Youghiogheny River

The Youghiogheny ("the Yock" to locals) is a big, rocky mountain river in western Garrett County that flows north out of Maryland toward Pennsylvania. Its best-known trout water is a four-mile catch-and-release stretch below the Deep Creek Lake power plant, where cold water drawn from the bottom of the lake keeps trout alive through the summer. DNR stocks it with brown trout and a heat-tolerant rainbow that grows deep-bodied on the river's heavy insect life, and browns reach trophy size. Smallmouth bass are common too.

When to fish

• May and June: the river's signature tan caddis hatch comes off from mid-morning into early afternoon, and a Fish & Hunt Maryland guide calls the special-regulation water a quality dry-fly river.
• Summer: the cold releases keep the catch-and-release area fishable when other streams warm up, but power generation, more frequent in summer, raises the water quickly.
• Mid-June to September: the delayed-harvest water below Friendsville opens to harvest; the rest of the year it's catch and release with artificials.

Where to fish

• The catch-and-release area, power plant to Sang Run Bridge: four miles of riffles, long runs and a few deep pools over cobble and boulder, with a trail along the east bank for most of its length. Walk in from below the power plant, from Hoyes Run, or up from Sang Run.
• Below Friendsville: a delayed-harvest stretch runs toward the Youghiogheny Reservoir, reached from Friendsville Town Park.
• Upstream near Oakland: a put-and-take stretch that DNR stocks.

How to fish it

The Fish & Hunt Maryland guide suggests a 9-foot 4 or 5 weight with a 9-foot leader. Match the tan caddis in spring, fish blue-winged olives on gray days, and try bushy attractor dry flies when nothing is hatching. The browns and rainbows hold around the bowling-ball-sized rocks. In the special areas you may use only artificial lures and flies with barbless hooks. Light spinning tackle also works, and the smallmouth bass fight hard on it.

Getting there

From I-68 near Grantsville, take US 219 south past Accident, then Hoyes Road and Sang Run Road to the river. There's a pull-off below the power plant, a small lot at Hoyes Run Road and Oakland Sang Run Road, and parking at Sang Run State Park at the lower end. Before you wade, check the Deep Creek hydroelectric plant's release schedule: the river rises abruptly when it's generating. Below the Sang Run launch is dangerous whitewater, so don't float past it. You need a Maryland nontidal fishing license and a trout stamp.