Big Spring Creek, Cumberland Co., 2/19/22

[dc410]

Cabin fever got the best of me this morning so I got up early and took a drive over to Big Spring Creek. I fished about 2 hours - mid morning. It was overcast and the air temp was 24 degrees when I arrived. The water temperature was running about 49. I really didn’t see many fish. They must have been hiding under the weedbeds. The fishing was challenging to say the least - but certainly not surprising for Big Spring. I fished the same tandem nymph rig the whole time (too cold to change things up unless I was forced to). I had a size 16 Tungsten Surveyor on the point with a size 16 Shenk’s Cressbug on the dropper. I finally managed to shake off the skunk with a pretty little native brookie that appeared to be offspring from the 2020 spawning season. The brookie ate the Cressbug. I battled ice build-up in my tip top most of the time I was fishing. I’m always amazed at the amount of Cressbugs and scuds in this stream when you examine a handful of vegetation. Cressbugs ranging in size from 18 up to 12, maybe even some as big as size 10. As the morning moved along the wind started to increase making the fishing even a bit more challenging. I found myself doing a lot more exploring and a lot less fishing as the wind continued to get stronger. It was surely not a great day catching fish, however it was a very enjoyable winter morning to spend on a great stream.

 

[Zipper]

It's a bonus to get out this time of the year. Good on you.

 

[Dave_W]

Nice report John.
Big Spring has some very large cress bugs for some reason.

 

[troutbert]

Lots of large cress bugs is usually an indicator of organic enrichment.

 

[Mike]

Cress bugs feed detritus, periphyton, microscopic algae, small invertebrates, decaying vegetation, fungi, and bacteria, so it is no surprise to find many and large cress bugs in streams with high biomasses of water cress, short, fine “hairs” of filamentous algae growing on the cress, and because of the density of cress, the high amount of detritus beneath the cress.

I once (1977 I think) did a trout egg survival study in Big Spring using Vibert Boxes when I was working in Fisheries Management’s Coldwater (trout) Unit out of Pleasant Gap. Dead eggs would gradually disappear and few fungus surrounded dead eggs could be found. There were just those few fungus surrounded eggs and live eggs in the boxes, but the total wasn’t close to the 150 that had been placed in each. The boxes were full of cress bugs and I surmised that dead eggs were quickly in large part consumed by the cress bugs. Years later I found out that I was probably right based on a research paper that I read. Following my study I suggested that the hatchery try stocking cress bugs in a few egg development trays to see if the cress bugs would be able to replace the hand picking of dead eggs from the trays, a laborious but necessary process to prevent fungus attacks on still viable eggs. They never took me up on it.