The local TU banquet was held at the Marine Corp in Chambersburg, PA on Saturday evening October 19. Consistent with the last few years, we reserve 2 tables for family and friends. We look forward to this event every year as it is a good time to exchange fishing stories, get updated on TU activities, win or take chances on prizes and share a family style meal. This is a great cause and worthwhile for fly fishermen to attend. Local landowners are also in attendance and are given recognition and appreciation for allowing us to traipse on their property. We should not take this for granted.

Also consistent with recent years, my brother-in law Ron Hill and his wife Lynn drive here from New Castle PA to attend. So, I am forced to entertain Ron by taking him fishing. The weather was beautiful on Sunday, the upper section of the Yellow Breeches was in good shape and the fish were actively rising to our flies – parachute adams, BWO, hopper. No monsters, but we quit after landing 24 wild browns, mostly in the 9-10″ range.

 We will be looking forward to next year’s event. Who knows, the big raffle prize may have our name on it and we may even land a big fish. There’s a first time for everything!

Tim Brookens on the Savage

Savage Colorful Brown

Tim Brookens and I made our second trip to the Savage River near Luke,  MD. The Lower Savage is tail water which flows from the reservoir for five miles and empties into the North Branch of the Potomac.

Savage River Outfitters (www.savageriveroutfitters.com) describes the “Savage” as a world class wild trout stream.  The brooks and browns are colorful and challenging to catch because of the many currents emptying into the pools making it difficult to get drag free drifts with dry flies.

Although we saw some blue winged olives and caddis, we saw very few rises, so our tactic was to try to dredge them up with caddis, parachute adams and attractor flies.  We managed to land 22 fish, mostly small browns and a few brookies.  The last fish caught was rising to small BWOs and was fooled with a size 20 parachute version.

We set up Tim’s pop-up camper at the camp site located right beside the river so we had easy access to miles of fishing.  If you don’t mind camping without electricity, this is the way to go.  The September weather made it comfortable for fishing.  Next year we plan on fishing earlier in the season when a hatch is on.  Can’t wait!