The Potomac, the Monocacy, and Thomas Wolfe

I read Look Homeward Angel and the other novels of Thomas Wolfe about half a century ago. An English professor in college said to read Wolfe while you're young because otherwise you won't, and I think that's true. It was in Of Time and the River, I believe, that Wolfe wrote a lyrical passage about how pleasant the native names of American rivers sound when spoken. I thought about that passage today when I fished these two rivers.

Fishing results were mixed because although I only caught two, one of them was the best bass I've caught this year, a fat 16 inch smallmouth. The fly was a B Damsel created by Joe Bruce of Baltimore. No sign of grasses. Water levels were 1. 09 at Point of Rocks, 2.77 at Little Falls, and 2.21 at Bridgeport on the Monocacy.




The Monocacy, looking downstream near the confluence with the Potomac.