The stream is a beautiful spring fed creek with sexy riffles, pocket water, and short shallow runs. This is the kind of tout stream that dreams are made of. The State of Pennsylvania has classified Spring Creek as a Class A trout stream, which means the water is clean and the fish are wild.
Wild trout are much more cunning and difficult to catch than stocked trout. I walked up river a bit, to where I thought I could begin wading. I fished a nice riffle where I saw a fish rise on the far side of the stream. I tied on a simple fly, which I tied the night before I left, that was known to be productive on Spring Creek called Walt’s Worm (recommended by the article). I caught a fish right away on Walt’s Worm. I continued to fish this section catching two more fish and losing a couple more. Both of these fish were caught on an olive scud pattern (tiny fresh water shrimp). I began to move up stream and had a couple of more hook ups in the skinny water, but lost the fish. As I moved up stream I continued to spook fish that were resting in the slow shallow water at the edge of the bank.
I continued to fish up stream when a park ranger stopped to tell me I was wading in the no wading section. Oops! After apologizing to the ranger, he told me where I could begin wading. So I waked up river to where there was a wood sign that stated that wading was permitted past that point. The river in the section where you could begin to wade was slow and flat. It seemed like the State left the crappy water for wading fisherman. I fished a slow, slow run that was worthless and decided to continue up river. I turned the bend and found a beautiful wild looking trout stream with many excellent riffles and runs in succession. I fished up river through each riffle and run to the next. I spooked many more fish in the process. These wild brownies were quite easily spooked and weary of the fly. The fishing was defiantly better earlier. I was beginning to think I may not catch any more fish before I was going to leave at noon or so. I had about another 45 minutes to fish and I was getting near the end of the nice section of water where the river turned slow again. I thought to my self, it has to be here or it’s not going to be since I didn’t have the time to walk further up river. I was at the second last set of riffles, but they were much sexier looking than the last set. I just had a feeling about this spot. I fished the riffle on river right, nothing. I really expected a fish there. The way I was looking at it the riffle on river left was the end of it. I fished from the bottom of the run up into the white water at the head of the rifle and there was nobody home. I decided to give the far side of the head of the riffle, closest to the bank, a drift or two before moving up to fish the last riffle (which I had little faith in). BAM, fish on!! I hooked a beautiful brownie that leaped out of the water the way you hope a trout will jump. It went on a strong run ripping line off the reel making the drag scream. I wrangled the fish in and bagged this trout for a pic. It was a beautiful 14” wild brownie. I got a great pic of this fish.
For me this was the trophy fish of the trip. It may have been of the largest fish of the trip, but it was definitely the largest wild fish I caught on this trip. It began to rain and it was about time to go so I headed back to the car. I saw an angler getting geared up in the parking lot; I stopped to talk to him. He was from nearby in Milesburg, but he moved away and now lived in New Jersey. He mentioned another creek near Milesburg that I’ll have to check out next time. I geared down, packed the car and headed for I-80 to get home in time for a work related dinner event. As I drove the rain turned to snow and traffic got slow. The snow had fallen about an inch think at the highest point in the mountains (actually the highest elevation East of the Mississippi at 2250 feet above sea level).
The drive took about an hour longer than it should have so I had to drive straight to dinner, but I made it on time. I was wearing jeans, flip flops and a base ball cap, not to mention, I hadn’t shaved in days; I was hardly prepared for a work event, but I made it. My trip was over and it was awesome. I am so glad I took my buddy’s advice and just went!
