Savage River, Garret County MD 4/11/17

[ryansheehan]

One of the toughest days I've had on the Savage in many years. The flows were around 200 cfs with temps in the low to mid 40s. I fished from 1230-630 or so.There were quills popping steady all day long, sometimes very heavy. There were also quite a few midges in the air. In the 6 plus hours I fished I saw zero rises. I covered a lot of ground looking for risers and all I saw was bugs floating by. I managed to land four fish and lost one more, all tight line nymphing a variety of patterns. One was a real nice wild feisty rainbow that crushed my pheasant tail. The fishing has been much better all winter long but hopefully soon they will be looking up.

 

[Creekfisher]

Nice fish Ryan! I have to get out that way soon. I usually do about 6 or 7 trips out there a year just to mess with the brookies in the tribs above the reservoir. I've been fishing a lot in southern PA this spring along with my usual time spent locally either in the Catoctins or the back road small creeks between Westminster and Monkton MD.

 

[ryansheehan]

Thanks! Those tribs are awesome too but I do love the lower.

 

[3wt7X]

Pretty fish and thanks for the report...200 CFS can be brutal out there. Sounds like once the water drops, the dry fly action will pick up again.

 

[ryansheehan]

I hope so, I don't mind the higher flows just means less people 🙂

 

[3oh4]

You know I don't know what is worse, seeing fish hammer bugs and you can't catch them Or seeing 1000 bugs Going by and not one being eaten. Had them both happen to me enough times.

200 CFS isn't fun up there in cold water temps, congrats on actually catching a couple.

 

[NewSal]

3oh4 wrote:
You know I don't know what is worse, Or seeing 1000 bugs Going by and not one being eaten. .

That is something interesting I find sometimes, especially during the middle of the hatch, not in the very beginning, but maybe 4 or 5 days into a good hatch and all of a sudden thousands of bugs are floating down the river and not one fish will rise to them, its a strange phenomenon, the question is, why?

 

[3oh4]

That is completely different than what I was referring to and what Sheehan experienced. In your case a week into a big hatch and sometimes fish become full and/or know they can feed freely right before dark. In my case I was referring to when water temps aren't quite right or something has fish refusing to eat what is hatching.

I was on a river last year and March Browns were just floating by in insane numbers but the water was a little cold and there wasn't a splash rise or sipper to be seen.

 

[ryansheehan]

You would think there would have been one trout that would eat one bug in six hours.