Western Maryland Fly Fishing: Western Maryland fishing report Savage River and Casselman River

I had a full week of trips this past week and the fishing was very good. I fished the Savage 4 days and with stabilized flows around 120 CFS it was fishing very well. Morning to early afternoon seemed to be the best time although I am sure the magic hour before dark was good as well, but I didn't have the chance to be on the water then. In morning there was a pretty good BWO hatch that lasted longer on cloudy days. These guys were small size 24, but we caught some nice fish on emergers. Late morning to early afternoon there were some little yellow sallies and crane flies bringing fish to the surface. These bugs ranged from size 18-22 and got the attention of some big browns. I had one client find out how hard these fish are to catch on dries when a beautiful 17 inch Phd pool brown took his dry 3 times, but he could not get a hook set on him. Catching BIG fish on dry flies is the ultimate experience in the sport, but it is also the most challenging. Another brown of similar size followed a client's hopper for a good three feet twice but would not take it! In between hatches little yellow sally nymphs produce very well. On Sunday I took a couple of clients to the Casselman to fish for some smallies. To my surprise we hooked a couple of rainbows along with small mouth and rock bass. There is still a good slate drake hatch going on on the Casselman and nymph imitations accounted for most of the fish. Crayfish and hoppers also brought fish to the net. The water temperature was nice at 67 degrees with flows around 80 CFS.