Honey Creek; Mifflin County; 03/01/19

[jifigz]

Air Temp: right around 32°
Water Temp: roughly 38°

I fished from roughly 2:30 until about 3:45. The stream had great flows and was clear. Deeper pools had a nice greenish tint to it. I saw no activity. I did not see a bug in the air. I fished a stretch that I'm not particularly fond of but I found 6 willing wild brown trout in my hour or so of fishing. It was an equal split between Caddis larva and sucker spawn (a light orange.) All fish caught were right around 10 inches or so. I have pics to attach but for some reason these won't compress small enough.

Of particular interest is in the park just out of town from Reedsville (not Bender Park) there were 4 brand new looking signs. They all read "Honey Creek" on top and then identified a fish. It also identified which fish were native to the drainage and which were not. They were the Brook Trout, White Sucker, American Well, and Brown Trout. It clearly stated that 3 of the 4 were native and the brown trout sign obviously said that it wasn't, but that sign did emphasize the word wild. The brown trout sign stated that they dominated the stream. They were a nice touch. Good work PFBC.

 

[Acristickid]

Is that they delayed harvest area?

It’s listed as a Class A but the stream also gets stocked- get confused on the regs as stocked waters are closed to angling starting 3-1.

 

[jifigz]

acristickid wrote:
Is that they delayed harvest area?

It’s listed as a Class A but the stream also gets stocked- get confused on the regs as stocked waters are closed to angling starting 3-1.

No, it isn't the stocked area. And delayed harvest sections are open year round. That part of honey Creek isn't even really worth fishing in my opinion. Honey Creek farther downstream re-emerges from a cave and is a fertile limestone influenced stream full of wild browns.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Thanks for report and the signage update. I don't know if they work, but I like seeing them on the Bushkill closer to home.

 

[Clayton]

Interestingly, I also fished Honey on 3/1. I’m guessing that I was a little upstream of where jifigz was, but recorded similar air and water temps. I was nymphing with a heavy stonefly nymph and a sucker spawn off the tag, catching an equal amount on each. My bites came from deeper, slow current seems stereotypical of winter lies. I also hooked a sucker that had me excited for a few moments. Not a lot of fish were brought to hand, but not bad for the cold temps.