Spent 3 long days on Penns. Each day was spent in the gorge between Winters Pool and the tunnel at Poe Paddy. Water low for this time of year, but I've seen it considerably lower at summer levels. Water cold, low to mid 50's. Each day we we got on the water early afternoon and stayed till well after dark, comin out by flashlight.

Overall, Penns was excellent to us. In normal Penns fashion, the fish would turn on and off like someone threw a switch. But in very un-Penns like fashion, they weren't picky. You find a riser, you WERE going to get him to at least hit, and there were times where you had one fish after another both underneath and on top. Some of the fish were big, multiples in the 15 inch class, and I had one that was probably 17 or 18 inches. Of course, I didn't get a pic of that one, I lifted him to admire him, then put him back in the water to get the camera out, and he threw the hook.

Thursday - the warmest of the 3 days, light drizzle by evening. Tons of hatching sulphers, then they dwindled and the March Browns started. Then when that stopped a March Brown spinner fall, then a sulpher spinner fall. This was the best day of the bunch. Both me and my buddy ended up in the mid-teens, and it shoulda been higher if not for shaking the rust off with bad knots and such.

Friday - Cold and sunny. Hatches weren't as intense, spinner falls essentially absent. We spent the day huntin risers and didn't do too well, ended up at 2 each. Though I started nymphing the pocket water during the hatch, and lost like 5 that way, just wasn't my day.

Saturday - Even colder, and cloudy. My buddy hunted risers and picked up one at dusk. I started by nymphing the day away in the heaviest pocket water I could find. No luck until the March Browns started hatching, where I picked up 8 on March Brown nymphs pretty quickly, including some of the big ones. I picked up 2 more working the banks with rusty spinners at dusk to end up at 10, though the spinner fall was very light.

It was a great 3 days!

http://s58.photobucket.com/albums/g25 ... 2012/?albumview=slideshow

Nice post and pics Pat. Glad you had a few good days up there. Wish I coulda joined you guys. Love some of those Browns with the sparse spot patterns.

Well, I was tempted to do a brookie outing with you and k-bob. In a bit of irony, the first fish I caught on Penns was a wild brookie, lol. I caught a smallie on Thursday and a second brookie on Sat. The rest were browns.

The joke of the trip was "RUSTY SPINNERS!". Coming out one of the nights, in pitch black, we met two guys by the tunnel. They didn't have their fishing gear, just had walked through because that was the only place they had cell service. They told us they were fishing earlier, and fish were rising all around them but they couldn't figure out what they wanted. Figuring we were helping some newbies, we told them rusty spinners was the key. Later, right as we said our goodbyes, the one said something that made me realize they were spinner fishermen! They probably were wonderin why they had to be rusty, lol. I half expected them to soak some rooster tails in salt water that night.

P.S. The Siglerville-Millheim pike was closed between Coburn and Poe Valley. Looked temporary, putting a new base on the road or something, but I don't know how temporary. We came in across sand mountain so it didn't affect us.

That's funny about the "rusty spinners."

Yeah, my wife was happy I was around for her birthday...Hibachi dinner and we saw The Lucky One, which was at least watchable thanks to a cute female lead. Tried a small wild Brown stream today, but it was extremely low and cold (44 deg), and I quickly decided it just wasn't gonna happen today. Ended up on the Swatara and found some big Fallfish who were willing to provide some "pullage."

Love the pics and glad you guys had a good time but man your killing me I can't wat for for the Jam.

great write-up Pat. I was up there last weekend for 4 days as well, had the best fishing I've ever had on penns, getting into fish every evening. I was staying right next to cherry run, it was fun watching people leave the stream dejected from fishing all day and not catching much, then we would finish our beers, casually suit up and make our way to the water, to have an hour or two of the best fishing any of us have ever had. I fished into the dark each night also. we had a little action during the day, but it was nothing compared to the evenings.
yep, rusty spinners were the ticket then also!
thanks for the tip on the siglerville pike, I use that road alot. hopefully they will have it fixed in a couple weeks, though there are plenty of other routes to use.

Nice report and great pics pcray !!!!!

Great post and nice pics!

Color me jealous!

Great post.

Wonderful post and better pictures.

Very nice indeed - Penns is beautiful.