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

Teaching the Guide

I have been a Fly Fishing guide for the last six years and I learn more about the sport from my clients than I could ever figure out myself. One of the most important lessons I have learned over and over again is what it means to be on the water. As a guide our primary focus is to put fish in the net for the client. This is very important, but for most clients is a secondary perk of the trip. This is especially true for people who are trying the sport for the first time. They are paying for an experience and for a guide and experienced fly fisherman it is easy to forget about the other aspects of a great fishing trip besides the number of fish caught. One of my favorite lines to clients when we reach the river is "welcome to my office", which I can take for granted some times. My clients always remind me how lucky I am to do this for a living when they do one of the most frustrating things for a guide and all beginners do this and you cannot blame them for it. When you are guiding someone you are constantly watching their indicator for any movement and when it does move and there is no reaction by the person you wonder why. I will look up and they are staring at the environment around them and you can't get mad because that is part of their experience. They are just happy to be on the water and I need to be reminded of the value of that from time to time. So thank you to everyone I have taken out recently for that.

As for the fishing, the Casselman river is done as far as trout fishing. When I was on the river last week there were few trout left and the harvest season had not even started yet. The Casselman does have a good population of rock bass and some nice smallmouth if you are looking for a place to fish for those species. A small streamer in crayfish colors will be your best fly to catch these fish. Hatches on the Savage this week can best be described as sporadic. Sulphurs and little yellow sallies account for the greatest volume, but there are still some March Browns and on cloudy days BWO's . I have had my best fishing recently with big sculpin imitations at low light in the morning and evening. The North Branch and the Youghiogheny were blown out for most of the week because of the rain that those watershed received, but hopefully I will have a report on them next week.

Bug soup on the Savage Tailwater

Hatches are in full swing on the lower Savage. Sulphurs size 14-16, Little Yellow Sallies size 18, March Browns size 10-12, and Blue Wing Olives size 18.With these bugs add in various caddis in green and tan and you have the bug soup that is the Savage right now. I have fished it twice so far this week and one day bugs were prolific and the fish were rising everywhere. The other day bugs were sporadic and the fish were rising only occasionally. This is why I love the Savage, every time you think you have it figured out it will throw you another curve and send you back to the drawing board. The Savage is at 60 CFS and around 54 degrees and should continue like this for the next week or so.

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.

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.

Carpe Diem Memorial Day

If you have read my earlier post on waters fly fishers forget about you may remember that I said I would have a picture of a 15 lbs carp soon. Well here it is. I spent 2 days trying to get one of these guys and I finally made the perfect cast and played the fish just right to bring it to net. My wife even fell ass backwards into the creek trying to net the thing (that's is why I love her), so I had to include her in one picture. After some research and a couple of days of observation , I figured out their feeding habits and it was game on. These fish are super challenging to catch and in most small rivers they are the biggest thing that swims. The fight was awesome after 5 seconds on the line I saw my backing and once I caught up it was a dog fight from there. I was using a 5wt and 4X, so I couldn't lean on it too much and I didn't have the power in the rod to lift the fish, but I brought it to net in 5 minutes. 7X and 20 inch rainbows on the San Juan in New Mexico taught me a lot about fighting fish and what not to do to break them off. I am hooked on carp fishing pun intended.

Places to fish during high water

Most of the streams in the area are still running high from the rainfall we received last week. The head water streams of the Savage River where high but fishable. When the upper Savage USGS gauge is around 150 cfs the feeder streams will be at a good fishing level. I was looking to fish some may fly hatches, but when I got to the creek the water was still pretty high. I tied on a black and olive woolly bugger and put it into every likely spot and there was usually a brookie waiting to pounce. For the next 2 hours I must have released close to three dozen 7-11 inch fat brook trout. It is truly amazing how many fish there are in this river system.