Ft Indiantown Gap Fishing

[lycoflyfisher]

I am going to be at the Gap for a training all next week, would like to fish an evening or 2. Looks like the manada creek dhalo is my closest option that is open to fishing right now. There appears to be some wild trout water in sgl 211. Not sure how accessible those streams would be for a shorter evening session. Looking to hear if anyone has experience fishing the manada creek section, what type of water/ habitat is present or if anyone has experience with wild trout streams nearby. Just looking for a way to kill the evenings being away from home for the week.

 

[Swattie87]

Manada’s DHALO has some wild fish in addition to the stockers. It’s decent enough water. Typical mountain freestoner. On the bigger end of what I’d still call “small.” Can be very popular in the month of March with the ATW’s closed though. IR right on the base is smaller, but generally better than Manada IMO, but as you note it’s an ATW and currently closed. Both are fished hard early season after the opener.

SGL 211 streams are generally acidic. That northern ridge to Stony Valley was heavily mined. I believe Rattling Run (Stony trib) is completely dead. The others all become too acidic once you get far enough up into their headwaters, but the eastern end ones have some small Brookies in them further down. Of note, they all require a decent hike, or bike ride, to get to them. Not sure if your time constraints in the evenings will make those viable options or not. Nice area to explore with some cool history though.

Stony itself clearly has fish, but is also an ATW, and also closed now.

 

[salvelinus]

Actually Stony is an ATW open to fishing year round, since it is not stocked pre-season.

http://pfbc.pa.gov/fishpub/summaryad/yearround.html

 

[klingy]

Yeah, Stony is open, but I'm guessing has about 15-18 inches of new snow in the valley. Since you've gotta hike in to get to the year-round water, be ready for an adventure in a pretty isolated place.

Manada is a nice stream for that area. As stated above, pretty typical freestone stream. If it warms up at all, snowmelt might put them down.

Not sure exactly how much time you have in the evening, but you could be on the letort in about 45-50 mins. Limestoners might fish better than the freestoners in that area next week. Just a suggestion.

 

[Swattie87]

salvelinus wrote:
Actually Stony is an ATW open to fishing year round, since it is not stocked pre-season.

http://pfbc.pa.gov/fishpub/summaryad/yearround.html

Good call, never noticed that.

 

[Biggie]

You could drive to Annville and hit the Quitty right in town.DHALO in QUitty park. Only 10 min drive from the gap.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Sounds like Mandata might be the way to go. It doesn't look like we will have any significant melting atleast into early next week. Id like to keep drive time pretty short since I won't be free until 5. Clark's creek isn't too far either if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Swattie87]

Yeah, Clarks isn't all that far as the crow flies, but problem is you gotta drive around the mountains to get to it from FIG. Either 443 west out to the river or up over Gold Mine Rd. on the eastern end.