Savage River, Garret County MD 6/3 and 6/4

[ryansheehan]

I left NOVA around two pm Saturday and arrived at the savage around five. There had been a white water release earlier in the day but it was over and the water was slowly falling. It was around 200 cfs when I started but dropped to around 120 by the 9, when I left. The water temps right around 54 degrees. There were a ton of bugs in the air but not many on the water, even fewer rises. I saw sulphers, caddis, lime sallies, march browns and a bunch of midges. I was nymphing most of the night but changed over to dries for the last half hour. I picked up a couple nice browns and rainbows before heading to the cabin for the night.

I slept in until 8 or so and headed back over after a quick breakfast at Curts Corner. There were a few caddis flying around but not much going on top. I picked up some nice browns nymphing, almost all took a size 20 midge pattern. I decided to head over to Barnum for a few hours before coming home. I snapped a few pics with my cell phone but left my waterproof camera at home. I normally like to take more pics but didn't want to risk ruining my phone.

Those fins were amazing!

 

[3wt7X]

Ryan...Sorry we missed you, but my good friend from Quantico and I fished the same water this weekend, only in reverse. We hit the North Branch upper stretch from 05:30 pm to dark on Saturday, and the Savage most of the day on Sunday.

The North Branch fished well, but we were wading and the flows were rough at 460 cfs. We fished the upper no kill stretch and did really well swinging wet flies. I saw a good spinner fall, but very few risers. I also saw some nice sized cream colored cahills, and a few small sulphers. We got into to the upper teens in terms of numbers, all of them were cookie cutter 12 inch rainbows, aside from a small native that I took on a parachute sulpher in the slack water.

The Savage fished really well today for us. We waded the lower stretch, and it was full of rainbows. We had a nice caddis hatch and they were responding on top to a flush riding caddis pattern. I was doing the dry dropper thing in the pockets and I would say it was about a 60/40 split between the two with the dropper getting the 60. We both got wild rainbows in the 17 inch range, and I took a nice brown on a sulpher wet fly. All in all a great weekend, the only slow fishing we had, was for a couple hours on Sunday morning at the North Branch. We could not buy a hit, after rotating through the boxes.

 

[ryansheehan]

Good stuff, I probably saw your car today, were you parked at the iron bridge or the spot with the steep hill? Everyone of the lower stretches I wanted to fish had vehicles parked there. Today, I started at the top of the campground and fished a couple hundred yards upstream before heading to the NB. Those are some great looking fish.

 

[albud1962]

I was at the Savage today and caught some really nice brook trout. My fish took march brown dries. Size 16 caddis were coming off but I didn't see a lot of fish rising to them. Left about 6 pm. The weather held up and it was another great day on the river.

 

[ryansheehan]

Beautiful brookies, I assume the upper right. There are some great natives in there, big ones too. Still can't get over the bow from the yough though.

 

[3wt7X]

We were parked in the pull off by the Route 135 bridge, right where the two rivers meet. We did not get to the Savage until 1 pm. We fished the N. Branch for a couple hours in the morning then tore down camp and ate lunch before heading to the Savage.

Nice fish everyone!!! I love that region and there is always more to explore.

 

[albud1962]

You wouldn't believe all the bugs coming off. The slate drakes were pretty thick for that size of a river.

I am not much of a streamer guy, but after Saturday I need to be, at least for the yough.

 

[ryansheehan]

Slate drakes were coning off on upper savage right? Never seen them in any numbers on the lower but surprisingly they are strong on the North Branch. Would be great if they've made their way to the lower savage too.

 

[3oh4]

Bottom end was full of rainbows - don't tell Alan Klotz that. He refuses to believe me that the rainbows run the bottom of the Savage.

Good reports by everyone!

I've seen pretty good ISO numbers on the lower, usually a little later in the season though.

 

[albud1962]

No no sorry I was referring to the yough and my other post.