Brookies on Penns?

PennKev

PennKev

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Last spring I was fishing Penns in the Poe Paddy area and caught a 6" brookie. I didn't think too much of it at the time as Penns is not a familiar creek for me. However, I never hear about anyone else catching them there. How rare is it to catch a brook trout in Penns?

Kev
 
It is rare, but it does happen time to time. When it gets too warm they simply go back to their feeder stream homes or to the area adjacent to where the cooler feeder stream empties into Penns.
 
Swift Run and Panther Run flow in not far below Poe Paddy, and both are brookie streams. So it's not unusual to catch brookies in that area. Overall though, there aren't many brookies in Penns.
 
I caught an 11" brookie in some heavy water in the C&R area a few years back.
 
Last time I was at the Feathered Hook (october) a man came in with a picture of a @12" brookie taken near the shop.
 
Yeah, I've caught them pretty frequently where Swift comes in. You can catch them right in the flow where the clear water mixes with the turbid Penn's water. The colder the water, the better the chance you will catch brookies scattered about the region where brookie kricks come in.

Syl
 
Penns Creek is stocked down to Coburn. And there is some private water on Elk/Pine not far above Coburn. So it wouldn't be a surprise if people picked up a stocked brookie now and again.
 
I caught a 6-7 inch brookie where a feeder comes into Penn's in the C&R area last May. I too wondered the same thing.

The brookie was taking up residence close to a medium sized brown. (after I missed the brown- of course) Wondered how long the brown trout was going to put up with the competition.

Made on-line reservations for Poe Paddy yesterday!
 
There is no doubt wild brookies down thru the C&R stretch of Penns. Some years you catch more than others - - which I'd venture to guess is prolly the norm.
 
I've caught them between Poe Paddy and Ingleby. A stretch with no significant feeders. There are a lot of cool seeps along the stream that could help a few get by the summer heat.

BTW someone mentioned stocking on Pine, the upper Pine has a good population of Brookies. Elk used to but the upper section went completely dry this summer. So it may be a while comming back.
 
PennKev,
I too have caught them in Penns and once even on Spring! In our neck of the woods, I've caught natives in some very surprising places. Most recently I was fishing Laurel Hill creek in a section that warms up drastically in the summer and caught 3 brookies, the largest was not even 6 inches. I've also caught them in Indian Creek in the Laurel Highlands. And near some unnamed tribs on Jacobs Creeek. I suspect native brookies migrate more extensively and regularly than anybody realizes. I'm wondering if there have beeen regional studies on the migration of native brook trout?

rising fish always
schrec
 
"I suspect native brookies migrate more extensively and regularly than anybody realizes. I'm wondering if there have beeen regional studies on the migration of native brook trout? "

Makes ya wonder if a stong population of brown trout didn't now inhabit spring, fishing, penns, and countless other streams, if brookies would have taken back over (if managed correctly)?
 
My experiences have told me that brookies migrate in and out of big streams, generally during the period after spawning into large streams. Then in the late spring from those same big streams to the tributaries where they spawn. There are many streams where brookies are resident that you can't find them during the winter. Then during the spring they show up in their normal haunts. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
I've had the very same experiences.
 
I too have caught them in Penns and once even on Spring!

There are two hatcheries on Sprng Creek, so it is pretty common to catch hatchery brookies. But I live near the stream, have fished it quite a lot, and know many others who fish it regularly, and I'm pretty confident in saying that there is no brook trout population in Spring Creek.
 
There is not supposed to be brook trout, but isn't there class a brookie streams that feed spring. So, anything's possible, right?

Although, I agree with the hatchery theory. You are more likely to catch a wild rainbow than brookie out of spring.
 
MKern wrote:
There is not supposed to be brook trout, but isn't there class a brookie streams that feed spring. So, anything's possible, right?

Although, I agree with the hatchery theory. You are more likely to catch a wild rainbow than brookie out of spring.

Galbraith Gap Run (which flows by the ski area near Boalsburg) is a small stream with brook trout, and its a tributary to Spring Creek in the far headwaters, above Boalsburg. That is many miles even above Lemont, and quite a ways further above where most people fish Spring Creek, i.e. from Benner Spring to the mouth. And Galbraith Gap Run goes down a sinkhole before it reaches Spring Creek. So it's pretty disconnected.

Roaring Run is also a small stream that holds brook trout. It's a tributary to Slab Cabin Run, but it also goes down a sink hole before reaching it. And it's a long way from there down Slab Cabin Run to Spring Creek. Slab Cabin Run is a limestone stream that holds brown trout, not brook trout.

The other tributaries to Spring Creek are all brown trout streams, not brook trout streams.
 
troutbert,
I agree with you that ther isn't brookies in spring 100%. I'm just saying that anything is possible.....anything.
 
I caught the small brookie (5 to 6 inches) in Spring imediately above Lemont. This was back in the early 80's. It was not a hatchery fish. It was a native brookie. Back then, the stretch immediately above town was an open meadow. That's where I caught it. It was small water. (I'm not sure about now since I haven't fished it in 25 years.) I'll never forget it because of its coloration, the blue halos around the red dots were very prominent. I'm pretty sure it was early spring.

rising fish always
schrec
 
schrec wrote:
I caught the small brookie (5 to 6 inches) in Spring imediately above Lemont. This was back in the early 80's. It was not a hatchery fish. It was a native brookie. Back then, the stretch immediately above town was an open meadow. That's where I caught it. It was small water. (I'm not sure about now since I haven't fished it in 25 years.) I'll never forget it because of its coloration, the blue halos around the red dots were very prominent. I'm pretty sure it was early spring.

rising fish always
schrec

When Flyfishers Paradise was in Lemont, Steve & Dan mentioned that they used to catch brookies occasionally in the Lemont area. I think they said they caught some occasionally into the 1970s and maybe even early 1980s. But they told me around the late 1980s or early 1990s that they hadn't caught any in recent years, and believed that they are gone.

The water above Lemont is cleaner and colder than the lower parts of the creek, so that's apparently where a remnant population hung on the longest.

I'd like to think that they're still some there, but I'm pretty certain that they're gone now, sad to say. If you get it into Flyfisher's Paradise sometime, ask Steve Sywensky. He knows more about it than I do.

If you run into Joe Humphreys at a show or something, ask him about it too. I also remember him talking about catching brookies in Lemont, "back in the day."
 
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