Maryland, The Deets of Day .5 and 1

Around this time of year the steelhead run starts to wind down.  Last year was very early, and this year it feels like it never really got going.  It's about this time when I start to get antsy to get out of town, make my way to Wyoming, and start my summer in trout paradise.  When Jimmy called me last week and said that we had an opportunity to fish a bunch of different watersheds in western Maryland I jumped on it.  I'd heard a lot about this area before from a couple people, and a fly shop close to Baltimore that I pop in to from time to time - the dry flies, bigger fish, and diversity of water available to fly fisherman had me chomping at the bit to get there and give it a try.

I pulled in to the cabin at Savage River Outfitters where Jimmy and I would be spending a couple days, met the owner, and took a walk with him down to the creek right behind his house.  Fish were rising everywhere to a thick midge hatch.  After trying to wrap up the conversation without being rude, I rushed back to the car, threw on my waders, and started fishing.  I fished until dark, caught some great fish, including one really nice brown, and then came back to the cabin and fell asleep on the couch waiting for Jimmy to get in.  

The next day we started out upstream of the cabin in a nice looking piece of smoother water.  From what we'd been told, the fishing didn't really turn on until later in the day, but we figured that in some slower stuff we could still get in to something early on in the morning.  After working the run pretty thoroughly with a dry we got to the head of the run, which was some pretty great looking trout water.  A couple quick rig changes, and this guy decided to come out to play.

Right after we sent this fish back home a guy showed up behind us and asked if we were Jim and Brett.  It was PJ, the head guide at Wisp Outdoors, who was the Orvis endorsed guide service of the year in 2007.  PJ had been turkey hunting early, but was meeting up with us to fish for the rest of the day.  He suggested we pack up and hit a little brook trout stream a few miles up the road.  Jimmy and I were happy to follow.

We fished some fantastic looking water.  Pool after pool after pool and still not a single rise.  Then like someone flipped a switch, we started to find the pretty little natives.

By late afternoon we'd made it all the way up this creek to some private property, and it was time to turn around.  We decided to fish one section of the Savage before calling it a day.  Most of the river is pocket water, and Jimmy and I were fishing 10-11 foot rods in order to high stick flies through pockets that you just couldn't fish with anything else.

Before dark we landed a couple fish working the pocket water above a beautiful pool.  We split with PJ, and started to get ready for the next day...