Mad River Fishing Report 3/21/14

          After having my plans of heading up to Cleveland getting cancelled for steelhead, due to weather and river conditions, I decided to head up to the Mad to do some trout fishing. Water was a little bit low and clear (gauge registered 129 cfs and dropping) but still good, but the weather was perfect! The high for the day came in around 63 degrees. The only thing that could have made the day any better was to catch some fish, and that we did. Between my dad and I, we picked up four fish and lost what felt like a decent one when it ran into a log jam and broke off. 

One aggressive little brown

          It was very interesting arriving at all of my usual spots. Since I had not been to the Mad since late December, I had not realized how much the river changed. The high waters really re-shaped the Mad in many spots. There were deep holes where it was shallow before and giant log jams that had seemed to disappear. It was very strange to get used to and have to "decode" these new holes.
          Anyways, fishing was good. Most of the fish were taken on nymphs. I don't think any of the fish took the same nymph twice. They were all over the place from princes to micro San Juan worms to hare's ears. It was a very odd day in that respect. One fish was landed on a larger white homemade streamer (pictured above). The fish that was lost in the logs was on a big old natural colored Sex Dungeon.

This 19" brown fell for a sz. 16 micro San Juan

          For the nymphs we were using 5x fluorocarbon all day. As the waters continue to drop and the days remain sunny, I would start to switch over to 6x fluorocarbon tippet. Start thinking smaller in terms of flies, especially with the water conditions. The one tip I can give for the Mad is "WOOD IS GOOD". These three words will increase your chances dramatically while fishing not only the Mad, but other streams as well. The Mad has a ton of wooden structure. This is why fish can get so big here. Don't be afraid to run rigs along sunken logs or cast streamers tight to root balls. It is all worth it in the end. Wood is a key ambush point for large fish of any species.

Another shot of the 19"

Feel free to contact the shop for any questions 513-871-3474.

Tight Lines,

Alexander Helmicki