October 23, 2018 – A Damn Fine Way to Beat the Wind and High Pressure – Fishing Creek and some Centre County Tributaries

Fishing Creek before the next front moved in.

According to Sam, who has been fishing a lot and guiding quite a bit this month when the water conditions allow, Central Pennsylvania creeks have been fishing great ahead of the spawn.  He and some buddies from the shop did well as recently as Monday, so I was excited at the prospect of a Tuesday of some bigger fish.  After a long three hour ride out there in the dark, my morning drive ended with a speeding ticket a block from my destination!  Good times!  I got lucky and was only cited for 5 mph over the limit, but they are certainly stingy with the signs out there.  Folks are so litigious around my area that there are speed signs every ten feet, it seems.  I just did not know, and my confusion must have been convincing to the officer.  The flashing lights right outside his house drew Sam outside to say, “Good morning, officer… and Chris.”  The day got better, however.  Thankfully, besides some wind and high pressure that limited our choices even more than the high(er) water, we were able to put together a good day.  No big, colored up males in the bigger creeks, but we caught some fish and ended on a great run through a tiny limestone-influenced gem, settling for some small stream beauties instead.

Wild rainbow or two in the mix?

We started out at Fishing Creek, and planned to hit Bald Eagle later in the morning when it warmed up.  The first stop produced a few fish for me, mostly small, and Sam landed a nice 16 inch brown and moved a couple more on a streamer.  The highlight of the first stop for me was landing a wild rainbow, maybe two of them, as I caught one smaller than the one pictured above too.  ←PFBC stocks fingerlings here...  At this section, the usual crossing spots or in-stream wading stretches necessary to reach some other good holes ended up being a little off limits due to the heavy water, so we left a couple holes alone for the day and decided to move on to another access point upstream.

I got into a handful of smaller browns early.

After a short ride, we worked another nice stretch of Fishing Creek that I have fished with Sam and his buddy Austen as recently as last winter.  Sam nymphed a bit more here, but he also tried a streamer in a few likely big fish spots, only moving a couple fish.  The flow was also high here, but I did some more aggressive wading now that I was waking up and found a few productive holes that gave up some fish, maybe 5 smaller browns, but only a holdover rainbow was of any size.  Like the first stop on Fishing Creek, the water conditions on this beat made it inconvenient if not impossible to fish a few other holes where we did well last visit, so we took a break around 11:30 AM to eat something and decide on the next stop.  It was clouding up and looking unsettled as we walked out of this spot, but by the time we finished eating, the wind was honking through the gap near Bald Eagle Creek, our intended third stop of the day.

Nice fat hold-over rainbow.  That tail was 7 inches wide!

One good thing about fishing with Sam is that he knows these creeks, and not just the ones he guides.  In fact, he has many spots that he saves only for himself and his buddies, some of them spots that would be overlooked in an area with so many well-known choices.  He tossed out a few options, and we settled on one that was close to his house with another potential spot also nearby if this one did not fish well.  I had also fished here with Sam and one of his friends late last year, but on that day, I was exhausted by the time we visited and, honestly, a little intimidated by the small size and the amount of cover—not just root balls and overhangs, but also midstream rakes of branches and patches of spring creek grasses like watercress and elodea.  I was in much better shape today, and so we had a lot of fun fishing two different spots along this same creek, landing a good number of fish and ending our day here without having to make another longer move.

One of Sam's better small stream browns.

This creek is small, sometimes not even 10 feet wide, but it moves some water and has strong spring creek character even though it takes a steeper descent than the usual spring creek.  At Sam’s suggestion, I suppose, we fell into a good system for two guys to fish close to each other on the same small creek: Sam worked a small streamer under every bit of cover and over every piece of sunken structure, while I switched my nymphing rig out to smaller bugs and plied every plunge and deeper soft seam in each and every riffle and run.

My good fish from the same small tributary.

We caught a mess of fish in the last few hours of the day working this pretty gem of a creek at two different access points, and we even landed a couple pushing 14 inches.  After landing my best wild brown of the day, I remarked to Sam that this fish gave me more of a fight and twice the amount of pleasure as the 16 or 17 inch rainbow I landed in the morning.  He too was having fun catching good small stream fish on the streamer and seeing and moving plenty too.  I stood and watched him take a couple, and he stood and watched me land a few nice ones too.  His best fish took a small version of his Roberdeau streamer in the tailout of one of the only deep, manmade holes in this stretch.   I hustled up to take a picture of this beauty before the quick release.

Sam's best from this creek today.  Ate a small Roberdeau streamer, one of his own very effective ties.

Most of my fish took an orange caddis pupa or an even smaller tag fly, something size 18 and mayfly-ish, that I was using here as my dropper.  Most of the fish were smaller, sure, but I would kill for consistent 10 inchers someplace nearby like Valley.  The fish were also pretty spring creek fish, some darker from hanging in wood and weed, some pale as can be from hovering over sand and lighter stones.  Besides the two better fish we landed, a couple were also 11 or 12 inches long, and  Sam also saw one about 18 move for his streamer.  I only heard the whoop and mild expletive that followed, but I did try to get the fish to come out again and hit a little caddis or mayfly nymph.  No such luck, but I did land a couple more decent fish in the same run and the smaller pockets above. 

Small and tight, even in the more channelized stretches.

I guess after losing a big wild brown last week, I was hopeful that the big fish on the bigger creeks would continue to cooperate today, this time while I had a net man nearby, but I cannot complain about the day I ended up having.  As I said above, anyone in SEPA would kill for a creek in his or her backyard like the one we ended on today.  Then again, if it was in SEPA and not hidden among a dozen better known creeks with higher profile names in one of PA’s trout meccas, then it would not be what it is for long.  I can see when we are here that Sam loves this little gem, and I am glad I got even a taste of how great it can be on the right day.  In today’s conditions, it was certainly the right creek at the right time. 

Pretty female with parr marks still, even at 8 inches long.

The blooper reel?

I left my order for some of Sam’s big golden stoneflies and sexy walt’s worms and bottom rolling caddis, so I will be ready to chase big fish again next week after the next rounds of rains this weekend.  For today, I was content to do some more small stream fishing, technically challenging and therefore rewarding, with good, knowledgeable company.  I am already checking the calendar for my next available break, provided I can afford the long ride after paying my frigging speeding ticket…

Broke in the new, deeper net, bit overkill for these gorgeous small stream guys.