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Spring Creek
- State College, PA (Page 2 of 3)
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Continued (from Charles R. Meck - Pennsylvania Trout Streams and Thier Hatches - 2nd Edition):
Luckily, all is not lost, for the stream or for the hatches. Spring Creek has valiantly made a comeback, and three good mayfly and a couple of excellent caddis fly hatches now emerge annually. The Sulphur and Light Cahill seem to be somewhat pollution-resistent species. Both were the first two mayflies to appear on the Little Juniata after its bout with pollution, and both have returned to Spring in substantial numbers. The Sulphur appears on Spring from mid-May to mid-June. Sometimes when this species first appears in May it does so in the early afternoon. If you're lucky enough to be on the stream at that time, you can plan to fish over rising trout for several hours. Within a couple of days of its initial appearance, however, the hatch resumes its normal emergence time, after 7:00 P.M. Ths Sulphur Spinner, with its tan body, can also be important to copy. The spinner is less predectable, since it sometimes appears before the dun, sometimes after, and sometimes is of no consequence at all.
The other pollution tolerant mayfly, the Light Cahill, appears about the same time of the year as the Sulphur but usually earlier in the evening. It's an added bonus to fly-fishing Spring Creek in late May, becuase you're consistently meeting and fishing over two hatches. The Cahill is larger than the Sulphur (the Cahill is size 12 or 14, and the Sulphur is size 16) and is a harbinger of the heavier hatch to come - the Sulphur.
The Trico hatch and spinner fall are extremely predictable on Spring Creek. The middle section of the stream was almost void of this species until a few years ago, and the upper and lower sections have dependable hatches and falls. The Trico falls in heavy numbers by the second week in July and continues to do so well into September. Spinner falls of this species occur between 7:00 A.M. and 9:00 A.M. on the hotest days and from 9:00 A.M. to noon in September. On warm, muggy mornings the spinner fall often last less thana half-hour.
Don't overlook the importance of crane flies and midges on Spring Creek. You'll find the former on the water from March through September in body colors of creamish orange and tan. You can often fish over pods of trout rising to afternoon hatches from November through February. Carry a gray midge pattern in size 24 to match these important winter hatches.
There are three distinct sections of Spring Creek. The three are distinguised because of different hatches and types of water in each. The upper section, from the source above Linden Hall downstream to Houserville, is a small meadowland limestone stream. The upper section of Spring has a different makeup of hatches from the rest of the stream. It harbors a good number of Sulphurs and a healthy Trico hatch, but it also has others that are not present below. Several species of Blue-Winged Olives (Ephemerella cornuta and others) appear daily in June and July in this upper section along with several Blue Quills and several Blue Duns (Baetis tricaudatus and others). Blue Duns, or Little Blue-Winged Olives as the are also called, appear as early as March and April.
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