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| There ... I've hooked you |
Henry and Liz' Christmas present was a PA fishing license and
as we enjoyed the holiday we surveyed a directory of Keystone State trout streams. Just as Gunpowder Falls works well as a midpoint destination, we started looking for PA streams where we could meet for an adventure. We decided on Clear Shade Creek (CSC) in Somerset County high on the Allegheny Plateau. The plateau is the highest in PA and serves as a watershed divider. Waters flowing to the West find their way to the Gulf of Mexico by way of the Mississippi and waters flowing from its Eastern slope end in the Atlantic via the Susquehanna.
The plan was to meet Thursday morning and fish Friday and Saturday, but as the week dawned and the forecast solidified we knew that rain would be part of the equation. Driving north on Thursday I raced the rain to Bedford, PA where we met for coffee. From there we convoyed to a well reviewed access for CSC and remarked that it wasn't nearly as remote as we had been led us to believe. We geared up in a grey rain and a local pulled-in, all truck and camo, after discussion we decided that we'd fish up from the river access and he'd fish down. He was pleasant, had been fishing CSC for 30 years, but I should have been worried when I saw his spinning rod and 3" silver flukes.
Geared up with light rods we (unnecessarily) biked down to get a look at CSC. I'm used to high gradient, boulder strewn mountain streams so the silty-sandy-muddy valley collector I found was new to me, picturesque (I guess) but didn't excite me. As I lowered myself from the grassy bank I got slurped to mid calf in the mud and released a cloud of silt. 👎 We a gave CSC 3-hrs, stalking from the banks and trying to find some indication of trout in this 'wild-section'....but like Yukon Cornelius looking for gold.. nothing. Cold, wet and anxious to find troutier water we carried our bikes up 26 steeply carved steps and found the spinning guy unpacking after having caught 6-7 trout! Damn. Armed with intel and not wanting to be skunked we left the bikes and hiked back to the section spin-guy had harvested. A mature beaver dam had blocked the upstream migration of any stocked trout and this fella had been just dipping his weighted fluke into holding structure to pull out trout. Henry got one nice strike on a dual dropper rig but as this wasn't our bag we headed out determined to try another access point.
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| Beaver Dams in different degrees of construction marked much of CSC |
We slid around rutted roads to the well-marked Crumb Rd. access and decided to bike 2-miles down to the special regs fly fishing only section. After a slog of a ride (jeep trail/ bog) we reached the reservoir marking the start of the special regs section and found CSC very hard to fish; silty, darkly tannin stained, deep and not inviting. After losing several indicator, dual-dropper set-ups to roll cast errors (trees) my fun meter was pegged and we decided to regroup and find a better place to fish Friday.
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| Lower CSC fly fishing only section |
Studying streams to the East while sipping beer and enjoying
choriqueso at a local Mexican restaurant in Johnston PA, we deiced to hit Spruce Creek and the Little Juanita near their confluence in the tiny Hamlet of Spruce Creek, PA. Spruce Creek is fished by Presidents and famed in angling circles for its brown trout fishery all but the bottom half mile is privately owned and access is managed through guides and clubs. Not knowing what we'd find we set out for the Penn State Section and hoped for the best. It was grey and drizzly again but the heavy rain had stayed to the South and we after gearing up in the well marked access point .6 miles upstream from the 'town' we found ourselves alone on a beautiful mid-sized trout stream. 30 feet wide in most places with a rocky bottom and over hanging (you guessed it) spruces this water was far more to my liking. It wasn't long till fingerling and small brown trout brought smiles to our faces as we leap-frogged-fished and nymphed under the creeks' dripping spruce boughs.
