October 2024 Savage River Campout
Where: Savage River, Maryland, at the Monroe Pavilion in Big Run State Park.
When: Friday October 11 to Tuesday the 15th, 2024.
Participants: Shawn Ackley, Randy Dwyer, Andy Grosko, Chris & Eve King, Lou Reichel, Greg Sholly (and his two cats), Craig VanderKolk, Pete Yarrington, and Ron Kerrick.
We had a great weekend weather-wise for the outing. Most of us arrived at various times on Friday, a beautiful, crisp, sunny, fall day, with the leaves developing their traditional seasonal colors. Unfortunately, western Maryland hasn’t had much rain this fall, and the water levels were low on the upper Savage and all of the feeder streams. On the lower Savage River, the water level was a little low but fine, courtesy of the reservoir. Lou arrived early Friday afternoon and fished the pools above the PHD pool with great success. He managed to catch 5 trout. One 14” Brown trout, three Brook trout, and one Rainbow. Randy and Craig fished the lower Savage up near the dam. Randy caught a Rainbow and a Brown trout and Craig also caught a couple of trout there.
On Saturday morning it was a crisp 46 degrees. We met Ben Harris from TU National at Monroe Pavilion and he led us on a conservation projects tour for the next couple of hours. New members Chris and Eve King joined us for the tour, along with Craig Wengerd from the Youghiogheny Chapter of TU. We first walked over to the culvert on Bear Run near the Pavilion where Ben pointed out the brook trout migration problems and the proposed future construction plans. We also saw the tree planting that had been done in the area. For the next stop, we drove to Kitzmiller to see a bridge replacement in progress (another obstruction being removed). Our last stop was at Wolf Den Run State Park to see the site of another proposed project for the future. In the afternoon it warmed up to 74 degrees and we all went fishing. Pete Yarrington caught a couple little browns in the 8-inch range on the lower Savage near the steel bridge below the fly shop. One on a #16 PT soft hackle with copper-colored bead and one on a #18 olive delta wing caddis. Andy Grosko and I fished a pool on the upper Savage that held about thirty recently stocked trout. We fished for an hour or so with no luck. The stocked fish would come up multiple times to inspect our flies but turn away at the last minute. After trying several different fly patterns, colors and sizes, Craig Wengerd arrived. Within 5 minutes, he had caught two Rainbows, about 14” each. He was using a pale-yellow soft hackle fly. Andy borrowed one of his soft hackle flies and also caught two Rainbows. I was surprised how picky recently stocked fish can be. I thought they would hit just about anything, not knowing what real food is. It was a learning experience for me.
Sunday afternoon Andy went over to the Casselman River which had also recently been stocked and did very well. He was under the Rt 68 bridge and managed to find the right fly and technique to land 19 Rainbows. Pete fished the lower Savage near the steel bridge again. He caught three fish, all on the same soft hackle pattern that he used the day before, two browns of 10 inches or so and a nice brookie of 12-13 inches, a male with a kype and all colored up for fall. Pete said that his primary activity besides fishing was dodging deer on New Germany Road! At dinner time, we ate very well. Chef Lou treated us to an authentic New Orleans Jambalaya, accompanied by homemade corn bread, courtesy of Andy’s wife and apple pie courtesy of Randy Dwyer. During the afternoon it got warm, up into the high 70’s but a cold front came through the area late Sunday night. We did get some rain during the night for a brief time with some wind as well, but being under the Monroe Pavilion shelter, everything remained cozy and dry.
By Monday morning the sun came out, although it was still a bit windy, causing the leaves to drop. Most of us headed home on Monday but Lou did stay. Andy also stayed and fished the Savage River below the suspension bridge for a short time but there was too much wind and floating leaves, so he only stayed for an hour fishing. Randy caught a few fish each day and slept horribly thanks to Lou's tales of the Goat Man lurking in the forest nearby.
On Tuesday, Lou said that a flock of turkeys went thru the campsite about 8, and later he saw at least 24 large rainbows in the Casselman River at Farmers Lane, but it was cold and very windy, so he did not do any fishing.
All in all, it was a great Outing. The fishing was a little tough at times, but everyone had some action, and we got to see some of TU National’s conservation efforts.
Ron Kerrick
