Savage River
I headed out to the Savage River for a quick trip to fish one evening and one morning in mid July. The Savage was at typical summer flows of about 65 CFS (low, crystal clear water), with water temps in the low to mid 50s. The first day was a bit overcast and just a great day to be on the river. There were caddis and little yellow stoneflies hatching, along with midges and then sulphurs later on. I fished a caddis and BH nymph dropper and picked up quite a few brookies and browns throughout the afternoon, mostly in the 8 to 11-inch range. I also hooked and snapped off a nice brown on the nymph. There was a decent sulphur hatch later that evening, and I caught a nice dark 13-inch brown in the flat water where he was sipping duns in the tail of a pool. It was one of the darkest and prettiest browns I have caught there. He was pretty fussy, but I managed to get him just before dark at about 9 PM, on a sulphur CDC pattern (size 18). There was a blanket of fog on the river early the next morning, which helped keep the sun off the water for a while. The fish were very active during this time, and I got into several small brookies and browns with the dropper rig again. I eventually hooked a really nice brown on the nymph in a deeper pool but lost it right away. On the next cast, it actually came back after the fly but didn't take it. So I put on a Gray Ghost and dead-drifted it down. He slammed it on the very first drift without hesitation, which really surprised me. Those wild fish normally don't come back for seconds. It was a very nice 15-inch brown, which I was able to photograph before releasing. I decided to fish the streamer for the rest of the morning to search for larger fish. I landed several browns in the 12 to 14-inch range and had one of the best days I have ever had on the Savage River. I really love fishing the pocket water there. I also ran into a small black bear, who decided to cross the river just above me. It was maybe 30 yards up-river from me, which made me a bit weak in the knees as I stood out there in the middle of the river. Fortunately, after giving me some dirty looks, the bear just crossed the river to the far bank and disappeared. Of course, it had to swim through a very nice pool I was about to fish! But I was glad to see it move along into the brush. I could not have asked for a better couple of days on the Savage.

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