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Attached is 18 inches of rainbow in a 15 inch long net. Now that I have your attention, best to start at the beginning.

I had been watching the weather all week and it was predicted to be sunny and in the low seventies with a night time low of 50 degrees. What could you ask for besides no rain and a full moon for a bonus. Then Jay announced that they had dropped the flow on the North Branch to under 250cfs. With that sealed the deal. Friday night I pulled out the camping equipment and the fishing gear. Setting the alarm for 5am I woke before it went off. Had the truck loaded and on the interstate by 5:15. It was three hours later when I pulled into Savage River State forest and found a camping spot. At five dollars a night within earshot of the river what a deal! Once the camp was set it was time to streach Hew Thomas's toes so I headed to a feeder stream on the upper Savage. No one was parked at the trail head so we hiked up a 1/4 mile before I strung up the rod. The water was low, skinny and crystal clear. I had brought the second bamboo rod that I made since it was
unfished this year. It's 6'6" 3wt on an FE Thomas taper. Fairly full flexing and allows a little brookie to sport it's stuff. Tying on an midge pattern at the end of 7x I fished up stream only changing to foam terrestrial pattern when I got tired of trying to dry it out. Over the next couple of hours I cast to pockets in between rocks, under logs, in water over a foot deep. Must say that the new regulations seem to be working. Of the 20 brookies, fourteen were over 7" or better. The largest one, a male of 10" was already starting to color up. The little FET let them show their stuff and what a blast fishing for brookies is!

Hew at 12.5 years can only run for a couple of hours otherwise he pays for it as his arthritis flairs up. So we headed back to the truck arriving at 11:30. Hoping in we head down river and stop at the fly shop to help stimulate the economy a little. Actually, had to take advantage of it being an Orvis endorse shop and pick up some of my favorite tippet material, orvis's super strong as there wasn't left on my 6 and 7x spools. The shop operator regaled me with stories of BWO's coming off on the Savage tailwater and though I had come to fish the North Branch just had to take a side trip to check out my favorite pool on the Savage. Parking in the shade for Hew to curl up in his kennel and sack out. I pulled out an eight foot five weight on Dickerson's 8013 taper. One of my favorites that I love to pull out when I know that the cast are going to be mid-range, requiring a delicate presentation with small flies. I entered the river down aways from the pool so
I tied on pheasant tail nymph and worked some of the deeper pockets connecting with a brookie and my first brown of the day. Finally at the tail out of the pool I could see a few risers and the sporadic bwo come off. Changing to an emerger and adding some 6x tippet. I made my presentations and watched the trout come up an suck in the fly. What a blast, grinning ear to ear as I picked up eight trout working to the head of the pool. Except for two more brookies All were browns. Couldn't believe my luck, it had been an incredible day already. Thirty trout and it was only 2pm. I was getting hungry so we stopped in town hew's favorite's, Double cheeseburges! I got the pickles!

Finally headed toward Barnun arriving at 3pm I pull into the parking lot. After Jay's announcement I had been chomping at the bit to get back there. After fishing it in July with Joe Kunsman it had enamored me with it's jewels. I changed again, by pulling out my 17th rod, an 8' 5wt three piece, made with the North Branch in mind. It's a stronger rod then the 8013, capable of long casts in that it picks up line to puts it right back with out false casting. And will really shoot some line when I need to drop a fly under a tree at the far bank! Gone was the 6 and 7x that I had fished on the Savager and the Trib respectively, in it's place was 5x as I scoured all the likely holding places. I wasn't getting any looks with the adams that worked last time so I changed to a bigger meal and tied on the beetle. Shortened the tippet a bit so that the fly would really turn over and splat. Then it started as I pounded up rainbow after rainbow. The fly would hit then
start heading down river, then a body would appear and chase it down. The hard part was to wait until they took it. Unfortunately sometimes the current would grab the leader and drag it out of reach before the trout would intercept it. The rainbow in the net was one of those classic rises. I dropped the beetle just a foot of the far bank and it traveled downstream two feet before a head appeared, mouth opened wide and when it dissapeared I set the hook. It didn't take long to know I had a fish on as it ran upstream then down! The rainbows are strong and they use the current to their advantage! I finally worked it into some soft water, then into the net. What you don't see in the attachment is the wide grin on my face! I later questioned myself whether 5x is strong enough for this river as I had two larger fish break me off. One would of gone 21-22", both turned sideways in the current and tippet parted. I finished out the day at a large pool with trout
rising in front of me. Casting to rising forms and found the browns. Where the faster water seem to inhabit only rainbows the flat water was home to the browns. As the sun set I looked back on the last four hours, I had picked up 10 rainbows in the runs and another 7 browns on the flat to close the day. As I laid my head down with Hew laying beside me on his sleeping bag the full moon peaked over the horison. As I closed my eyes, the Savage gurgled in the back ground as the crickets struck up a harmony. What an awesome day in Western Maryland! Just surreal! Tim Pembroke

PS I returned to the NB this morning picking up six browns and 1 rainbow. The browns were took little midges, though one large brown and a bow both took a beetle. In the end the river got it's revenge as I lost my footing sitting down in the river up to my neck! A quick reminder that it's one slippery