Savage River/Western Maryland - October 9-12
October Post Outing Report
Where: Savage River, Maryland, at the Monroe Pavilion in Big Run State Park.
When: Friday October 9 to Monday the 12th, 2026.
Participants: Bob Bokulic, Lee Canby, Andy Grosko, Greg Sholly, Karan Singh, and Ron Kerrick.
We had mixed weather for this year’s outing in western Maryland. Half of us arrived on Friday when it was a beautiful, sunny, fall day with temperatures in the low to mid 60’s. The leaves were starting to change but there was a lot of green foliage still present. The reservoir had more water than the last two annual outings up here, however the brook trout streams and the upper Savage were still very low and not fishable. The water level on the lower Savage River was about the same as usual, a little low.
Bob B. and I met up on the Lower Savage around noon on Friday and started fishing at the woodyard. We spent half of the afternoon there and then drove to the Metal Bridge to fish. For the afternoon, Bob caught one 7” brown trout using a soft hackle and had a couple of other bites. I didn’t catch anything but had three bites to keep my anticipation up. A little after 5:00 I left for Monroe pavilion to set up camp and get the charcoal going while Bob continued to fish. Because Big Run Road was closed at the pavilion, I had to drive the long way around using Dry Run, Black Hawk, and New Germany Roads to get to Big Run Road. When I arrived at Monroe Pavillion, Greg and Lee informed me that Monroe Pavillion has power. Later when Bob arrived, he said that he missed the turn off for Dry Run Road and just kept going on Savage River Road until he got to Big Run and it was open. I had driven all the way around, wasting time and gas for nothing! Despite what I was told by the park ranger before the trip, the road was open and the power was on. Oh well, at least that made life a lot easier for the weekend. At dinner Greg told us of his adventure while towing his trailer to Monroe Pavillion. It seems that on the drive over, the awning on his trailer came open and extended. The awning then proceeded to introduce itself to a telephone pole. Needless to say, it was traumatic for the awning, so Greg had to spend part of the weekend removing the mangled awning bracket and patching up the siding where the bolts were torn out. It was kind of a rough start for the outing.
Saturday was another beautiful day. The temperature was in the low 60’s and the sky was sunny. After breakfast, I met Bob on the North Branch a little past Westernport. There is a huge area for parking and a short easy walk to the river. Bob brought one 11” rainbow to net using a nymph. I had no action even though the water there was great. We then headed back to the Lower Savage. I went to the 7X pool since I was having no luck. I might as well have no luck with difficult fish, that way it doesn’t seem as bad. To me it looked like there were several small fish rising. There were a lot of “bugs” flying around, October Caddis, some kind of mayflies and small midges. As you can tell, I’m not very good at identifying stream insects. I tried dry flies -Renegades, Caddis, and BWO’s. I had 5 or 6 hits and one LDR but didn’t land any.
Bob left for home late Saturday afternoon, but Karan and Andy arrived earlier in the day. At dinner that night Andy brought out Chicken Salad and Portuguese Kelp Soup courtesy of his wife and Karan brought cupcakes for dessert. While we stuffed ourselves with the excellent food, Andy told us about his day fishing on the Casselman which had recently been stocked. Andy was very successful on the Casselman, landing about a dozen rainbows ranging in size from 14” to 18”. He also reported seeing a trout of about 22”. Karan and I got very excited to go to the Casselman the next day, but mother nature always has the last say.
The rain started at about 8:00 PM Saturday night. A steady medium downpour with periods of heavy downpours lasting all night and half of the next day without a break. Having the pavilion was very nice, but by Sunday morning the ground had become saturated and the flooding started. My tent floor got a little wet, but now I know the location of the secret spot to set up my tent in case of future downpours.
Sunday morning Andy left for home while Karan and I stuck it out. Because of the steady rain, we waited until it let up a bit. We started fishing around lunchtime. Karan checked out the Casselman but as expected it was high and muddy, so we continued fishing the Lower Savage. The water level there was about the same as it had been and it remained clear. Again, we both had some bites but none in the net. Several people we talked to said that because of the warm water (64 degrees) the bite was slow.
Between the torrential downpour and Greg’s wayward awning it was a memorable outing. Although I’m still a little “ticked” that the park ranger didn’t email me before the outing to let me know the road was open and the power was on.
Ron Kerrick
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