Winter's Back...

Dudes,

I am snowed in.  Another 4-6 expected tonight.  I'll take some pictures.

-B

State of the Dudewater Union

While it may seem like all's quiet on the Dudewater front, don't let the silence fool you. Despite the endless monsoon that's been walloping the Eastern U.S. the last two weeks, We've been fishing like maniacs because, well, that's what you do this time of year. All that fishing hasn't left much time for blog posts, so let me briefly bring you up to speed:

We had planned for months to spend the week of the 16th of May at a favorite spot on Penn's Creek, PA. With big rains in the forecast and the river already flowing at above average levels we made a difficult (but not that difficult) last-minute call to accept our friend John Miller's inivitation to spend the week on the West Branch of the Delaware. It was a wet week, but we we're not dissapointed with the fishing. I dragged the big camera up there only to find out that I'd left my SD card in my laptop, which was at home. Subsequently, all the choice grip-n-grins from last week are on Brett's camera and it may be a while before we see them; more on that later. On Friday we said goodbye to the Big D and dashed home for all of about 37 minutes before jumping back in the car and driving East again to host my Orvis Cleveland Warmwater Fly Fishing school. The fishing was tough but the school was a successful one and I'm looking forward to chasing some of those big bronzebacks for myself...

Meanwhile our buddy JD was stalking the Jersey shore searching for stripahs. Haven't gotten the details yet but looks to me like he found 'em.

So now it's back to business as usual for me, getting ready to chase some warm-water quarry close to home and planning my next adventure. Brett on the other hand is Wyoming bound for the summer. He should be arriving at the gates of trout heaven any minute now and hopefully will give us an update when he gets a chance.

Spoils of The Savage

The empty Budweiser can on my nightstand explained why I'd slept through my alarm. It was almost 7:00 AM and I was pissed I'd slept in. After having gotten a taste of the Savage and its seductive pocket water the day prior I was itching and anxious to get back in the river. Fishing fast, bouldery pocket water is addictive in that it tantalizes the imagination. Every gurgle and swirl and divot and eddy and riffle could hold a trout and on the good days, they do. The cloud cover overhead and my tendency to be overly optimistic about the fishing had me feeling that today could be one of those days.

Still sporting my Jockeys I strolled out onto the porch for a prognosis. The pool behind the house looked inviting but showed no sign of rising fish; I could enjoy my coffee at a leisurely pace.

Brett and I enjoyed a fishless first hour but it was not without exclamation. Brett had opted to swing for the fences from the get-go and rigged up a grossly oversized streamer on a short, stout rod. While I was plunking for dinks he managed to move two garantuans that I'm sure he'll describe in detail in a later post. Still, with no fish to hand by 9:00 we decided to explore some agua nueva. Eventually we stumbled onto a pod of midging dinks (gorgeous, wild dinks, mind you) and Fast Jimi managed to get on the board...

Not to be outdone, player #2 topped my high score..

Around Noon a familiar face showed up. After spending the wee hours of the morning in the woods chasing gobblers PJ had bagged his thunder chicken and was ready to tango with some truchas. We enjoyed a cold beverage over the story of his trophy bird and then relocated. The Savage smiled on us again...

After bringing two stunningly beautiful browns to hand within minutes of each other Brett and I agreed it was best to quit while were were ahead. We'd gotten a taste of the fantastic fishing in this area and agreed that we'd be back. And we will be.

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...

"Dude...we're in Maryland?"

Fast Jimi and I just returned from doing some fishing in western Maryland.  Let's just say we were very impressed.  More to come tomorrow...

Friday Fish Porn: Miller Time Edition

Dudewater favorite Johnny's been busy on the Big D...

Last week he was saying that the river was about to pop...looks like he was right.

If you want to go fishing with him over there check out www.westbranchresort.com for more information.

Sooner or later he'll get a big one...

A Final Fix?

With a couple of trout trips planned for my next round of days off, Victor and I got out Monday for what may have been the last "steelhead" outing of the year. Fittingly enough we had the river to ourselves with near-perfect conditions. It turned out to be probably the finest morning of fishing I've had all year, with plenty of big, aggressive and acrobatic fish in the mix along with the usual assortment of midget steel. As much as I say I'm over steelhead for the year, truth be told I know I'm going to be missing the hell out of these fish sooner than later...