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Penns Creek
- PA (Page 2 of 5)
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Continued (from Charles R. Meck - Pennsylvania Trout Streams and Thier Hatches - 2nd Edition):
I quickly tied on a size-16 Blue-Winged Olive Dun, nervously finishing the improved clinch knot. The leader slipped out of the second loop, and I had to retie the knot. More and more duns emerged and added to the incredible number already resting on the surface. When it seemed like every trout in that section had taken my Blue-Winged imitation, I moved upstream. Ahead of me lay some moderate water with a boulder-strewn area at its head. Here maybe 15 more trout lined up in a feeding lane and fed in a frenzy on the duns. At least 10 of the trout in that stretched sucked in the dry fly. I continued upstreamfor about a half-mile, fishing every pool, riffle and pocket that harbored rising trout. Remember, while this unbelievable fly-fishing over a hatch continued, not one other person took part in the excitement-not one other fly-fisherman shared this memorable experience. Three hours, 65 trout and seven imitations later, I quit.
Not long after I worte about the preceding event on Penns Creek I received a letter from Andrew Leitzinger of Collegvile, Pennsylvania. It seems that Andrew had experienced that same memorable hatch on Penns that day 10 years ago. Andrew fished the hatch tow miles upstream from me. He wrote:
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On July 4, 1979, in the late morning after a cold rain, I fished the upper no-kill stretch of Penns Creek from the Broadwaters to the Upper Island. I found the surface covered with tine Blue-Winged Olive mayflies. I fished this stretch with a size 20 midge Adams and hooked and released 30 trout between 10 and 17 inches long. I missed many, many more. The water surface was quite broken as far as you could see with feeding fish.
I fished that day in complete solitude (I thought). I was cold, happy and alone. I can remember how my shoulders ached from so many hours, and my thumb had become tattered by the teeth of the many trout I released. I stopped fishing at about 5:00 P.M. because I had reached a state just short of exhaustion. I exalted the cold gray heavens above me and gave thanks for such a wonderful and unique gift.
So when I read your book and came across the passage on your experience at Penns Creek, I wondered what the odds were that such conditions had occured more than once on a fourth of July in the past 10 years; a cold rain, a great hatch of Blue-Winged Olives and nearly deserted stream. If our two days were separate in time, than a statistical phenomenon has occurred to be noted! But if, as I hope, those two days were one in the same, then I am glad to know that one other person was able to share the exhilaration I felt that day. Those days, when all things come together, are few and far between and should never be taken for granted.
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Andrew and I experienced the same hatch on the same stream just two miles from one another. If you're fortunate enough to hit a Blue-Winged Olive Dun under the same circumstances, do it.
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