Fished the Savage from 7:30 AM until about 11:30AM. I parked at the lower end of the fly-only area, walked downstream to just above the upper suspension bridge and fished up. Temps were cool enough all morning that I left my sweater on. I did not take a water temp but it was definitely cool. Light hatches of #18 brown or gray caddis and #18 mayflies (blue quills?) were evident but did not produce consistent rising in the pocket water I was fishing. I fished a tandem of a beadhead nymph (PT or HE) and stimulator, the latter added after a particularly aggressive hit on my strike indicator. Surprisingly, the vast majority of the fish were taken on the large dry. I landed 5 or 6 fish, with most being wild browns in the 8-10 inch range. The largest fish was a heavy brown of about 15 inches that casually swam up and grabbed the stimulator in one of the larger and slower pools. all the fish were very dark colored, probably due to pre-spawn. The action got faster as the morning wore on, so I wish I had had a chance to stay longer. Thanks to MikeyB, who I ran into on the stream, and others here for all the help. ( I did get a pic of the larger brown, which I will try to post once I get it off the disposable camera I was using).
Savage River, Garrett County, Maryland 9/19/09
- Thread starter Will
- Start date
mikeyB
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- Aug 20, 2007
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- 49
Just to add to Will's report...I got on the stream around 9:30am and noticed some risers in a slower pool below the first suspension bridge. Immediately got a hookup and breakoff on a good fish with a #18 bwo. I saw some olives, craneflies and small cream midges. Had no more takers on the bwo even though I eventually went down to a #22. Moved a little upstream to some faster water and noticed quite a few very small brown stoneflies, #18 or so. Was not expecting this and tied on a #18 dark bodied cdc and elk. Caught a couple small browns but covered alot of water for not many fish. Tied on a small caddis beadhead dropper and still only managed a few on the dry.
Headed up to the PHD pool around 11:00am and saw Will's car parked below it. Went upstream a little to see if I could find him and caught 2 nice brookies on the caddis dry in some pocket water. Here is one of them.
Walked back downstream around 11:30 am and found Will and we chatted for a few minutes before he had to leave. In the pm I found consistent risers but could not buy a take. Tried everything; bwo, bq, caddis, ants, beetles, midges, etc. nothing. Then I tried a little trick that works pretty well on occasion; tied on an #20 olive winged wet and greased up the tippet, put a very small piece of strike putty on the tippet so I could see the darned thing and fished it on the surface. First stinkin' cast I caught this beauty!
Had a pretty nice afternoon with this setup. There was a nice olive spinner fall shaping up around 6:00pm at 7x pool, but they never seemed to hit the water and there were only very sporadic risers. It didn't really matter. I sat there, had a beer and went home. The end.
Cheers, Mike
Headed up to the PHD pool around 11:00am and saw Will's car parked below it. Went upstream a little to see if I could find him and caught 2 nice brookies on the caddis dry in some pocket water. Here is one of them.
Walked back downstream around 11:30 am and found Will and we chatted for a few minutes before he had to leave. In the pm I found consistent risers but could not buy a take. Tried everything; bwo, bq, caddis, ants, beetles, midges, etc. nothing. Then I tried a little trick that works pretty well on occasion; tied on an #20 olive winged wet and greased up the tippet, put a very small piece of strike putty on the tippet so I could see the darned thing and fished it on the surface. First stinkin' cast I caught this beauty!
Had a pretty nice afternoon with this setup. There was a nice olive spinner fall shaping up around 6:00pm at 7x pool, but they never seemed to hit the water and there were only very sporadic risers. It didn't really matter. I sat there, had a beer and went home. The end.
Cheers, Mike
