There was a brief weekend respite from the proposal treadmill in mid-October. I took the opportunity to head out to Garrett County with my son to chase brookies in the Savage creek mountains and, hopefully, snag a good cover picture for my upcoming book on Maryland trout fishing.
As I indicated earlier, we hit Crabtree Creek on Saturday with a reasonable amount of success. With that behind us and spurring optimism over our prospects, we headed back over to Middle Fork – a place I had not been since 2008. What a stark contrast from my earlier visit! In 2008, we were on the tail end of a very dry year and there was hardly any water in the creek. This year, it was running full and fast, presenting a spectacular scenic backdrop to the fall foliage that was beginning to enter the peak season.
While we were able to get a classic picture for the cover of my upcoming book, the fishing was not good. Of course, I blame it on the abundant rush of new water that Pushed the purpose of new food into the creek and had probably fed every fish to choking point. I kept thinking back to Ann’s book that claimed Middle Fork has 2400 trout per mile. I know that’s mostly in the upper reaches, far above where we ended our hike, but it still made me wonder whether the last couple years of dry weather had wiped out significant numbers of fish. Only time will tell on that and given the scenic nature, it certainly worth an additional visit to discover the answer.
Since we had the long drive back to northern Virginia in front of us, we only hiked in 1.5 miles, fishing up the river from the junction of the side trail and the main road, and did not get all the way into the wildlands. We only had one small brookie to show for the sweat.
Bottom line: One of the classic, well-known locations in Garrett County that deserves another visit
Getting There: From Luke, MD, continue west on Rt 135. Turn right on Savage River Road and follow it up to the Reservoir. The road will take a hairpin turn to the right at the junction of Savage River Road and Spring Lick Road. Keep going and the next hairpin turn (about 3/4 of a mile) should be Middle Fork.
Google Local Coordinates: 39.513411,-79.155078
Secrets Revealed? No. This is a very public location that is documented in theMid-Atlantic Budget Angler
Date Fished: 10/16/2011
On the left – the money shot – the cover of my book, Maryland Trout Fishing!
Unless stated otherwise, this article was authored by Steve Moore