I love when Clients share... especially fishy stuff

I had a client yesterday who's first passion is poetry and now fly fishing is hopefully her second! Anyway she shared this poem with me from one of her favorite poets. Thanks Libby!

Northern Pike

  by James Wright

All right. Try this,
Then. Every body
I know and care for,
And every body
Else is going
To die in a loneliness
I can't imagine and a pain
I don't know. We had
To go on living. We
Untangled the net, we slit
The body of this fish
Open from the hinge of the tail
To a place beneath the chin
I wish I could sing of.
I would just as soon we let
The living go on living.
An old poet whom we believe in
Said the same thing, and so
We paused among the dark cattails and prayed
For the muskrats,
For the ripples below their tails,
For the little movements that we knew the crawdads were making
 under water,
For the right-hand wrist of my cousin who is a policeman.
We prayed for the game warden's blindness.
We prayed for the road home.
We ate the fish.
There must be something very beautiful in my body,
I am so happy.

- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15808#sthash.Kfc9ff42.DbkzIwdf.dpuf

Fly Fishing 101 on the Casselman River

The Savage River Lodge has recently acquired the Little Crossings Bed and Breakfast on the banks of the Casselman River and it provides the perfect setting to conduct fly fishing 101 classes. There is classroom time in the 101 course, but lecturing is really not my thing and I believe in keeping things interesting. I try to do as many things on the river as I can, including casting, entomology, and basic rigging. The students had a great time and the setting was perfect!
The Casselman was flowing at 50 cfs and was a nice 67 degrees. There were a decent amount of slate drakes flying around and we found a lot of nymphs in our stream sampling along with some huge crayfish. I even caught a nice rainbow while demonstrating a cast to the students, so we might have some holdover fish this season. The smallmouth were really keying in on the drakes and nymphs produced some nice fish during casting practice. The Casselaman is a great river in the summer for warm water species and the surprise trout.

Students in the classroom

Fly Fishing 101 Graduates 

Catching fishing during casting practice

                                          Nice Smallie!                                         

  The Casselman

The Savage River Wins Again!

We received a lot of rain early this week and with a full reservoir that meant high water on the lower Savage. Flows top out at over 250 cfs and came back down to 120 by this weekend. One thing I have noticed is that spikes in flows completely change what is going on in the river. This could be due to the volume of water or the temperature change that results from spill over. I know the fish are there, but what was working before the high water does not produce the same results afterwards. I had two guided trips this weekend and while we caught some fish we did not set the world on fire. This is one of the mysteries on the Savage that I have not been able to crack yet. It was nice to see people actually fishing the river this weekend. If anyone had success let me know.

PhD pool Rainbow

Will showing his technique

Ralph and Ari on a father son getaway 

Pretty Cutthroat!

Alma working an eddy 

Get out there and fish!

If you haven't been fishing the Savage recently you have been missing out. I fished in the late afternoon for about 2 hours today and it was great. I caught a lot of small fish in shallow pocket water, but there is a trout in every likely looking place. The Savage has some of the best natural holding water I have ever fished! The short section I fished today had one nice pool in it and that pool gave up this beautiful brown that was just a hair under 18 inches.

Sunday Funday!

My wife and I spent a couple of hours on the lower Savage this Sunday and it was awesome. Small caddis emergers were the fly of choice again. She caught over a dozen fish in about 3 hours including this gorgeous brown . We first saw this beauty when it tried to eat a small brown she had caught earlier. Once we had it located it was only a matter of time. This fish followed her fly twice, but did not want to stray too far from its lie under a rock overhang till she got the drift just right and bam! It might be time to stop guiding her and teach her some knots, so I can fish!

Early Rise Flies Western Maryland's Fly Shop

Those of you who do not live in western Maryland are probably unaware of the great fly shop we have in Cumberland. Early Rise Flies opened its doors last October and is a full service fly shop conveniently located off Interstate 68. If you are headed to the area and forgot a essential piece of equipment, need on the water supplies, or that fly tying material to get your pattern just right Early Rise Flies has it all. Dan and Chris are the proprietors of the shop and two of the nicest guys you will meet. The shop's address is 457 N Centre St. Cumberland, MD 21502. Their website url http://www.earlyriseflies.com/

Directions from Deep Creek Lake Area
I 68 East towards Cumberland
Take Exit 43C Downtown Cumberland
At the stop sign off the Exit turn left onto Queen City Blvd (stay in the right lane) 0.7 miles
Take second right on to N Centre Street (you will go under a rail road bridge) 0.2 miles
The shop will be on the right just before the first stop light

Directions from east of Cumberland
I 68 west towards Cumberland
Take exit 44 US 40 Alt/ Baltimore Ave/ Willow Brook Road 0.2 miles
Slight right onto Baltimore Ave/National Pike (signs for US 40) 0.6 miles
Turn right onto Henderson Ave/National Pike 0.5 miles
Turn left onto Knox Street
Turn right onto N Centre Street the shop will be on the right before the first stop light 0.2 miles

The Shop

The Hours

Sign for the shop