Starting to Feel like Fall on the Savage River

I fished the Savage twice this weekend. Once before the front moved through and once after. The temperatures dropped 15 degrees after the front moved through the area and the over night lows were down in the lower 40's. On Thursday, the high was 78 degrees and the fish where really keyed in on terrestrials flying ants especially and I also found bees and house flies in stomach pumps. One thing that both outings had in common was that fish took the indicator and some times would not let go. A hopper dropper is a good rig when this happens, but make sure the hopper can support a decent amount of weight.  On Saturday the high was 60 degrees and when the sun came out so did the little grey stone flies. If you haven't been on the river the past two weeks there has been a stone fly popping off in the mid afternoon that is grey and size 24-26. This hatch gets the fish feeding and is fun fishing in the abundant pocket water. We caught a good amount of fish on Saturday, but nothing over 12 inches while on Thursday I caught a half a dozen fish over 15 inches. We did get some swipes on streamers from larger fish on Saturday, but for the most part they were half hearted. It looks like our day time highs are going to stay in the mid to lower 60's for the next 10 day, so fall is just about here.

Flying ants are candy to trout

Nice Brown on a little yellow sally nymph

Ryan & Chris working pocket water with stone flies

John showing us how to high stick

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

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

Hidden hatches...how do you find them?

The Savage River like many great wild trout streams can be very frustrating especially when there is no apparent hatches. We are in kind of a lull hatch wise with many different bugs on the water little BWOs, crane flies, caddis, and a few slate drakes, but none of them in appreciable numbers that would indicate the fish are keying in on any one insect. What I do in these situations is start a process of elimination to try and find what the fish are eating. It is not a true guessing game because I fish with what I see flying around. One thing that I did notice was that only little fish were rising meaning that something is keeping the bigger fish under the surface. I can at least eliminate dry flies from my choices now where in the water column are the fish feeding? When prospecting with nymphs I divide the water column into three sections the bottom, middle, and just under the surface film. You can easily determine if fish are feeding just under the surface by observation. These fish can usually be seen and sometimes look like they are porpoising out of the water (they look like what dolphins do when the swim near the surface). I didn't see any of this, so I focused on the bottom and middle of the water column. After a couple of fly changes, I tied on a size 22 rs2 to see if the fish where eating BWOs and after numerous cast had yielded nothing I was about to change flies when I got a strike and lucky for me it was a nice 13 inch rainbow that was big enough to pump. When I pumped the stomach what I found was surprising. The trout was filled with size 20 caddis emergers. There were small tanish grey caddis flying around but nothing that would lead me to believe the amount that this fish had in its stomach. I switched to the appropriate fly and had an incredible morning of fishing. I got most of it on video, but did not realize the lens had fogged up after I got some awesome underwater footage. Oh well at least you can enjoy this video check it out!

Fishing Report for Western Maryland

Summer is gradually coming to the mountains of Western Maryland. I have had a chance to fish most of the area rivers over the last two weeks, so I will give you a rundown of what has been going on.
The Youghiogheny River has been feeling the effects of the heat the most by noon the water temperature creeps above 70 degrees and you should stop fishing when I was there the water temp was 74 at 2pm. This limits you to morning fishing and afternoons after water releases. The releases usually stop at 2pm and the water drop s quickly, so you can be on the C&R section by 2:15. Caddis are the primary bugs on this river and nymphing with a rock worm caddis will always catch fish on the Yough.
The North Branch of the Potomac is fishing well and right now is at a good level for wading at 260 CFS. I have done well with size 16 pheasant tails, tan scuds size 14, and slate drake nymphs 12-14. Slate Drakes are good swimmers so put some action into the fly during your drift. 
The Savage River below the damn is fishing well with hatches of sulphurs and little yellow and lime sallies on the menu. When you are on the stream bring your favorite emerger patterns as most of the fish I have been catching have been in the middle of the water column. There has been a good evening hatch on most nights, so if you can try to stay till dark.
We have received a good amount of rain over the last week and the brook trout streams are in good shape with water temps in the low 60's. This time of year there are not a lot of hatches going on beside some sporadic caddis, so terrestrials are going to be your best bet. The key is to have a fly that makes a plop when it lands to get the trout's attention. Two more good traits in a fly are something that is easy to see and will float for a long time without floatant.

                                                                North Branch Rainbow                                                    

                                                     Garrett County Brook Trout Stream

                                             
                                                                 Rhododendron Blossom

                                                                    Mist on the Savage

                                                         Ron with a Rainbow on the Savage

Fly Fishing Schools

I will be teaching a number of fly fishing schools and casting classes this summer. If anyone is interested please contact the lodge for more detail or post your questions here. For more information about the lodge please visit the website www.savageriverlodge.com

SRL Outfitters Fly Fishing School is new for 2013! Check out the dates below!

SRL Outfitters Fly Fishing 101 & Casting ClassesFly fishing 101 curriculum includes Fishing vs. Spin Fishing, Essential Knots for on the Water, What Trout Eat & Flies to Match, What is a Fly Cast? and What You Need to Fish. The basics of casting with a fly rod will be taught at the Casting class. These are a great compliment to the 101 course.

Friday June 14, 2013 Fly Fishing 101 - $149 per person from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Saturday June 15, 2013 Casting Class - $50 per person from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Friday June 21, 2013 Fly Fishing 101 - $149 per person from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Saturday June 22, 2013 Casting Class - $50 per person from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Saturday July 20, 2013 Fly Fishing 101 - $149 per person from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Saturday July 27, 2013 Fly Fishing 101 - $149 per person from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Tuesday August 6, 2013 Fly Fishing 101 - $149 per person from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Wednesday August 7, 2013 Casting Class - $50 per person from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Tuesday August 20, 2013 Fly Fishing 101 - $149 per person from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Wednesday August 21, 2013 Casting Class - $50 per person from 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.

*Reservations required and a 50 percent non-refundable deposit will be taken upon booking.