Central PA report

[Jeffrey Rasband]

Headed up to Spring Creek, Bald Eagle, and the Little J last weekend and had an absolute blast. First stop was Spring Creek, a famous limestone stream near State College with over 20 miles of exceptional brown trout fishing. Although Fisherman's Paradise was tempting, we decided to fish the some of less popular stretches in and around the town of Bellefonte, PA, a gorgeous little town central to some of the best trout water on the east coast.

The fishing was a little tough on top but we still did very well with subsurface flies. The reason for this is the major hatches of late spring were over, and fish had yet to key in on terrestrials. I ended up catching over a dozen gorgeous browns and brookies on a cress bug pattern while my buddy did very well with a streamer. Although no big fish came to the net I hooked three very large browns which would have easily topped 18 inches. Spring Creek has a density of fish that is second to none; over 300 lbs/acre in some areas.

Next we headed over to Bald Eagle, a large trout stream holding both wild fish and stockers which is often overlooked. The stream is known for producing very large browns but we only managed stocked rainbows fishing large streams at dusk. Still, it was exciting fishing such large water with streamers knowing what lurks in the depths.

The second and last day we fished the Little J, which has been high and off color for the last three weeks and was just becoming fishable. We fished the area near the spruce creek confluence and found the fish wanted nothing but streamers. A few BWOs and sulphers were coming off but very few fish were rising. We ended up catching quite a few average size fish with many more missed, including a few very large browns. In retrospect we should have gone back to Spring Creek, which IMHO is the best trout water within a reasonable drive from the DC area.





http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/3333/bfont.jpg (http://img38.imageshack.us/i/bfont.jpg/)
Bellefonte, PA A gorgeous little mountain town with Spring Creek flowing right through the center.

http://img142.imageshack.us/img142/3091/brownlj.jpg (http://img142.imageshack.us/i/brownlj.jpg/)
Typical Little J brown trout, most likely stocked as a fingerling but wild in every other sense.

http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/7841/brown.jpg (http://img146.imageshack.us/i/brown.jpg/)
Spring Creek downstream of Bellefonte. Absolutely amazing stretch of water loaded with fat 12-14 inch wild browns.

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/5140/brookie.jpg (http://img38.imageshack.us/i/brookie.jpg/)
I was very surprised to catch this what appears to be native 11 inch brookie. Caught it right below a small feeder spring creek.

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/9853/downstream.jpg (http://img140.imageshack.us/i/downstream.jpg/)
Atypical, fast water stretch of spring creek resembling a freestoner.

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/6267/fishf.jpg (http://img194.imageshack.us/i/fishf.jpg/)
Hungry fish below the Big Spring in Bellefonte

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6605/keithu.jpg (http://img41.imageshack.us/i/keithu.jpg/)
Absolutely gorgeous water downstream from fishermans Paradise

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/9545/stream3.jpg (http://img37.imageshack.us/i/stream3.jpg/)
Typical spring creek run holding monster brown trout.

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Movie of us feeding the fish. There were four species of monster trout slurping fish food like nobody's business... it was hard as hell to not cast a line in there.

- Jeff

[chrisdetweiler]

Great photos. Spring creek is one of my favorite streams.

[Marcel_Karssies]

Hmm, what you consider a little brown looks quite big to me.
That brookie also looks more like a brook :)
Very interesting stretch of water you fished there.

The places I usually fish also have in-town sections and those
can be amazingly good.
It is quite common to have sections where trout feed in bread,
also common that they are off-limits to fishing.

Just recently I have bought some bread flies to fish such
places where people feed the ducks and fish.
Gonna try it one of these days.

On the subject of terrestrials I have a question, never fished
with let's say hoppers but have bought some of these foam ones.
On my last chub trip I dumped the hoppers a few times over lies
where several chub where standing in the current.
The hoppers where ignored, dry flies where taken.
Do you fish hoppers close under the banks or do you get strikes
also in mid-river locations ?

[Salmo trutta]

Nicely done. I have a Pa license now so let me know when you want to go again. I've never fished those streams.

[Jeffrey Rasband]

Marcel,

It is recommended to fish a hopper right on the bank but i've had success fishing them mid-stream. Try hanging a bead head nymph 20 inches off the shank of the hopper. This is my favorite way to fish in late summer!

Salmo,

Do yourself a favor and go to Spring Creek. Youll never want to fish Western MD again.

[Salmo trutta]

I have had some problems fishing hoppers. For some reason I get major line twists. So bad that the tippet is all coiled up. What am I doing wrong? I'm tying a clinch knot, snug up against the hook eye. Should I use an action knot or loop knot?

I think it's the legs of the hoppers I like to use (because they look so good) cause the fly to twist in the air while false casting. I usually use a dropper too and end up in a big mess.

The hopper and dropper technique is deadly btw. So what if the fish ignores the big dry fly. It acts as a strike indictor to those picky fish down below. But when that fish does take the big hopper, well... I don't need to tell you how exciting dry fly fishing is.

[Jeffrey Rasband]

Yuuup. excact same thing happens to me its just the nature of fishing a two fly rig.

[Hillbilly Boater]

Nice report. The feeding video is funny. They do the same thing in Boiling Springs,PA only there you can fish. A bread fly is deadly when you get desperate.;-)

[Tracker12]

I was fortunate enough to be on business in State College druing the Sulfur hatch. Spring Creek was great especially for a relatively new fly fisherman. The Cress Bugs were my go to fly on that creek even thou all the fly shops wanted you to buy many others. I amm planning on going back up for a couple of days in the next couple weeks. Can't wait.

[Salmo trutta]

Nice report. The feeding video is funny. They do the same thing in Boiling Springs,PA only there you can fish. A bread fly is deadly when you get desperate.;-)

No bread fly around? Find a cigarrette butt and put it on a hook. I caught one of my largest browns doing that at Boiling Springs when I first started fly fishing.

[magothymagic6]

man o man trout are beautiful fish. I got to get into this fly fishing thing. Nice job