Penns Creek Angling During Our Recent Cold Spell

With the recent cold temperatures that we've experienced around Central PA, I've made trips to fish Penns Creek after taking water temperature readings of 62 and 64 degrees.  The fishing has been great in the early morning when I fished with Patrick Williams and then Jeff Scipione later in the week.  

Both days were productive and the main fly patterns were green weenies, stoneflies, hellgrammites and a variety of meaty streamer patterns.  Below are a few pictures from some of the fish that we caught, missing in the photographs are the two fish that tore me off while fishing 3x tippet.  The first time it happened, I thought was the bottom and then it took off downstream and the other was around eleven o'clock when a trout took my mouse pattern and its splash sounded like a bear chasing sockeye salmon in Alaska.  

The opportunities to fish Penns Creek under ideal water temperatures during the summer are few and far between but if you do make the trip to fish Penns Creek make sure you take a stream temperature to not put excess stress on the trout during the summer months. 

All in all, it was two great days fishing Penns Creek.  We had the opportunity to see a lot of trout, bass, a bald eagle, a dobsonfly attack Patrick, whitetail fawns, what a bat sounds like when it gets hooked and on top of it all, Central PA will miss Patrick Williams as he leaves to teach in North Carolina.  I know that a lot of anglers will miss talking to you in the fly shop but I can't say the same as the trout will not miss you Patrick, good luck!

Enjoy!

The fattest 6 inch trout I've ever caught. 

Nice brown trout caught by Jeff Scipione on a slumpbuster

Patrick Williams throwing some fly line.

Spruce Creek (10/17/2012)

October 17th, 2012 I visited Spruce Creek for the first time in about three weeks and had a great time hooking into a few good rainbow trout.  It was a beautiful day and the wind was extremely calm which allowed for a tangle free nymphing day.  A few days earlier, I went to another stream and the wind was blowing hard and it seemed like every other cast I was hooking into fallen leaves that were getting swept down the stream.  I can only imagine the difficulty that the fish were having seeing any type of aquatic insect to feed on.  Both days produced a nice tan caddis hatch but the only time that I saw fish feeding on top was on Spruce Creek where there was minimal debris in the water.    

Below are a few photographs posted from my recent trip to Spruce Creek!  I hooked into a much larger rainbow that took me under two branches and snapped me off.  Life will go on!

Enjoy!

Spruce Creek Monsters (09/02/2012)

Spruce Creek provided me a day on the stream that I will remember for some time to come.  It was a mixture of all types of sizes of fish but this post will highlight the two best fish of the day.  

I've gotten to know the public section of Spruce Creek pretty well over the course of the last decade and I'm always amazed at the new fish that show up from year to year, or the ones that finally decide to show their faces from their respective "hiding" places.  The first fish pictured was completely hidden by faster moving water and a submerged tree until I hooked into another brown trout.  While I was playing out the brown, I caught a glimpse of a gigantic silhouette following the trout that I had on the line.  

Once I saw this fish, all I could think about was getting the brown off the line to begin casting at the fish that I watched following the other trout.  After a few casts I started getting anxious because I didn't know if I was going to be able to hook into this fish.  Next thing I know the fish takes my fly and after the initial run, I saw the incredible girth of the fish.  As you can see in the pictures, the fish was a beautifully colored male that looked like it had been using performance enhancing drugs for years.  

The next fish would be a easier to hook into as I saw it about 20 yards below the first fish I hooked.  I caught this trout and it flew completely out of the water once it realized that it had been hooked.  The fight was fast paced and I was convinced it was going to tear me off on any of the countless overhanging brush along the stream.  After a few minutes I finally got it's head out of the water and I was able to carefully bring it into my Nomad net!  

These two fish will be etched into my mind for some time to come and I hope you enjoy the pictures posted below!

   

"Treat" of the Week

This week I bring you... More memorable moments as I see them in my little world of fly fishing. 

Doubling up on 40+ inch Northern Pike on mouse patterns

Catching King Salmon on the Fly

Landing this Lake Trout on an 8 Inch live Rainbow.. (It ate the rainbow I had on the fly)

Fishing a Waterfall in Patagonia, Chile

There were fish in there it's not just a great photo.

Make each moment important, and you will remember it. 

Spruce Creek (08/25 - 08/27)

This past week I spent several nights fishing Spruce Creek.  The temperatures weren't extremely warm so Jeff Scipione and I decided we would go and check out the big fish that lurk in Spruce Creek.  We did very well fishing inch-worms, stoneflies and slumpbusters once the sun went down.  It was a lot of fun and we caught several fish near or around the 20 inch mark.  Two of the fish that I hooked into the first night were ones that I will be going back for because I didn't get a chance to land them.  One was a huge rainbow that I've caught once before on a pheasant tail earlier this year and the other was a massive brown that I've never seen before.  Needless to say it lies at the top of my most wanted fish to hook into!!

The craziest thing was, right before the rain shower and thunderstorm the trout went into a feeding frenzy.  It was like a switch went on, unfortunately we didn't get to fish it through because we had to get out of the water once the storm rolled in.  I'm sure the fish continued to feed voraciously, but we didn't want to get struck by lightning!

Enjoy some of the pictures that we've compiled over the last few adventures on the public section of Spruce Creek!

Logan Branch Submission

Here are a few pictures of Matt Buterbaugh with a massive rainbow trout (Logan Branch) and brown trout that he caught on close to the confluence of Logan Branch and Spring Creek.  I can attest to this stream holding some large trout, but these two are at the top of the food chain. Great catches Matt!  Thanks for the photo submission. 

"Treat" of the Week

Memorable Moments

I have put together a couple photos to go with some of the more memorable moments of the last couple years of fly fishing, this particular post is all about Alaska. 

Getting to take my Dad and Cousin (cupsquatch) fly fishing down one of the premier rainbow trout rivers in all of Alaska.

There are some Northern Pike in Alaska too.. 

Witnessing my first 10 pound rainbow.

The Sockeye Salmon circle of life.

All of this and more I have had the luxury to enjoy. Some memories are best shared. 

Plenty more to come in next weeks installment of the "Treat" of the Week. Feel free to share with us some of your more memorable moments of fly fishing! We'd love to see them!

Big Centre County Rainbow

This photo submission comes to us from Bryan Doyle. Another member of our following introduced by the intern, Harry Tomlin. This is a great picture of a pretty huge rainbow from Central Pennsylvania. So thanks Bryan for sending this to us and thanks Harry for pointing him in our direction! 

Keep the pictures coming and we will keep posting them. I'm missing central PA trout fishing more and more every day... 

Here you go fella's, got this huge bow early this morning in central pa. I'd like to keep the location on the down low since its hard to find public waters that isn't regulated with fish like this swimming around, I like to call it my little honey hole. However, I caught this bow on a size 16 frenchie in about a mile of non stocked water while fishing for wild browns. I also released the fish after a few photos to catch again someday.

Bryan