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| Henry smiles on Spruce Creek |
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| classic brown on a classic stream |
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| Hen isn't playing to the camera -- he loves fishing |
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| laying out some line on Spruce Creek |
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| Naturally reproducing browns |
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| A Far and Fine Brown for me |
At around 1130 a sulphur fly hatch began, we knew we could continue to catch these browns, but wanted to grab lunch and advice and hit the Little Juanita as the hatch matured. Instead of visiting well known Spruce Creek Outfitters we found a great bakery next to
PerformanceFlies, its owner Kevin and his sidekick Irish Setter 'Caddis'. Kevin's fly shop is welcoming and well stocked his manner betraying his love for all things fly fishing. We bought some lovely parachute sulphurs (support your local fly shop) and gratefully took his detailed advice on where greet the hatch, the rising browns and pretty much which rock to stand on.....he was spot on. The Little J is, well ...little compared to the Juanita, but still pretty big water so I borrowed Hen's 5wt Helios and he geared up with a New Zealand special, a 9' glass 6wt from Epic Rod Company, its richly translucent blank beautiful and it's moderate-buttery action a joy to cast.
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| Fish-on For Hen, this B&W allows you to see the hatch dotting the Little Juanita |
Timing COULD NOT HAVE BEEN BETTER as the sulphurs began dotting the river around us. Sparrows swooped and nipped the hatch from above and then they came from below. Minutes ago the water was unrippled, now browns were rising all around us slurping the meaty flies from the surface.
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| A sulphur scooped up |
The cold Little J pressed in our our legs and tested our mettle, but the frenzy of trout kept us locked on station. After we found a cast and drift to mimic the natural drift of the sulphurs we began picking up 8-10" browns. The jackpot finally came an hour into the hatch when, in short succession, we both hooked shout-worthy browns and enjoyed each others' success.
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| Matt works in his big brown |
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| Hen's Epic bends to a bruiser brown |
Soon after we hooked our browns the hatch eased and the river faded back to unpocked. I made it back to the Jeep while Henry made the acquaintance of Andrew Allender of
Little J Guides. Andrew had arrived late and was waiting to see if a secondary hatch might emerge. That it didn't was lucky for us as Andrew shared his love and some of his knowledge about the Little J. There are other guides in the area, but if your looking for one who's also a quality human and shares a passion for C&R fly fishing and flowing water, give these guys a call, Hen and I plan to next visit.
With smiles on our faces we retired to a nice bed in State College to plan for the next day. We almost came back to Spruce Creek and the Little J for an encore, but decided to continue to survey central PA streams. We decided to take a chance and try something different so we set out sights on the Big Springs and the Letort, famous spring fed waters in the vicinity of Carlisle, PA. Here's the what I learned...Spring Creek Fishing is hard and all but the first 3/4 mile of the 'Famous' Letort is a silty, muddy, barren industrial stream. We started out at Big Springs, the 5th largest spring in PA, and a local long-rodder gave us some tips. He said he'd caught 6-7 by easing a heavy sculpin with a 7wt along the vegetation beds and by fishing inviting structure for fish he couldn't see. Hen and I tried this for a few minutes but lost patience when we spotted a pod of 10 bruisers just downstream from our cars...of course these fish are caught and released over and over, learning lessons each time and as much as laughed at our clumsy efforts. Hen enticed one rainbow to strike a wholly bugger, but that was our only action from these wary monsters.
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| TU added structure defines the banks and breaks up the flow |
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| Big Creek like most other spring creeks is best fished from the bank |
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| A mini-panorama shows Hen fishing up to the wary pod of large rainbows just off the far bank |
Hen and I were excited to hit the Letort and walked in at the well marked Cumberland Valley TU access where a nice sign welcome members and visiting long rodders to there home waters. Something must have happened as the water was ugly, silty and barren of life. I laughed and cringed that this was the famous LeTort. It took me 5 minutes to bank crawl out of the mud-sucking bottom. I decided to call it a trip and head back to VA, but Henry found a couple a mile upstream that had caught several in an area that looked much more alive than downstream. Not wating to get skunked on this famous stream we gave it a shot, with light rods, but for me I'd lost the patience and concentration required to dead drift a tiny nymph in tiny water. We both kicked a few fish before we called it a day
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| The 'alive' section of the famous Letort, note the vegetation and sandy bottom -- at least there were trout here. |
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Thanks for checking out our adventure
A man is the substance of the things he loves. The love of Nature was passed on to me and I in turn am passing it along.
Charlie Taylor
