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

Brookies on The Upper Savage River watershed and a couple of Rainbows

We had high water on most of the big rivers in the area this weekend, so as I usually do I hit the upper Savage River to do some brook trout fishing. The water was flowing at a great level and the fishing was awesome! I didn't catch any big brookies, but there were tons of fish in the 6-10 inch range. It was very windy on Sunday, but some big mayflies were coming off the water getting the fish very excited. I couldn't tell if they were Hendricksons or Quill Gordons, but they were size 14. I caught most of my fish under the surface. I caught a couple of rainbows in the brook trout water and took them home for dinner. I encourage everyone to do the same.

Evening Sun on the water

What to do with those Rainbows

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

BWOs popping off on the Lower Savage River

I fished the lower Savage yesterday and the BWO hatch was great. It didn't start till about 1 pm, but it lasted a good 3 hrs and the fish were really keying in on them. I caught all of my fish on size 22 nymphs, but there were plenty of fish taking bugs off the surface. The flow dropped to 90 CFS which is my favorite flow to fish. This hatch should last most of the spring and will start to mix with Blue Quills in the next week or two. I did not see any little black stones on the water, but they should still be in play for a little while longer.

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

A serving of bug soup on the lower Savage River

We fished the lower Savage river on Friday and the hatches are starting to pop off. There were little black stones, tiny grannoms, and BWOs all coming off at the same time. I will give everyone a hint for the lower Savage whatever size bug you think you are going to need for your fishing trip go 2 sizes smaller and that will probably be the size of the bugs you encounter. We had a good day both Craig and Eric landed some nice fish.

Eric working a Pocket

It Rained on us a little

Fish carefully! Big Fish on the Savage River

Fish are in full spawning mode on the lower Savage right now. I fished yesterday morning and there are a lot of fish paired up on redds. Redds are sections of cleaned light tan gravel that are very noticeable and many of them are very close to the bank. Do not wade through these areas because that would destroy the eggs and future generations of fish for the Savage. Fishing for these fish on redds is not a good idea either. When a female in spawning mode is hooked many times this distress will cause her to jettison her eggs losing future generations of fish for the Savage. You can fish responsibly this time of year with great results. A method that I used in Colorado is once you locate these redds fish deep water around them. The biggest fish in the river spawn mainly at night, but are always close by during the day. This way you can avoid walking on the redd and fishing to actively spawning trout. This is how I caught the beautiful male brown pictured below yesterday. There is still a BWO hatch in the afternoon, but it is starting to tapper off a bit and will probably end soon. I have had my best success with small scud patterns fished deep. That is what this guy took. I am happy that I caught that fish contrary to my face in the picture, but it was the best picture of the fish that I got.

Scuds for lunch on the Savage River

It was a pretty hard morning. I fished near the dam with a sculpin and had only one strike in an hour and a half. I made it to the Phd pool and there were some fish taking midges off the surface, but I only managed to fool one and scare the others. I decided to move down stream and work some pocket water with nymphs. There were some small BWO's flying around, so I tied on an emerger and eventually caught one nice brown. I pumped the fish and found emergers and a couple of caddis nymphs. The pump really didn't tell me anything I already didn't know. I moved up to the next pocket and after a couple of cast took another nice brown. Not being satisfied with the results of the previous pump I pumped this fish and what I found did tell me something. This fish was filled with scuds around size 20. I tied one on and caught a fish in every likely looking spot.

Yep...still here

No I didn't fall in and float down river. There have been a lot of things that have kept me from fishing over the last month and a half, but who wants to hear the fishing guide complain about not fishing? Not me!

          The fall colors are all but finished here in western Maryland at least above 2000 ft and this makes the fishing a little easier not having to deal with all the leaves in the water. The brookies have been spawning in the upper Savage for about 2 weeks, so it is best to leave them alone and do their thing. Fishing those streams this time of year requires wearing bright orange which is not too conducive to sneaking up on those weary fish.

         Fish on the lower Savage and the North Branch probably have a couple of weeks before they start to spawn. In Colorado the fish didn't really start to spawn till the water temps dipped below 50 degrees and right now both rivers are in the upper 50's. Fish have still been chasing streamers pretty well from the reports of other guides in the area (check out PJ's huge Savage River brown on the Savage River Angler FB page https://www.facebook.com/savage.river.angler) I fished the lower Savage yesterday and picked up a lot of small fish on emerger patterns, but did not move anything big. I even let the small fish swim around for a while in deep pools, but nothing came to have a look. Bugs on the water include crane flies, caddis, midges, and a mayfly spinner that I have no idea what it is. This spinner has been on the water since mid August. Fish were rising when I was on the water and enough fish took my indicator to make me think a hopper or stimi will take fish. 

Mystery Spinner

  

Fishing Yesterday

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

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