I had originally booked a guide for this trip. The week before I was scheduled to go out with the guide I got notice that he had to cancel the trip due to the death of a close family friend’s wife. The funeral and viewing were the same day I was supposed to have my guided trip. I understood the circumstances and we tried to reschedule, but we couldn’t coordinate a date for another trip. A guide friend of mine told me he and his friends were going to be on Penn’s Creek from Sunday to Wednesday. He urged me to go if I could. He said “you should always go, just go (fishing)”. He also told me where to find some good water. I already had a hotel room in State College and was planning to take the time off of work anyhow, so… I took his advice and just decided to head out on my own.
I got up early on Monday morning, packed the car and was on the road by 7:45. I arrived in Coburn, PA located on Penn’s Creek at about 12:30. There is a fly shop in Coburn which is why I stopped there. I wanted to find out where I should fish and get the right flies. Locally tied flies are best because the same bugs can vary in size and color from one watershed to another. For example, the crain flies on Pens Creek are brown and the crain flies on Spring Creek are white. A subtle detail like that can mean the difference between a great day on the water and bag full of skunks. I bought some flies and a dry fly box (with compartments) and got directions to some good places to fish on both Pens Creek and Spring Creek. I was planning to fish Pens all afternoon and evening and Spring Creek in the morning before I left town. The guys at the fly shop were knowledgeable and helpful. I bought each life stage (nymph, emerger, dun and spinner) for sulfurs and mMarchbrowns. I also got a couple of crain flies and scuds (tiny fresh water shrimp). The guys at the fly shop suggested I would need a wading staff. I looked at what they had to offer and thought about buying the cheap one, a tree branch fashioned into a staff with a rope to tie to your wading belt. $20.00 for a stick… I couldn’t do it. I was going to a state forest, I figured I could pick up a stick and use some rope I had in the car; it wasn’t worth the money.
Armed with the right flies and directions I headed to the river. While I had some typed directions on a handout from the fly shop, the map of the area I had lacked important details. I drove off down river along a road that ran parallel to the water. I was paying more attention to the water than the road and got lost. I was turned around and decided to ask a local for directions. As it turned out I was on the wrong side of the mountain. I turned around and headed for the road that went over the mountain.
I found the road I was looking for and headed up the mountain. It quickly went from a paved road to a gravel road that twisted and turned up the mountain. The ride over the mountain was a beautiful, but a little scary as the road was narrow, steep and didn’t have guard rails at the turns. If you went off the road, you went down the mountain. I finally found the park I was looking for. I parked the car geared up and decided to head for some sexy looking pocket water near the campground parking lot since it was right there. I had spent the last five hours in the car and had gotten lost; I just wanted to fish. I didn’t want to walk to the “good water” my buddy suggested to me in Cleveland
I worked my way down river and hooked up right away. I lost the fish, but I thought this was a good sign (dejavoux?). I continued to fish down and had a second hook up and again I lost the fish. There were definitely fish in the water and they were hitting my flies, but I could put one in my net. I saw a perfect looking pocket that I just knew held a trout. If I were a trout, that’s where I would be. I passed up some inside water in favor of this pocket. I drifted my fly into the pocket and I had a solid hook up, I had a fish on. It ran down stream, jumped a few times, and then dove under a rock. I had to work the fish out from under the rock carefully so I wouldn’t break it off. It took some finesse, but I got the fish out and into the net. The fish was caught on a March brown nymph. I caught this first fish in the first ten minutes and had two other hook ups. I figured this was good water. I fished through the rest of the pocket water near the parking lot with no other hookups.
It was time to head to the good water my guide friend suggested. I had to walk up the mountain about a half mile to an old railroad bridge and railroad tunnel. The state has turned the old bridge and tunnel into a walking trail over the river and through the mountain to the sections of Pens Creek on far side of the mountain. The water under the bridge had a nice riffle and run into a good pool on the down river side of the bridge. The air was full of sulfurs. I didn’t see any fish rising so I fished the riffle and run with nymphs. I had no luck so I packed it up and walked on through the tunnel.
I got to the far side of the mountain and began to walk down to the river. I saw another angler crossing the river; he looked like my friend so I walked on down to say hello. It turned out to be some guy from Jersey and not my buddy; I was unable to tell from a distance. I talked to the guy from Jersey for a moment. He was nice enough to tell me a little about the water up river. He pointed out where the special regulation area began (defined by a wire stretched across the river). I walked down and began fishing from there.
I worked down from the wire through some fast pocket water and riffles. I didn’t have any action so I decided to walk down stream to see what the water looked like and get a lay of the land so I knew where to be in a couple hours as darkness set in. After the riffled pocket water was a long slow pool. The pool had a nice rocky bottom. I figured this would be a good area at dark. I walked back up to the pocket water and fished the water I had walked by earlier going upstream. I hooked up with a decent brownie in a nice deep pocket. I hooked this fish on a sulphur nymph. I fished up stream for a while with no more action.
As dusk began to approach I switched leaders and tied on a sulphur dun with a sulphur emerger as a dropper. I walked down to the pool I scouted earlier in the afternoon and found a few other anglers and basically no fish rising (only one or two her and there). I was a disappointed that this pool was void of rising fish. I really expected it to be “boiling” with risers. I walked back up stream thinking I’d go back through the tunnel to the bridge where I saw all the sulphurs in the air before. As I was walking back I saw a fish rise here and there. A couple of times I got in the water to cast at the rising fish while I was walking back towards the tunnel to get to the other side of the mountain where the bridge was. One of the risers I decided to cast at jumped out of the water between my drifts, it was huge! I continued to cast at this fish, but it stopped rising. I think I put it down so I moved on. I crossed the river to get to the tunnel, I climbed the hill and there was no tunnel where it should have been. I walked back down to the stream and looked around and headed up river a bit, then down river a bit; I couldn’t find the tunnel! It was just before dark and I was lost! I kept my cool, I saw a cabin so I walked over to it to see if I could get some direction, but no one was home. I looked around and then at the map. I realized I must have walked too far up stream from the special regs section before I crossed to look for the tunnel. I walked back down stream past the area I had just fished for the big riser and found the special reg wire; I crossed the river and headed up the hill to find the tunnel. Boy was I relieved when I found that tunnel. As I came out on the other side, it had gotten pretty dark. There were only 5-10 more minutes to fish before it got too dark. I saw a couple of fish rising down stream of the bridge and got in the water to cast at them. I hit a drop off and went in up to my chest, uncomfortable close to the top of my waders. I moved up river to a more shallow position from which to cast at these fish. I made a few casts with no luck at all. It was now too dark to see my line. I pulled out the head lamp and packed up to walk back to the car.
I made the long walk down the mountain to the parking lot and geared down. I drove back the way I came which was tough in the dark, but I made it back to State College in about an hour. I drove into town and had no idea where the hotel was. I stopped at a Sheetz station and asked. The people at the gas station were worthless and weren’t able to offer me any direction. I called the hotel and they were able to direct me. I was on the right street, but I was on the South East side of town and the hotel was on the North West side of town. I had to drive al the way through to get there. I stopped across from the Penn State
