Jason du Pont

On my recent trip to the Savage, I filmed quite a bit of footage on the river that I couldn’t fit into the last video post. I also hiked up a brookie stream and took some pictures that didn’t make it into the recent report. As the picture above illustrates, this drop on a small stream was a decent waterfall at the higher levels I encountered. I planned to return later in the week to this stream, but I never hiked in again since levels dropped quickly on the Savage. The number and size of brookies I was catching on the Savage was one of …

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The Savage River was flowing in the 500-600 CFs range when I hit the road last week for four days of fishing. The higher flows may not be considered ideal by most anglers, but there are still some options, even at these levels. The region was saturated from recent rains and all of the smaller streams and upper Savage were flowing extremely high on Monday. The roar of the lower Savage was deafening, although the water was clear and fishable in a few sections. The water temps rose from the high forties to the low fifties with the spillover from the rain. I caught my …

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Fly anglers in Maryland are experiencing some great trout fishing on waters both big and small. The sulphur hatch on the Gunpowder and many of the freestone streams in the state provide great fishing in the evening. Caddis and midges are a good bet for dry fly anglers fishing in the morning or even midday on sunny blue bird days. Blue wing olives are hatching in good numbers on cloudy days, and get the fish sipping naturals in the flat water. Nymphing is producing a lot of fish, and larger browns for anglers bottom bouncing shallow riffles and deep pools. Caddis or midge pupa paired …

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Trout rising to insects is a common sight on the Gunpowder this time of year. Midge, caddis and mayfly hatches during the course of the day keep the trout looking to the surface for a meal. The sulphur hatch is one that tends to send the trout airborne after emerging duns, and seeing trout flying out of the water isn’t unusual. Many reports from anglers this week mentioned fish rising and leaping out of the water along the Gunpowder. I’ve seen this occurring in just about every stretch of river in the afternoon when the sulphurs start hatching. Throw in a midge hatch and intermittent …

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Small to medium size streams are abundant throughout Maryland, and many are downright scenic this time of year. Some of the streams support trout, either stocked or wild, but many also hold populations of bass, panfish, carp and other assorted coarse fish. The joys of fishing these types of places include not needing a big selection of flies, less wary fish, and rarely having to wear waders. The idea is an easy day of fishing where each cast may bring in a different species, and the fly choice boils down to either a black or white wooly bugger. I’ve always enjoyed covering new water and …

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