Friday April 21I started fishing Spring Creek just below what is called the cottage stretch. Access is available to fly fishermen all through this stretch. It was sunny and very warm when I started. Water was low and very clear. The shallows were teeming with spawning suckers. I saw a few trout suspended, sipping what I think were midges. They were very picky and spooky and I was unable to fool them. There were a few midges in the air, and a few caddis as well, but not a lot of bugs at all on the water. I finally caught a small brown on a stream and left the stream at 10:00 a.m. to get a motel, and get some ice and cool drinks. It looked like it was going to be a hot weekend. How wrong I was.
The bad motelThe Colony Lodge is perfectly located for somebody fishing Spring Creek, right near the road to Fisherman's Paradise on the Benner Pike, between Bellefonte and State College. That's the only good thing about it. First, the price was about double what it should be. "There's a blue & white game this weekend. Everything is full. I have two rooms only - one with two double beds and one with one bed and a phone that doesn't work". I took the latter. The blinds don't quite close right in the bathroom. The channel selector for the TV didn't work. And here is the best feature......the towel rack was built so that the two supports were just a little far apart. The bar will stay on and allow you to put towels in if you are really careful - you would have to put the towels on the bar, then balance it on the two supports. The second you try to get a towel, they all fall, along with the bar. I'm sure it has been this way for years. Good thing I was in PA for the fishing.
Big FishingI drove up to Big Fishing Creek. It is a 30 minute drive at most, unless you take the roundabout route I managed to take, making it 45 minutes easy. I know all the short-cuts now. I parked at the cottage association stretch. This is an area of private land, with access granted to fishermen, except on Sundays. Nice water. I was suited up and on the creek at 2:45. There were some little dark quills coming off and loads of caddis and some dark hendricksons. The water was 58 F, two degrees warmer than Spring Creek. I thought conditions were perfect. That's when the dark storm cloud came into the picture. Temperature dropped right off and it got dark enough that I walked back to the car to stow my camera so it wouldn't get soaked. I missed one good trout on a dark size 14 Usual. Shortly after, I saw another riser, an 11 inch brown, and caught it right away. The wind picked up - big, big gusts. I could hardly cast through it. It got darker and darker. I retreated, and dove back to Bellefonte, where I seemed to drive out of the storm, at least for a while. I found a nice run on Spring Creek and cast at a few risers. Strangely, I saw some good size light coloured mayflies - I would call them cahills, except it it seems to me this is way early. I got only one rise, a really nice trout, and badly missed it. The storm caught up with me and it poured and poured and poured.
Saturday April 22Out of the motel room at 6:00 a.m. and it is drizzling - puddles everywhere, like it rained all night. time for a good breakfast, unlike the expensive but mediocre one I had at the waffle joint in Bellefonte Friday morning. I stopped at the gas station and asked the nice lady at the cash. She gave me the instructions posted above - sent me to a place called, I kid you not, Eat & Park. The alternative was a breakfast buffet at Denny's. Turns out the $6.00 breakfast at the Eat & Park was quite good, way better than the $10.00 breakfast at the waffle joint - important to know your breakfast places.
Rain, Rain, RainI drove back up to Big Fishing, thinking about those great hatches Friday. The hatches on Spring Creek are limited since they started sodomizing the river with Kepones, Mirex and lord knows what else many years ago. The green drakes were done by the mid-50s, forever. The trout have come back, the river is a lot cleaner, but only some of the hardier mayflies are around, plus midges and some caddis. I was anxious to see what the rain had done to the stream, and hoping it wasn't blown out. In fact, it was very clear. I parked just below a section where the river splits. I caught a small brown on a prince nymph right away and started up the far fork. Just when I was far enough in to be committed to the stretch, the rain began. It rained and rained and rained on me for the next 8 or 9 hours. No bugs came off the water, or if they did, I couldn't see them through the downpour. Except for two or three trips to the car to warm up, I fished through it. It hardly let up until late afternoon. After a break for a couple granola bars and some water, I drove back to the cottage stretch. By this time, water had dripped down into my waders. I was drenched and cold....but I found a really stupendously beautiful pool. I saw quite a few midges and some olives in the air.....the stream was becoming discoloured at this point and was pretty high, fishable, but it was close. I saw a very nice trout rise 20 feet from me, the first riser I had seen all day. I through a box of flies at it with no success. Finally, I cut back my tippet and tied on a white marabou streamer. I had a follow on the first cast and hooked into a 15 incher on my second. Just call me streamer-boy. I started working my streamer downstream - about 100 feet down, I hooked a beauty on the streamer, when my tippet knot parted. Seconds later, there was a huge splash at the same spot. Time for some warmth and some food.
Sunday morning coming downIt must have rained again overnight, as there were new, deeper puddles. All it does in the middle of Pennsylvania it seems is rain. I drove to an access on Spring not far above the 550. I saw a couple rises then saw the little white midges. More bugs, more rises. I had an adult midge the right colour and size but couldn't get a rise.....I dug deeper into my boxes and found a couple white midge pupa....maybe a size too big, but worth a try. Between 7:00 and 9:30, I caught 8 browns between 9 and 13 inches, hooked and lost a few more, and missed a few rises along the way - all in one flat at the bottom of a riffle. I stood in the middle of the stream and cast at risers all around me. At about 9:30, the air temperature suddenly dropped right off, wind direction changes, the midges stopped emerging, the trout stopped rising, and a huge dark cloud appeared overhead. I was barely back to the car when the rain started up again. Time for some breakfast and a long drive back to Toronto.
