Thursday was a good day to go fishing.

OK, maybe not like a day in April. Or May. But squeezing in a couple of hours between Wednesday's blow and Friday's wet snow beat sitting around the mothership all day.

An ultralight rod and a beat-up old Ugly Stick practically dance into the back seat. A fanny pack filled with lures and other musts join them. Johnny Cash in the dash completes the preparations.

First up, a little spot not far from home on Northwest Branch. The trail that runs along the water's edge east and west of Route 29 is part of the Rachel Carson Greenway that will someday stretch 23 miles from upper Montgomery County into Prince George's.

There's nothing green about it this time of the year, though. The bare branches make it easy to see the hawk circling overhead and the thin white clouds that warn snow could be on the way.

Upstream from the road is slow-moving water with patches of flat bank, perfect for parents to teach their kids how to cast.

But when the water hits the dam just above Route 29, the pace picks up. Spilling over the top and dropping into a large pool below, the stream rips over boulders and blowdowns, the rushing sound drowning out the cars above.

The sun feels pretty good as I tie on a brown feathered lure given to me last season by guide Philip Krista. It's a contest to finish the knot before my fingers go numb with cold. A speck of split shot, and I'm ready to go.

There's not a whole heck of a lot swimming in this stretch of water, especially in a winter after a drought. But just the rhythm of casting and retrieving is like a spring tonic.

One cast lands at the edge of a large pool near some overhanging wood. A strike? Probably just wishful thinking. Still, it makes me smile.

Rolling up Route 29, it's time to fill the travel mug at Dunkin' Donuts before a stop at Rocky Gorge Reservoir on the Howard-Montgomery line, another favorite spot.

The season doesn't open until March 1, but it doesn't look as if the manmade impoundment, owned by the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, will be ready soon.

Mike McGill of the WSSC says last summer's drought did a number on the water level and that continuing work on the Duckett Dam - the one you can see from southbound I-95 - has kept it low.

But even if you take away the fishing, the watershed is a vast playground for activities ranging from hiking and paddling to hunting and picnicking. Most folks don't realize the 6,000 acres of woodlands are accessible. As a result, you can play all day and not see another person. Hard to believe that could happen in the Baltimore-Washington corridor, but I'm not complaining.

Moving up the road, I make a few casts in the Middle Patuxent River, the Little Patuxent River and some other tiny waterway that I don't think belongs to the ubiquitous Patuxent family.

No dice.

But before I finally put rod and reel away, I stop at Centennial Lake off Route 108. A partially used bag of wax worms in the bottom of the gear bag seem made for the situation.

Just before noon, I catch a pumpkinseed no bigger than my hand.

The fish isn't a keeper, but the day is.

On the hunt

The state's Wildlife and Heritage Service is beginning to fiddle with regulations for the next two hunting seasons.

Some stuff is housekeeping. But up for discussion are proposals from liberalizing the goose season to allowing the use of crossbows during the bow season in the Baltimore suburbs. Other ideas:

Eliminating the second week of the black bear hunt. In four years, hunters have reached the target during the first week.

Allowing crossbows for wild turkey hunting in spring and fall.

Pending federal approval, increasing the bag limit for mourning doves from 12 birds to 15 birds daily over a 70-day season. Hunting would be permitted from one half hour before sunrise during the three segments of the season.

Clarifying the "no feeding" regulation to include unintentional feeding of black bears. Natural Resources Police officers would give violators a chance to remove food and stop feeding bears before charging them with creating a nuisance.

Setting a separate bag limit for white-tailed deer on Junior Hunt day so participants can continue hunting after taking an antlered deer without waiting for the antlerless firearms season to open.

Pete Jayne, the associate director for game management, says everything is "still at the concept stage. We are anxious to receive input on how a wide variety of folks view these potential changes. We will weigh input and consider making changes or withdrawing these concepts as appropriate."

In other words, the proposals are a long way from being sent to the printers. Wildlife and Heritage has a history of airing things at stakeholder meetings before drafting formal proposals. From there, the paperwork gets a going-over in online forums and in a series of public meetings.

Then, it's more rewriting before another series of public meetings.

Stay tuned.

candy.thomson@baltsun.com