Beer or High Water

Taking a much needed break from work me and John decided to get away to one of my favorite places to fish in Maryland.  Coming into the trip the weather was no cooperating.  A week before the trip flows were at close to 3000cfs.  Ideal flows are between 75 and 125 cfs.  The rain continued while I was waiting like a child on Xmas eve and prepping for the trip.  Levels dropped significantly but on our arrival we saw a still slightly ****ed off river with decent visibility but no fish working the surface.  We decided to hit a smaller body of water and give the natives hell hoping that the skinny water was in better shape.  To our surprise the brookies weren't even looking up in the am.  We worked upstream for close to a mile and the fish had the upper hand.  Yellow stones were coming off fairly steadily and midge activity was awesome but we could not get a rise.  Around noon the sun beating down through the trees set off the fishes alarm clock.  We hooked up with fish in every likely lie for just about another mile upstream.  Gorgeous, healthy brookies that kept you marveling like they are supposed to.  Day one concluded with getting settled in the cabin, steaks on the grill courtesy of a fire started in the stove due to us forgetting a lighter, a lot of beer, a bear outside the kitchen window (guess he liked the smell of the steaks too) and a ****ty nights sleep on a mattress that made you wish you were in a tent on the cold hard ground.  6am came slow but eventually reared its head.  It had rained steady but not heavy from about 4am on.  After breakfast we decided to try some subsurface action on the river.  We fished a beat near the headwaters and managed to pick up some stocked bows from the lake, a rock bass and john caught a nice brookie that escaped the camera. Mother nature continue on the rag, dumping rain on us until about noon.  We went to the bar for some grub and to sort out a game plan.  After we ate we stopped by my favorite stretch of the river some blue quills in the air and swarms of midges, even some fish working the surface.  We went back to the jeep and grabbed the rods and a few casts in john hooked in to a gorgeous brown that also escaped the camera at his hand, he's getting pretty good at that.  Achieving a good drift to smart fish was tough in the high water, two more missed fish and two dirty refusals from the biggest brown I have seen on this body of water was more than I could take, it was time for more beer.  Beer sleep and pizza remedied the rainy, only somewhat productive day with hopes that the river and mother nature would be a little more cooperative on day 3..... Day three began.  The water had dropped to a little over 200cfs and clarity was even better.  The fish were definitely looking up a lot more.  Searching for some flat water we stopped to check out a beat just upstream of a bridge crossing the river.  We walked out on the bridge just as the sun was starting to hit the water.  Swarms of midges were soaking in the sun anywhere it touched the water and the fish were taking full advantage of the situation.  We saw over 20 rises in 5min of standing on the bridge.  This is what we had been waiting for, hungry browns working the surface.  Would they cooperate? My first cast with a size 20 midge pattern was slurped ever so gently a hook set and no connection.  I blame the excitement of finally seeing rising fish.  Fish continued to rise and completely ignore my fly.  I switched to a size 26 zebra midge a few casts in and a violent take from a gorgeous brown.  Huge spots, bright yellow and awesome hints of red.  I landed one more dropping a bomb across the river under a log to a steady riser and it was fish on.  From there the fish went down and the midge madness was over as fast as it started.  John was bringing the fish up but was having problems connecting, Adams and Griffiths gnats were his weapons of choice. Bugs were obsolete after the morning midges and there was no surface activity anywhere.  We headed back to the cabin for a nap before heading out to find a place to watch the pens game.  We headed into Frostburg and got a seat at the bar.  Enjoyed a few beers and watched a pens win.  Rising fishing, a pens win and another day on the savage, life is good.  So what did I do? Celebrated.  Too hard by most people standards.  Hell as long as I stick to beer I'm good, johns driving, I'm on vacation and tomorrow consists of being able to drag my ****to the water and rising fish will cure the hangover.  I just must at all costs stay away from whiskey.  So what happened next? A guy at the bar bought us a double shot of you guessed it, whiskey. I couldn't be rude a let such a delicious beverage go to waste, I emptied the cup. I was good for about 15min and then swallowed half a pinch of Copenhagen.  Turns out a stomach full of beer, a double shot of whiskey and eating dip leads to projectile vomiting.  Feeling better it was time for more beer, lesson learned for the thousandth time. No whiskey, I have sworn off the stuff 100 times.  Turns out the bouncers weren't a big fan of my celebratory drunkenness and we had to leave..oops.  Bed was a necessity at this point but Logan wasn't going to bed, a few beers with a family at a neighboring cabin and I decided to throw in the towel.  Sleep, hangover and stubborn fish was the rest of the story and it was back to Washington.  Here are a few pics...
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Beautiful fish and pics! Thanks for posting.
 

Thanks guys. No bad days, a couple slow days and for the record that night didn't end with projectile vomiting, it ended with beer so all was good lol.