Fishing Guides

A cold tailwater below Prettyboy Dam holding wild brown trout in numbers, thirty minutes north of Baltimore in a state park corridor.

A river breaking over ledge rock between forested banks in the Appalachians
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Gunpowder Falls

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Gunpowder Falls

The Gunpowder is the East Coast’s proof that a small tailwater in a suburban county can hold a genuinely wild trout population. Cold bottom releases from Prettyboy Reservoir keep the upper seven or eight miles in the fifties through a Maryland summer, and the river carries wild brown trout at densities that biologists have measured in the thousands per mile. Gunpowder Falls State Park protects the corridor, so the whole thing is walk-in public water with a trail beside it.

This is a small stream and it fishes like one. The catch-and-release, artificials-only water from Prettyboy Dam down to Falls Road is the heart of it, tight casting between rhododendron and hemlock, with sulphurs in May and June, caddis through the summer and blue-winged olives in fall. Below Falls Road the river warms gradually, trout regulations change, and by Monkton and Glencoe it becomes a mixed trout and smallmouth fishery. Everything here is wading; there is no floating this river.

The Glencoe gauge sits down in the middle river and reads the release plus the tributaries. Typical readings of roughly 50 to 250 cfs mean comfortable wading up in the catch-and-release water. Reservoir management changes the release seasonally and drought years have produced very low flows and warm water in the lower reaches, so summer anglers should stay high in the system and watch temperatures.

Monkton, Hereford and Parkton are the access towns, all within forty minutes of Baltimore. The Northern Central Railroad Trail runs along the lower river and doubles as the parking and access network.

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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.

Fished this water? Add a photo

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 Gunpowder Falls.

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 Gunpowder Falls cfs

Now: 75.6 cfs, read 1:20 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 01582500, GUNPOWDER FALLS AT GLENCOE, MD).

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

Access

Prettyboy Dam: the top of the tailwater, steep walk-in.
Masemore Road: the classic upper access with parking and a trail.
Falls Road and Bunker Hill: the middle of the catch-and-release water.
Bluemount Road and York Road: lower catch-and-release accesses.
Monkton Station: parking on the Northern Central Railroad Trail, mixed trout and smallmouth water.
Glencoe: access near the gauge on the lower river.
Everything here is wade fishing on foot from park trailheads.

Seasons

Year-round; the tailwater does not freeze off or warm out in the upper reaches.
March through June: sulphurs and caddis, the best hatch season on the river.
July and August: cold up top, warm down low; stay above Falls Road.
September through February: blue-winged olives, streamers and empty trails; winter fishing is genuinely good here.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Gunpowder Falls?

As of Oct 19, 1:20 am, the USGS gauge GUNPOWDER FALLS AT GLENCOE, MD reads 76 cfs, the 21st percentile for this date. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Gunpowder Falls?

Anglers target Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass on the Gunpowder Falls in Maryland.

Are there fishing guides on the Gunpowder Falls?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Gunpowder Falls. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Gunpowder Falls?

Prettyboy Dam: the top of the tailwater, steep walk-in. Masemore Road: the classic upper access with parking and a trail. Falls Road and Bunker Hill: the middle of the catch-and-release water. Bluemount Road and York Road: lower catch-and-release accesses. Monkton Station: parking on the Northern Central Railroad Trail, mixed trout and smallmouth water. Glencoe: access near the gauge on the lower river. Everything here is wade fishing on foot from park trailheads.

When is the best time to fish the Gunpowder Falls?

Year-round; the tailwater does not freeze off or warm out in the upper reaches. March through June: sulphurs and caddis, the best hatch season on the river. July and August: cold up top, warm down low; stay above Falls Road. September through February: blue-winged olives, streamers and empty trails; winter fishing is genuinely good here.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Gunpowder Falls?

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