Fishing between the Rain storms on the Casselman River

Well we have received the rain that I was asking for and sometimes you need to be careful what you ask for. The Savage river watershed has gotten a lot of water in the past week and so has the Casselman river. The watersheds in the western part of Garrett County were spared most of the rain this week. I fished the Casselman on Saturday with Ed and Sam and the water level was perfect around 160 cfs. There were caddis bringing fish to the surface, but we did most of our damage with assorted nymphs. It was a great day on the water with great company.

 Last one of the Day

Hauling em In

Low Flows and Blue Quills on the Lower Savage River... Casselman River

I have had some very good fishing on the lower Savage River over the past week. In the morning there are still some little black stones coming off and the fish are rising to them. Keep in mind that these flies migrate to the bank to emerge, so you should be fishing tight to the bank. The Blue Quills start hatching in late morning and continue to late afternoon which makes it a great hatch for fisher people who do not like to get out of bed early. I have done well with dry flies, but nymphs out produce them by about 3 to 1. The flows on the Savage have been below normal for April and the Didymo is pretty thick on the rocks especially closer to the dam. Hopefully with the rain we are getting the river will get a much needed flush. It would be nice to have a couple of days of 300+ CFS to clean up the rocks a little.
The Casselman is still fishing well and the caddis are hatching, so now is the time to skip your favorite elk hair across the riffles and watch rainbows launch themselves at your fly.

Red Bud and Dogwoods on the Savage it's Spring time!

Bill with a nice rainbow from the Casselman

Patty showing us how it's done

Beautiful Spring weekend on the Casselman River

I spent Saturday morning on the Casselman with Teresa and Jarrett. Teresa caught her first fish and Jarrett was slaying them by the end of the morning. There were plenty of little black stones flying around and the grannoms should be hatching in the next week or so. I would encourage everyone who fishes special regulation waters in Maryland to keep this number in their phone  1-800-635-6124  it is the poacher hotline for the DNR police. The same people who poach fish are usually the ones who leave empty beer cans on the side of the river. We fished a section of the river where we saw beer cans and it was devoid of fish. I know this place always holds fish, so I am pretty sure people are already taking them home for dinner. If you see fisherman keeping fish or fishing with bait please where prohibited report it to the DNR police. Western Maryland has a pretty bad poaching problem, but if we all take pride in protecting our resource we can keep these people in check.

Teresa with her first fish

 One of many for Jarrett

Casselman River It's Spring Time

I had my first trip of the year yesterday on the Casselman river. The water flow was perfect 225 CFS with water temps in the low 40s. I saw a couple of  little black stones flying around, but none of the fish were interested in taking anything off the surface. We fished slower water along seems and our flies were bouncing on the bottom. Bob had his best day of fly fishing yet losing count of how many fish he caught. One note to people who plan to fish the Casselman. The bridge is closed, so you will have to take a detour through Grantsville to get to spots down river.

Casselman River over the weekend

I had three trips this past weekend all clients new to the sport of fly fishing. I decided instead of beating them up on the Savage to try the Casselman since the flows where good. I am pleasantly surprised by the amount of trout that have survived the summer. We caught two trout on every trip along with a ton of rock and small mouth bass. There are some big smallies in the Casselman! We had some 20+ inchers chase after little fish that were caught. My best flies have been slate drake nymphs, crayfish patterns, and hoppers. The flows have gone down since this weekend and are now below 30 cfs which limits the holding water, but you will have the river to yourself.

Denise with her first trout!

Paul with a nice Casselman Smallie

Keith with a beautiful holdover Rainbow

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.

Lisa working a riffle on the Casselman for rock bass 

Ray trying to catch a Casselman Rainbow

Ray with that Casselman Rainbow

Libby with a beautiful Savage River Brownie

Libby fishing in the mist

Kyle with a Savage River Bow

Kyle working a run on the Savage

 Little brown we saved from being eaten by its big brother

Bob fishing the Phd pool

Rodney & Enrique on a guys weekend

Enrique's nice Savage Brookie

Rodney working a seam

A nice Savage Brown for Rodney's hard work

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

Spring is Here!

I do not want to speak too soon considering how the weather has been recently, but I am going to do it anyway. It is early April and in has finally warmed up a little. The rivers in western Maryland are returning to normal flows after rain and snow melt raised the water levels. The Casselman River in Garrett County is fishing well right now with dark colored nymphs in sizes 14 through 18. The water temperature is around 40 degrees, so the fish are starting to spread out a little more. There were a few caddis bouncing off the water as well as little black stones, but there was little interest from the fish. It will take them awhile to key in on any hatches, but when they do it will be some good dry fly fishing.

Casselman River 03/22/13

I fished the Casselman near Grantsville Maryland on Friday and it was cold! The air temp was 29 and the water temp was 33. When the water is this cold I look for slow deep water and with the river flowing around 160 CFS there is not a lot of this kind of water on the Casselman. When I found good holding water stone fly and may fly nymphs fished deep and slow took fish. When the water warms up the fish will be more active and so will the bugs. Hopefully we will have warmer weather in the next two weeks.