Savage River, MD 6/4/18

3

3oh4

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Apr 26, 2016
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The whole state of WV was blown out (even to high to streamer fish); so I got the grand idea to check the gauges on the Savage. The Sunday projection was from 120-200 cfs, and the morning of was flowing at 137cfs, and with the North Branch set to white water release there were zero other options. Took a basketball player of mine who was just starting to learn how to fly fish with me. We arrived at the river and headed to the trophy section; my second cast of the day in front of the deck gave up a solid brown and about 15 minutes later the rookie landed his first career wild brown in the back pocket. By the time he hooked up and we released his fish, I turned to grab my rod I placed on the bank and it was floating. I looked at the river and the son of ... released water on us. It wouldn't have been terrible if it was only 200 but they jacked it up to 400+. We were set to have an unreal day with bugs pouring off when we got there and the overcast day.

We went up to catch a few brookies in the choc milk but after a 1/4 mile or so I had my brookie fix for the year; it would have been different if it was on dry flies but catching natives in milky water is like catching bluegill in a pond. So I decided to head back down to the Savage and at least give the PH. D Hole a try in the high flow. 5 browns and a native gulped up my nymphs in the soft seams just before the monsoon hit and we called it a day. I fished that river a lot over the years, it was going to be scary good if they didn't ruin it.

I wish more states would wise up like MD and charge small fees for 3 day passes; 9$ for a 3 day license is just a great deal. I'd travel all over if more states had lower fees.


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A friend and I were fishing in WV near Seneca Rocks this weekend and man all that high water sucked. Fishing was outstanding for nice brookies early Saturday though we endured heavy downpours. By noon the water was too muddy for them and they stopped hitting. Raced the oncoming flood 3 miles back to the car. From that point on everything we looked at was raging and brown, even the smaller Seneca tribs. We stayed Sat night to see if maybe it wouldn't rain any more - well, it did (a lot), and everything was in worse shape Sunday. Same story in GWJNF streams east of there as we headed back toward DC. Saw a few landslides too.

TL😀R - wish we had gone north as you did. Nice job making the most of pretty bad weather.
 
I think if you would have gotten up there Friday you would have had a banner day. Just been a rough spring in WV.

I almost made the trip to chase big browns in the mud Sunday but there was more rain in the forecast. If there weren't so many dang rattlesnakes on the Savage I would have thought about walking the banks to fish the side pockets but I just couldn't do it. No marbles here lol. My partner did see a juvenile one by the gate on the opposite side of the Ph. D Hole, just another weekend of hell or high water.
 
Good job making the best of rough conditions. I have heard through the grape vine, the water releases are under new management and it may be a rough summer, water wise, despite all the rain we have had out there. This is just third person information, but they are talking about holding the reservoirs at full pool, and only releasing excess water during the summer months to keep the reservoirs at the same full pool level. That could mean small water releases below despite two reservoirs that are filled to the brim, during the hottest parts of the year. Right now, they are just dumping everything that is coming in from the tributaries, which is why the water conditions have been miserable for the better part of the spring. I hope the voices of recreational fly fisherman/guide services are heard in the hotter part of summer, and they continue to pump plenty of cold water into the system.
 
I will say the good thing about that is the Savage never warms even when the flow is under 30cfs and the North Branch for the first time in all the years I fished it got warm last year so maybe if they save some water it will negate that issue. The deeper the lake the less sunlight that penetrates and warms the bottom levels and those are the ones that are released to keep the water cold. When the lakes get low is when the sunlight penetrates and we get warm water releases.

I enjoy the lower releases because I only fish by foot, I'm sure the guides will be very disgruntled. This is actually a good thing in my opinion.

My biggest gripe is why release water on a weekend morning and afternoon? Why not double the release at night when there is no recreational use? If I was in the middle of the stream Sunday I would have been in trouble. You discharge the same amount of water and allow the the waterways to be used. They could realistically run the Savage at 1500 CFS at night and no one would care, and run it at 100 during the day and everyone is happy.
 
3oh4 wrote:
I will say the good thing about that is the Savage never warms even when the flow is under 30cfs and the North Branch for the first time in all the years I fished it got warm last year so maybe if they save some water it will negate that issue. The deeper the lake the less sunlight that penetrates and warms the bottom levels and those are the ones that are released to keep the water cold. When the lakes get low is when the sunlight penetrates and we get warm water releases.

I enjoy the lower releases because I only fish by foot, I'm sure the guides will be very disgruntled. This is actually a good thing in my opinion.

My biggest gripe is why release water on a weekend morning and afternoon? Why not double the release at night when there is no recreational use? If I was in the middle of the stream Sunday I would have been in trouble. You discharge the same amount of water and allow the the waterways to be used. They could realistically run the Savage at 1500 CFS at night and no one would care, and run it at 100 during the day and everyone is happy.
Click to expand...

Not the yakkers!
 
LOL, the Yakkers get their 3-4 days a year at a 1000cfs - they would still get those if I was someone important.
 
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