Deep Creek Lake Report 6/26

Type: Nontidal
Region: Western
Location: Deep Creek Lake

I fished Saturday Morning from about 5am until 9am. Fished some live shiners from the boat in deeper waters but spent most of my time fly-fishing the shallows. I marked water temps of 76 and 77 degrees, which is pretty warm for this time of year. Water was clear to slightly stained. Top water action ruled the day with many fish brought to hand. I got out of the boat and wade-fished shallow coves with emerging grass and overhanging cover for large-mouths and brought a few nice ones to hand using large poppers with a good patient rest between movements. Small mouths were more aggressive taking poppers cast up to rocky shallows and docks. A sneaky Pete was the small mouth popper of choice. Some of the smallies hit so hard they came out of the water and took the flies pretty deep. My 10 year old daughter caught some nice smallies around the docks on a 4-wt using a cone-head muddler minnow. We also caught some gills on some standard bead-head nymphs. Top water really has been the way to go for me over the last few weeks. Watch out, here come the dog days.