Codorus Creek (TT section), York County, 26/Jan/17

[wgmiller]

I made it out for a few hours yesterday on the "Trophy Trout" section in Porters Sideling. Fished upstream of Thoman Road and also poked around the Sawmill area. Water temp was 44 with very little bug activity. The wind picked up and started to drop small branches, so I wrapped up my fishing around noon or so. The water level is as low now as I've ever seen it, which makes sense given the low level of the lake. I fished a tandem scud/PT rig and only managed one "dink". The low and clear conditions coupled with bright sun made for some tough fishing. Hopefully we get some precipitation and flow returns to the creek.

 

[Maurice]

Geo,

Flow yesterday around noon was 40ish CFS Thats low...but today its 20CFS, YIKES!

Fritz and I were there a couple weeks ago after a decent rain and the water was up a bit and falling (68CFS) and had a little color. We each picked up a handful on small nymphs(zebra midges) but I was able to find entice a couple on a conehead sculpin bugger I tie. (just a fat wolly bugger tied with a variegated chenille.

I apologize for piggybacking your report.

 

[wgmiller]

No need to apologize for piggybacking my report since you were there fairly recently :lol: . Nice to see you got into a few. I can't image 20 CFS after I saw what 40 looked like yesterday! I know there are bigger fish in there, but they know where to hide in the skinny water.

Where are you picking up the flows from? The USGS gauge: https://waterdata.usgs.gov/pa/nwis/uv?site_no=01574500 ?

 

[Maurice]

yes thats it.

 

[SteveG]

Thanks for posting the gauge info. I couldn't find it previously, and that stream is very Jekyll&Hyde depending on flow.

 

[wgmiller]

In looking closer at the gauge, it appears as though it's downstream of the PH Glatfelter plant, which is below their impoundment. In essence, this shouldn't give an accurate reading as to the flow of Codorus Creek in Porters, should it? This gauge seems to be reading the tailwater of Glatfelter's impoundment.

 

[Maurice]

Geo, thats an interesting observation, I've always found the gage to be representative of the realized flow when visiting. I am not sure of the extraction method but I am pretty sure the creek is not impounded down there.

If its a pump intake to replenish ponds it likely represents less than a couple cfs at any given time.

I wonder if CodorusTom can shed light on this?

 

[Shaner]

yes the gauge is Way below the TT section. However you can use it to gauge the water up stream. Many gauges aren't where you fish(penns is well downstream) Feeding the gauge at spring grove is Codorus creek-upstream of tailwater, west baranch codorus-lake tailwater, porters creek, oil creek, bunch creek, and all the UNT's. So when its 20CFS you can bet its low!

 

[wgmiller]

It's definitely impounded just upstream of the gauge. Kinda cool that there seems to be a correlation between flow up and downstream of the gauge. That's interesting given the fact that it's downstream of the impoundment and is fed by a number of different of sources (as noted).

 

[CodorusTUTom]

Shaner is correct that a lot of tribs flow in between the dam and the gauge, so they all factor in. Generally speaking though, if you see a big spike on the gauge, chances are the section upstream in Porters is up as well.

The plant itself also withdraws a lot of water, and that shows up on the gauge too. That's why there's all those little ticks you see on the graph instead of the smoother curve you see on other gauges.

The mill is required (by a permit and the SRBC) to maintain a minimum flow, and they do that. That's where it is now, because of the long term deficit in precip and resulting lake levels. This makes the fishing more difficult, but the trout easily adjust. While the spawn was late, there were plenty of redds, so that's good.

Like so many other PA streams, the solution right now is more precip. Fingers crossed.