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Penns Creek
- PA (Page 3 of 5)
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Continued (from Charles R. Meck - Pennsylvania Trout Streams and Thier Hatches - 2nd Edition):
What makes Penns Creek such an excellent trout stream? Hatches? Number and size of trout? Good water conditions all year long? Beautiful scenery? Plenty of open space to fly-fish? All of the above. What fly-fisherman hasn't heard of the great Green Drake on this hallowed stream? What fly-fisherman hasn't had reports of lunkers caught during this hatch or following spinner fall? Penns Creek has received much notoriety in the last few decades, and much of it is warranted.
To many fisherman, including fly-fisherman, Penns Creek is a productive stream only until the Green Drake has finished its annual ritual, about the first week in June. Nothing could be further from the truth. You saw earlier that Penns contains some prolific, productive late-season hatches like the Blue-Winged Olive Duns in June and July. Few fly-fisherman take advantage of another late-June hatch, the Golden Drake. This mayfly (Potamanthus) appears nightly for a week on Penns near the end of June. Tricos succeed in July and August, and Slate Drakes are found well into October.
Superb fly-fishing develops early on Penns Creek. The lower section around Weikert has a decent Hendrickson hatch around April 21, and most of the stream contains a concentrated caddis fly, called the Grannom, about the same time. Joe Dougherty, of Lewisburg, has fished the Hendrickson hatch near Weikert for years. He says the hatch never gets extremely heavy, but still it brings plenty of trout to the surface. The Grannom on Penns can be as frustration and rewarding as the Cream Caddis is on Pine Creek. Thousands of caddis flies in the arie this early in the season thrill many fly-fisheran but often don't pursuade many trout into rising. Many times the air is filled with large dark grannoms on this fertile limestone stream, but no trout appear.
Penns Creek emerges from a limestone cavern at Penns Cave just a couple miles north of Spring Mills in Centre County. It is a cold, productive alkaline stream for the first five miles, but much of the water north of PA 45 is posted. From Spring Mills six miles downstream to Coburn there is access to most of the stream. The section, however, with the heaviest hatches and the largest trout is the 15-mile segment that extends from Coburn to Cherry Run.
Just upstream from Coburn, Penns is slowed by several small ponds and lacks any protective canopy. As a result, this section warms quickly. But just a few hundred yards below Coburn, a cold limestone tributary, Elk Creek, enters. Elk injects a generous amount of cold water into the main stem, creating a great trout stream for the next 20 miles.
Access to the section from Coburn to Cherry Run is limited. You can reach the upper section by driving to the old railroad tunnel about three miles below Coburn, then hiking dow to the old railroad track. Or you can enter at Ingleby from the north or Poe Paddy State Park from the sout. Access from Cherry Run section is no problem. A road parallels the creek down to Weikert. The section around Weikert is marginal.
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