Dodged the bullet or the rain anyway

For months I have been planning a spring trout trip after I finished exams and before my wedding. I finished exams mid-May and the wedding is the first week in June. I had a two week window to make this trip. This spring has been extraordinarily rainy. April set a new record amount of rain. My last week of exams was beautiful, sunny and dry. The day of my last exam the rain started and didn’t stop for over a week. There were severe storm warnings, thunderstorms that spawned rain and hail, and a string of tornadoes that hit across the Midwest. First steelhead season had been washed away, now it looked like trout season was about to be ruined by the rain too. Penns Creek, Fishing Creek, and Spring Creek were all blown out. Somehow, the Little Juniata River had been spared. The little J was high, but it was fishable. It was the only stream in Central Pennsylvania that was not completely blown out. I decided I was going to go to the town of Spruce Creek to fish the Little J. The night before I left it stormed here and moved across PA. The western PA streams were blown out by this storm. As luck would have it, the Little J had been spared, the rain fell West and East of the J. I packed the car and headed out.


The Little J.

I arrived in Spruce Creek by mid-afternoon. I hit the local fly shop stocked up flies, got some directions and then headed to the river. I nymphed during the afternoon and caught a couple of browns and a rainbow. As dusk settled in, I set up in a nice pool for the sulfur hatch. As the bugs started to do their dance, the fish began to notice and began rising. Slow and sporadic at first, by dark fall the whole pool was boiling with rising fish.  The sulfur hatch was off because of the rain and was not the blizzard hatch that usually occurs on the Little J.  I tried several flies and cast to every fish within reach and could not get a fish to take. The guy at the fly shop said this river could break your heart, it crushed mine.


On the board, first fish in the bag on the 3rd cast!

Big fish of the day out of a seem at the junction pool

...and a rainbow

The next morning I headed to Spruce Creek and fished the Penn State property named after George Harvey. Spruce Creek is a pretty small stream and has even smaller braids in this area. I brought the 9’ 5 weight, I would have been better off with the 8.5’ or the 7.5’ rod. Oh well, I had to pass by some fishy looking water because it was too tight for the 9 footer. The water was cloudy and high. I caught a small rainbow to start things off. I continued to work upstream to where a braid came back in to the main channel. I fished a big black stonefly and small tan caddis pupa. I hooked a monster rainbow in the deep cut at the junction. This fish taped out at 21”. This was the largest inland trout I have ever caught. It was the size of a small steelhead. The fish only fit half way in my net. It was about noon and I decided this was as good as Spruce was going to get for me on this day. I headed back to the fly shop to restock the fly box and then headed back to the J.

George Harvey section of Spruce Creek

Pretty tight, shouldn't have brought the 9 footer

didn't fit in the net

Beast of a fish

21 beautiful inches of rainbow trout 

Penn State Forestry shed

 Sulphurs were on the water

I fished the same area on the J that I fished the day before. I didn’t catch anything all afternoon. The sun was high, it was hot, and the bugs were not as active as they had been the day before. It was a long and frustrating afternoon. As the sun started to move behind the trees creating some shade on the water I began to get into a few fish in the shadows. I worked back to the same pool I fished the night before for the hatch. I could just not manage to get a fish to take a dry fly. It was so frustrating.

A Couple of nice fish

I drove to State College that night because I had heard that Spring Creek had come down enough that guys were catching fish. I planned to fish Spring first thing and then move onto a brook trout stream up in the mountains as I made my way home. I have never fished for brook trout and really wanted to catch a native trout.

Spring Creek was high, fast, and cloudy. The only clear water was on the edges. I fished every soft spot on the edges that looked fishy. I hooked into a good sized fish early and lost it. Later I caught a couple of browns and then snagged up in a tree. I broke the leader free and it got all tangled up. I chopped off the bottom of the leader and tied on some 2x and a big black streamer. I pounded the banks and caught a good sized fish on the streamer. This was exciting for me because it was my first inland trout on a streamer. I packed it in and headed for the brook trout stream.

Flowers on Spring Creek

Spring Creek was still high and cloudy

Dink brown

A little better...

Hammered the streamer

First trout on a streamer

 

The drive up into the mountains was beautiful, but the roads were not marked well and it took some guess work to get there. I managed to find my way to a beautiful small stream at the bottom of a high mountain valley. The landscape was picturesque with pines hemlocks and rhododendrons. I couldn’t rig the rod fast enough. I was so excited! This was a small stream the width of a parking space. I fished the 7.5’ 5 weight with a 7.5’ leader to manage the tight quarters and all the overhanging brush. I tied on a big bushy dry fly and cast upstream in the pool above me. There was a small rise and a brook trout leaped out of water. I had caught a brookie on the first cast on a dry!! This was so exciting for me because it was double first, first brook trout and first fish landed on a dry fly. I caught another small brookie before I had to head for home in order to get the rent a car back on time.

 Heading up the mountain

 Mountain stream

Beautiful native brook trout 

I had a fantastic trip. I avoided the rain for the most part. The only rain I encountered was a slight drizzle on the first night as I was packing up the car and a brief but heavy downpour on the trip home. I caught the PA triple, brown trout, rainbow trout, and brook trout. I caught my first trout on a streamer and my first trout on a dry fly. I caught fish in every body of water I fished in some tough high water conditions. I fished hard and had a great time.