Savage River, Garrett Co., MD,09/14/2010

[3wt7X]

I journeyed out the Savage River today in hopes of some rising wild trout. I arrived at 0730 am to chilly 58 degree air temps which slowly rose to 80 degrees by 0200 pm. The stream was a cool 55 degrees when I got there and rose to 58 towards the middle of the day. I saw midges coming off along with summer blue quill and a couple different caddis. The tan colored caddis seemed to be about a size 16 and the darker colored caddis was around a 14. I also saw some crane flies flying around.

I fished an oversized elkhair caddis pattern with a pheasant tail dropper in the pocket water and picked up fish all morning. I started the day with a beautiful 10 inch native brook trout on the pheasant tail and I caught about an even number of Brookies and Browns throughout the day. The water was running at 60 CFS, which is a little higher than it has been on my last few trips. I think it really helped the fishing. The highlight of the day was a 15 inch brown that crushed my caddis and put up a nice fight in heavy pocket water.

 

[Fishidiot]

Wow. I'd say you're the champ these days when it comes to catchin big wild brookies. Very nice. The Savage looks like it has a good flow to it.

 

[albud1962]

cool brookie pics

 

[Squaretail]

That bigger brown has a great spot pattern.
Good day for sure.

 

[PennKev]

Wow, that's how brookies are supposed to look!!! Puts the pics of pale yellow stockers to shame.

Kev

 

[albatross]

Thanks for a nice report and beautiful pictures!

 

[JackM]

Great report and pictures. You made me jealous. I've not fished the Savage under good conditions for many years. It was nice to hear you encountered hatches as well. I'm jonesing for rising fish.

 

[David]

Nice job 3wt!!!

 

[afishinado]

That's what I'm talking about!....beautiful surroundings, gorgeous fish. Good for you. Thanks for sharing.

 

[j_man]

Great pictures

 

[3wt7X]

Thanks for the comments guys...The Savage fished better for me yesterday than it has all year. I'll be out there camping with my sister again Thurday and Friday of next week if anyone want to make the trip down there. I hope they keep the flows up. It really activates the fish.

 

[PaulG]

Nice job, enjoyed the pics!

PaulG

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

3wt,

Awesome pictures! Im curious to know if the Savage has ever been shocked. Id like to know what frequency of larger brook trout are in that stream and why.

While I agree some of it is probably the angler, as you've shown to be an excellent one, it seems you always have some pics of larger brookies from that stream. I wonder what the food forage is that is allowing them to get to this size and compete with the browns.

I also wonder what is the trout per mile of this stream.

 

[jayL]

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/recreational/fwhotsavagetail.html

control f + "per mile"

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Thanks Jay that was exactly what i was looking for!
37 brook trout greater than nine inches per mile is a very good brookie fishery IMO. I wonder what they are feeding on to get so large in that frequency.

 

[cmkrachen]

bugs and fish...

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Are you sure thats it?

We have bugs and fish in many pa wild brook trout streams but they dont have that frequency of larger brookies.

I wonder if there are scuds in that stream. I would also imagine the 12 inch min size on a brook trout is also a big factor. Be nice to see some of our waters managed as such.

Any thoughts 3wt?

 

[cmkrachen]

1. our brookie waters dont compare to the size of the savage....most dont have limestone influence at all, and are very small indeed.
2. we only have a few larger streams where brookies and browns cohabitate enough for the brookies to stay in any decent numbers...big spring and bfc come to mind.
3. we stock over wild trout, so that takes another chunk of streams out of the equation...

 

[cmkrachen]

just an aside, magic pellets that make you grow only exist in video games, or trout hatcheries...(or tailwater fisheries with mysis shrimp)
so im assuming their eating bugs and fish (read this to include isopods and crayfish, as well as the wayward mouse)

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Ya you got some vaild points there.

Fishing Creek in the most recent biologist report of the narrows only has 3 brook trout in the 9" or greater size. It really makes me wonder.

I was hoping to hear of some mass amount of nymphs or prolific hatch. Maybe a massive abundance of shrimp or something.
By the colors of those fish it certainly looks like they are eating some kind of forage like that.

It could be and is most likely.............they just manage it better than we do. Such a shame.