Destination: State College, Penns Creek

As most of you know State College, Pennsylvania has been home to Kirk and I for twenty something years now. We have grown up fishing there and learned how to fly fish on our local streams. It wasn't until working (for a brief period) as a fishing guide there that I appreciated how far people were willing to travel to get a Central Pennsylvania trout on the end of their line.

This will be a multi-part series depicting several of our favorite streams the best hatches and the best time of the year to fish.

The first is Penns Creek. Penns Creek is located about 30 minutes East of State College with the easiest access being in the town of Coburn. Penns Creek is one of those rivers in our area that it would take many years to explore the whole river and it's intricacies. It has access points the are available to the angler entirely by dirt road, and not well maintained dirt roads... It has secret spots and spots a car cannot take you.

The best hatch on Penns Creek is assuredly the Green Drakes. This hatch brings people in from all over the country to hit the drakes just right. For that same reason this is not the best time to fish Penns Creek unless you want to fish with the crowds or fish entirely after dark. If I were to choose a time, I would head out to Penns Creek in Spring, March or April. Early March would be good, you could still hit some Hendrickson's possible see some early March Browns and some Grannom Caddisflies as well.

Helping us with this series is Patrick Williams. If you don't know Patrick, he was the president of the Penn State fly fishing club and has become a friend through fishing stories and shared experiences. He is a great fisherman, an innovative fly tier, and a skilled photographer. Here are a couple of fish from this year and the stories to go with them.

This brown was caught on Penns Creek on a day when there were a million bugs on the water. Sulpher, cahill, and large BWO spinners were floating everywhere, while small sulphers, orange cahills, light cahills, dark blue sedge, tan caddis and stoneflies were also buzzing around in the air. Fish were rising in some fast riffles, and while tempted to throw on a rusty spinner (spinners were easily the dominant food source on the water), I instead decided to go big or go home, and present a fly the fish would not be picky about. I had seen a couple large slate drake duns popping earlier in the day, and put on a #10 imitation. It took maybe 3 at most drifts over each rising fish to result in a take. This fish was feeding right at the head of the large riffle, and this take was the first rise I saw from it. I was actually casting to get a drift over a fish that was rising about 5 ft downstream of where this one was.

Again on Penns Creek, and again when there were tons of spinners, duns and caddis on the water, several fish were rising in a big pool. I tried the slate drake again, but with no takers. I switched to a rusty spinner, but again nothing. I was seeing a few giant stones (eastern cousin to the salmonfly, a legitimate #2 size fly) in the air as the evening light started fading. I had tied up a few patterns to imitate these monsters, and actually pulled a fairly large fish on one behind a boulder earlier in the day when prospecting as a dry-dropper. The fish apparently were keen on these slabs of protein at this time (about 8 pm), despite the fact that none were on the water. When this pattern drifted over the previously picky rising fish, they would literally roll on it. The only thing I could think to compare it to in PA was the first few days of the periodical cicada’s a couple years back. Many good fish were taken on this pattern, but sadly several either broke off (this pool is about 6’ deep with lots of boulders and wood on the bottom) or spit the hook on me. Luckily, this fatty didn’t, and you can see the #8 foam stonefly still in its mouth (the hook size is an 8, but the foam goes well beyond the bend of the hook extending out the back, the total length of this fly is about 2.5”).

I went to Penns several times to try to hit the drakes during the constant high water and scattered storms occurring during the hatch. These outings were made more interesting due to the fact that in late may I had broken all of my trout rods in a 48 hour period, which has to be some kind of record. Luckily, I was able to borrow one of the Penn State flyfishing club’s 8.5’ TFO rods for a substitute. One night I got there at about 7, walked far downstream from my car into the woods to a section of flat water which I hoped would still produce rising fish despite the milk chocolate consistency of the water. I got to my spot and rigged up and caught a few rising fish when clouds turned to rain, and then more rain. I forgot my rain jacket this day, but being wet didn’t bother me as long as I was catching fish. I then saw a flash followed by a loud crash of thunder when lightning struck the ridge just above where I was fishing. I decided that waving a 8.5’ graphite lightning rod while immersed in waist deep water was not the smartest idea, and decided to wait out the storm on the bank. The lightning got more frequent, and the rain started coming down harder, and by hard I mean God was breaking the seal all over me. I sat in a ditch and got pissed on for 45 minutes, and by the time the storm passed it was almost dark. I was soaked everywhere, including inside every inch of my waders, but hearing the slurping of fish once again taking green drake duns lifted my spirits. It turned dark and fish were still rising. I caught several but this one was the best of the night (the best that got in the net). All fish were taken on a 2XL #6 green drake dun.