Mad River Fishing Report 8/24/14

          This morning I was able to get up to the Mad River. Weather was nice and flows were good. We were able to bring some nice fish in over a couple hours.

This 18" didn't want my streamer in his territory.

          With the rain this week the water was a little off color. We found a little feeder stream to the Mad that was pure chocolate soup for whatever reason. This colored up the water a bit more for 100-200 yards downstream. We didn't leave this section all day. The streamer fishing was absolutely killer. Big and gaudy was the trick. I was fishing a full sink and my dad had a sink tip. This is key for getting streamers in the "strike-zone" of the fish. Big browns actually hit streamers more out of aggression and instinct than they do hunger. Get the fly in their territory and hold on. I had one fish in particular that hit my streamer three times but somehow never got hooked. We picked up good numbers of fish on streamers. We had even more follows and bumps.

Depth + Cover = BIG fish

          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.

Tight Lines,

Alexander Helmicki
Delamere & Hopkins