Casselman River
The first day on the Casselman was a nice warm day. It was still very early spring out there with mostly bare trees along the banks. So there were no hatches to speak of, and we fished nymphs and streamers most of the day. The morning was very productive, with the afternoon slower, with a lot more anglers on the river to compete with. Beadhead nymphs and Wooly Buggers worked very well, and several fish were landed in the 10 to 14-inch range. They were mostly rainbows, but my nicest fish was a fat 14-inch brown. This is a delayed harvest stream, but they allow spinning gear and lures with more than one hook. Many of the fish I landed had severe damage to their mouths and gills from treble hooks. They should really consider changing the regulation to allow only the use of single, barbless hooks during the catch and release period.

Savage River
We hit the lower Savage River trophy trout section on Tuesday. The river was higher and really gushing hard compared to when I was there last year. It was very difficult to wade-fish the pocket water. But we fished it anyway. There were Blue Quills, Quill Gordons, and some caddis hatching, but not in any numbers to get the fish too excited. It was very slow. We had just nymphed all day the day before, so we were pretty stubborn about doing some dry fly fishing on the Savage. The result was very few fish in the net and an exhausting day of wading in the strong currents. It was a beautiful day though, and we did land some nice brookies, and Jimmer landed a nice 13-inch brown late in the day. I went back to the Savage the next day, and was happy to see that the river was much lower and had really settled down. I fished the same sections but was able to move around a lot easier and cover a lot more of the pocket water. The hatches were sparse once more, so I nymphed most of the day and only threw dry flies at rising fish. I landed some nice brookies and missed some browns, losing one nice brown on the way to the net. I also landed and photographed my first wild Tiger Trout (a cross between a wild brown and a wild brookie). This was a beautiful dark fish that was about a foot long and nice and plump. I held the trout in the water while I took the photo, with his dark under-belly just below the waterline in the net. The dark color and markings on this fish are beautiful. (Click on the Photos link below to see this fish.) Later that afternoon, I spotted a large brown feeding on the far bank, right where he was the day before when we couldn't get him to cooperate. This time I hooked him on the second cast with a size 20 Blue Quill emerger. He took my fly, dove down and headed upstream a few feet, and then locked himself in place. I held steady with my rod doubled over for about 15 to 20 seconds, but the small fly popped out during our stand-off, and I didn't land him. That brown was quite large. So the second day on the Savage was much more productive due to better conditions for wade-fishing the pocket water and a few more bugs in the afternoon, as well as trying different tactics during non-hatch periods (a.k.a. nymphing).

Youghiogheny River
I hit a couple of sections of the Yock on my way home on the last day. Anticipating a release, I fished an upper section before the river began to rise and then headed down-river to fish another section before the increased flow reached there. There were plenty of caddis hatching throughout the day, and many fish were coming right out of the water. In the morning, at the first spot, I landed a nice rainbow on a nymph and two browns on a caddis on the surface. Then I moved downstream near Friendsville and fished for a bit before heading home. It began to rain, but I caught two rainbows on a Wooly Bugger before calling it quits. I would like to get back to the Yock and spend a lot more time on this river. The trout are nice, strong fish, and this river is really fun to fish.

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