Get my trout!!!!!!

[mattd]

2 years ago a buddy and I spent a day on Spring Creek. We started about a mile above Fishermans paradise. It did not take long to hook into my first Spring Creek brown. He was a beauty, bout 16 inches with wonderful spots and coloring, everything I expected from such a famous stream. As I gently released him from my hand he was ambushed by a muskie about 32in. long. It scarred the crap out of me. After about jumping out of my waders, I got myself together and started fighting in the trouts defense. I jumped back off the rock and kicked at the muskie. There was quite a bit of silt where I was and the water became chocolate milk in seconds and they both dissappeared for good. I am sure most of you have spent some time on this stream. Has this happened to any one else on spring or any other stream? I can't believe that this fish would be smart enough to wait for a trout to be caught and attack it when it is dazed and slow after its release. I have a feeling it wasn't the first time this muskie has done that.

 

[shipnfish2006]

Last year while spin fishing for perch I got one about 5-6 inches, too small to keep for me and I threw it back in and I watched it slowly start to swim off when out of no where a big bass can up and just inhaled it. I watch the bass swim up into the shallows and I had a rig ready for bass on my other rod, I casted in and he nailed immediately, apparently the perch wasn't enough. It ended up being a 20", 5lb bass and I could still see the tail of the perch sticking from his throat, wish I would have had the camera along for that one.

My first 20" trout ever was on a chub that I was reeling in, fish was laying under a bank and just nailed it and somehow got the hook too.

 

[mattd]

The same thing also happened to me with a big brown once. He went after a 4" brookie in a very small stream. He was a stocker that came up from another stream and he had to at least 19" and i wish I could have gotten him out of there but I never saw him again. I even went back with my spinning gear and used large minnows to try and save my brookies but I had no luck. Hopefully someone got him out of there.

 

[sight_nymph_17109]

While fishing Big Spring 10+ yrs ago, I had a 4-5" brookie hooked on a cress bug. I giggled while the little fish struggled against the weight of the fly line. The laughing stopped when a 6-8 pound brown came out from the undercut bank and took my fish and half of my leader.

Matt, you actually saw a muskie near Benner Springs? wow! I helped my buddy land a 26" brown on a streamer near the hatchery during high water in the spring but I'd never imagine a musky lurking in there.

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear mattd,

Several years ago somebody posted a picture on the Flyfisher's Paradise message board of a rather large pikelike fish he caught from an unnamed central PA trout stream. He specifically targeted the fish after it had attacked a trout he caught a few days earlier.

I seem to recall the fish being a northern pike, but it might have been a musky? However, it was clear to me that the stream he caught it from was none other than Spring Creek. If I remember correctly the fish was 38 or 39 inches long.

Speculation was that it was an escapee from the Benner Spring hatchery. They do some weird stuff at that place. :-D

Regards,
Tim Murphy

 

[Fishidiot]

Your experience with a muskie in Spring Creek should not be considered uncommon. Tim is right, the fish almost certainly came from Benner Springs hatchery. Although I think they no longer raise muskies, I know they did in the eighties since I used to watch the fingerlings in the raceways. Of course these fish escaped and thrived in Spring Creek. Although muskies and tiger muskies aren't usually considered small stream fish, they often thrive in smaller creeks. I had several muskie experiences in Spring Creek in those days although none ever took a trout. There was a muskie in the Paradise in the pool below the lower bridge about 28" inches long. He usually hung out in the eddy behind the big boulder in the middle of the channel. I caught him on a Wooly Bugger one evening and discovered that he had no tail. Later that year I got him again a couple hundred yards downstream and released him again. Some buddies gave me a hard time for releasing this guy in a trout stream but I love muskies and refuse to kill 'em. Last time I checked, there was still a photo of this guy that I placed on the bulletin board at Flyfisher's Paradise. There was a much bigger one, probably 40", that was in the slack pool above the old dam by the Stackhouse parking lot. This guy usually hung out along the bank under a small willow bush. I tried repeatedly to get him on big streamer flies but he always spooked.

 

[jaybo41]

Can't say that I've had the same experiences as many of you have relayed but...

A couple of years ago my buddy and I were on our annual fising trip in the ANF and we were wading Tionesta Creek. I was wading the middle of what was a flat, more shallow area that started to gain a little depth. From a distance, I saw a "log" so I moved slightly to the right to move around it. As I got closer, I realized that this "log" was acutally a muskie! This monster had to go at least 36 inches. The girth on this fish was incredible. No wonder, Tionesta is a very heavily stocked stream. The fish never moved at all as I waded past it. The jaws and mouth on that fish looked like they could have done some serious damage.

 

[shipnfish2006]

On the subject of muskies in "odd, but makes sense" places, last year I was fishing the Yellow Breeches about 100 yards below the outflow of the Huntsdale Hatchery with a streamer and landed a 17" Tiger Musky, the problem... I didn't bring my camera because it was raining :-( So no one familiar with that area believed me, even though to me it made complete sense where the fish came from, I talked to a guy on the stream that day and he said he has seen several muskies throughout that area of the stream over the years, normally after floods.

 

[ryguyfi]

The good thing, if there is any, about the muskies is that most of the ones the game commission releases are tigers. A hybrid which is sterile. They usually put them in lakes that have a large population of panfish to weed them out and produce a better and larger population of fish. The muskies don't breed and die off eventually. I've heard of a few lakes in my area that have muskies in them and i'm anxious to get into one this year. I talked to one gentleman who fishes for them and he said that for every 2000 casts he catches 1 musky. I know they are a pain for the trout fisherman due to them gorging on trout, but you'll have that. Circle of life.

 

[mattd]

I knew that hatchery was there and I had considered that as a possibility. I did not know what type of fish they raised there. It probably was an escapee, either way it was a big surprise and I haven't had an experiance like that before.

 

[stonefly]

i was fishing the little j yesterday and caught an 8 inch brown and while reeling it in about a 25 inch brown shot out from under a rock and started to chase mine but luckily i got him in before the big brown got him