Pocono Creek

[bradtheflyfisherman]

Curious about this stream up around Bartonsville and Stroudsburg in NE PA. I've read it has a native population of brown trout. I was coming back from another stream and decided to stop yesterday to scope it out...it was littered with garbage and trash (not surprised because it sits next to 611 and route 80, but it seemed like A LOT). Some great looking deep pocket pools. Fished it for roughly 30-45 minutes as it was starting to get dark and I wanted to get home...but no luck, not even bite using a wooly bugger first and then a pheasant tail with a rainbow warrior trailing off.

Better to fish it in the spring/summer? Or should I avoid altogether?

 

[Nymph-wristed]

There is a stocked area down near where it and McMichaels meet that is in public park in Stroudsburg (at least the legal parking is) and some of the creek runs right by/through the Pocono Outlets along 611 and 80, so trash is sadly a given. Though there is a lot of posted water, I have caught fish near Big Pocono, and all the tribs up there hold fish, wild and native fish, not just the special regs brookie stream where they seem stunted I believe work was done recently up that way by TU because Pocono was wide, shallow and silted. They are in there, but not everywhere and not everywhere with public access. A freestoner in winter is going to be hit or miss even in mild weather, but if you found access, it is worth a try when water is warmer and bugs more active. There are so many little wild trout creeks in the SGLs around there that I bounce around if one is not producing.

 

[bradtheflyfisherman]

I fished it from Warner Road and down a little bit, so not too far down from the outlets. I could see the stream must have gone in several different directions at some point when the water was super high - and there was still water flowing out of the main stem into smaller little streams that all eventually met back up into the main section as I was walking down it. I expected to see some trout cornered in some of these deep pocket holes along these other smaller streams but I didn't see a thing. From what I could see, when it rises very high it basically runs right along side 611 picking up all the trash, grime and silt that lies to the side of the road.

Next time I go I plan on going much farther upstream by Camelback mountain, and when it is much warmer with at least some surface action.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Yeah, up by Camelback/Big Pocono is where there is a lot of posted land. of course...

 

[lycoflyfisher]

I spent a summer electrofishing around the poconos with TU during college. This creek does not ring a bell, but it was amazing the wild brown trout that we observed in streams that ran adjacent to highways and were filled with trash. Access to many streams in that area can be difficult to say the least unless you are on public ground.