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

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

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

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

Tools of the trade

There are many things I carry with me on the river, but two are very important when it comes to solving mysteries a seine and a fish pump. The seine will tell you what is in the river to help you narrow down fly selection to some searching patterns, but the pump will tell you what fish are really eating. Today was a classic example of how these tools can make or break a day on the water. I hit the Savage around 11 am and was picking up a few fish on the march brown nymph I was using, but nothing to right home about. I finally caught a fish big enough to pump usually around 13 inches is a good size and its stomach was filled with size 20 green caddis emergers. There were caddis flying around, but not enough to surmise that the fish were keying in on them. That is why the fish pump is so important! I ran into another problem after looking through my fly box I found the perfect pattern in the wrong color. I always carry about a dozen sharpies with me just in case that happens. I colored the fly and preceded to lose count of the number of fish I caught. It just goes to show you that a few simple tools can be the difference between no fish and tons of fish.

Upper Savage River May 4th and 5th

I had the opportunity to fish the upper Savage River watershed the last two days after I got off at the Savage River Lodge. This is an incredible Brook trout fishery that is catch and release on about 120 miles of streams through out the entire watershed. This is a fully connected fishery meaning that a brookie can swim the entire 120 or so miles unimpeded by any dams. This is a treasure right here in western Maryland and something that every fly fisherman should do in their lifetime. The water was 56 degrees and there are caddis bringing fish to the surface. There are tons of caddis cases all over the stream and the larva inside are around 1 inch long. I don't know what species of caddis they are, but when they hatch they will be big and all over the place.

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.