Big Spring, Newville, Cumberland County

[GreenWeenie]

I stopped by the ditch at Big Spring Creek over the weekend and noticed the retaining wall along the opposite bank in the ditch has been removed. Why? I don't know. What use to provide nice cover now appears to be open, shallow water.

I did some digging and found the following website:

http://www.aquaticinstitute.com/

I know Big Spring Creek has had a strange history and if anyone fishes Big Spring, this site has some pretty interesting information.

 

[Fishidiot]

GW,
As a long time fisherman and observer of Big Spring - I found this site interesting (thanks for the link). The issues surrounding this creek and the best practices for future management of it, have been much debated on this site and others. I agree with much of the strong opinion and viewpoint Macri espouses, some I don't agree with. I think many of us will agree that seeing BS return to a predominately brook trout stream (which is clearly happening) is great news. His explanation for why brookies thrive in upper BS - I don't think - is really anything new: it's been common knowledge that brookies prefer to spawn in shallower water with finer substrate than browns/'bows. If this was perfectly consistent, one would expect to find wild brookies (rather than rainbows) in upper Falling Springs which is also shallow and fine grained with spring fed upwellings. Why brookies seem to like BS so well may involve other issues that remain unidentified. His prediction that browns will disappear from BS eventually due to the habitat, I am also skeptical of. While browns are declining here, I doubt they'll disappear from BS, esp anytime soon. Whatever the case, this is an interesting, informative, and thought provoking website.

 

[Chaz]

I like the part about how Big Sprng sucks and has no fish, yeah right! The problem with statements like that is; 1 people believe them, 2 they aren't true, 3 they would rather have fishing like it was when PFBC put a bunch of big hatchery hogs in the ditch and polluted the stream so bad it didn't support wild trout.
Macri is right the guides have trouble catching wild fish in limestone trout streams when all they've done is fish for rubber fish.

 

[GreenWeenie]

It appears there is a quiet movement that's starting to gather momentum to turn Big Springs into another Yellow Breeches Allenberry section. The PFBC wrecked Big Spring once and now that it is coming back around, why should anyone expect them do any differently again if given the opportunity. If you don't know exactly know what caused the collapse of the fishery in the first place, which is the public position taken by the PFBC, how can you "fix" the stream? Generally don't you need to understand the problem before you can fix it?

Everytime I'm out at Big Spring I run into more and more people who complain about how the stream has been wrecked and not wrecked from a native brook trout fishery but from a hatchery extension. There are many people who really want the "good old days" back again when they had 2000 hatchery hogs in a confined 400 foot section of stream. If no one pays attention, this is exactly what Big Springs will revert to.

There are a lot of fish in both the Ditch and the main stem but they are extremely, extremely difficult to catch, especially in the main section. The main section trout are probably more spooky than those in the Letort. But with the right fly and presentation at the Ditch you can have a very productive day but the main section is a whole different animal.