Laurels+North Central Flows & Temps?

CinnamonJoe

CinnamonJoe

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Aug 15, 2025
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MOUNT VERNON
I'm headed home next Thurs; and will be boots on the ground thru the Independence Day weekend. Home base is the Ebensburg area (New Germany) and I hope to fish close-in streams off the Allegheny Front, as well as hit some further away/camp for the nite while I'm back.

'Laurels+North Central' could be considered an unusual PA portfolio of streams, but I could not come up with a better description of the area I will be focusing on?

I haven't watched your weather too closely, so am curious how the streams are holding up as we turn the curve into summer?

General area of interest:

A big triangle formed by the cities of Bedford, Dushore, Warren.

I know that's a huge chunk of PA real estate LOL.

Joe
 
I live in Potter County and we've had enough rain that stream flows are actually pretty good for this time of year, but I can't honestly say that I've taken a temperature reading lately. I've never liked the 67 degree figure that everyone throws around as being safe (I think 62-65 is more realistic, especially for brookies), and I'd have to think we're pretty close to the "no go" point right now. I might run down to the stream in the next day or so to check.
 
I agree. Most years, we end up coming out in late June - early July; and that water temp can tell the story.

Looking my notes from last year (early July 2025), I found low-60s on high-gradient, high elevation small streams coming off the Allegheny Front under heavy forest canopy just west of Altoona that fished well. On the same day, Bob's creek, a bit lower in elevation, in the lower Class-A section near Pavia, was pushing upper 60s. Stressed palominos were seen headed upstream from the lower stocked water. In that lower Class-A section natives were hugging the bottom of deeper pools, and not very interested in eating anything I threw at them. 65-68°F water temps. I left after a couple hours and fished the cooler water streams higher up the ridge.

Joe
 
There is no way to predict stream flows 2 weeks in advance. This is especially true on freestone streams, and especially in the summer.

The flows depend mostly on recent rain. We're in "storm chaser" season now.
 
troutbert said:
There is no way to predict stream flows 2 weeks in advance. This is especially true on freestone streams, and especially in the summer.

The flows depend mostly on recent rain. We're in "storm chaser" season now.
Click to expand...

Just looking for general, seasonal info: are they lower than usual, higher, etc based on historical anecdotal experience.

Joe
 
For the Northcentral region - does a summer storm generally bring cooler temps in addition to a bump in flows?

Where I am in the SE (heavily developed) summer rains tend to warm the trout streams, because of runoff from blacktop and roads. So when the flows might be ideal for trout fishing, the temps generally aren’t.

Wondering if the same would be true for the headwaters of Kettle, Pine, etc.
 
nd1001 said:
For the Northcentral region - does a summer storm generally bring cooler temps in addition to a bump in flows?

Where I am in the SE (heavily developed) summer rains tend to warm the trout streams, because of runoff from blacktop and roads. So when the flows might be ideal for trout fishing, the temps generally aren’t.

Wondering if the same would be true for the headwaters of Kettle, Pine, etc.
Click to expand...
It depends on what's upstream pond, lake, parking lot/town. I've seen in years past temps go down in summer after storms. NWPA has been getting hammered for the past few weeks every week a storm front with high winds an rain.
 
nd1001 said:
For the Northcentral region - does a summer storm generally bring cooler temps in addition to a bump in flows?

Where I am in the SE (heavily developed) summer rains tend to warm the trout streams, because of runoff from blacktop and roads. So when the flows might be ideal for trout fishing, the temps generally aren’t.

Wondering if the same would be true for the headwaters of Kettle, Pine, etc.
Click to expand...
Ditto on the warming effect of heavy summer run-off in developed areas. We have a spring-fed limestoner here in Iowa that runs right through the middle of Cedar Rapids, 5min from my office. Unfortunately, even its cold springs can't keep up with a deluge of warm, summer run-off from storm drains; some yrs we get fish kills from such situations. They have done a tremendous job controlling the run-off, retarding & diverting it to puprose built wetlands adjacent the freeway, etc, but if we get more than 3" of rain all at once (which can happen) even all that environmental/civil engineering has a hard time keeping up with it.

Joe
 
nd1001 said:
For the Northcentral region - does a summer storm generally bring cooler temps in addition to a bump in flows?

Where I am in the SE (heavily developed) summer rains tend to warm the trout streams, because of runoff from blacktop and roads. So when the flows might be ideal for trout fishing, the temps generally aren’t.

Wondering if the same would be true for the headwaters of Kettle, Pine, etc.
Click to expand...
No, the same would not be true of headwaters of Kettle, not sure about The Pine, ect.
 
In the undeveloped forested (freestone) regions of PA, the rain ends up soaking into the ground, which cools it and discharges it via springs, albeit much smaller springs than in limestone areas where seemingly the whole stream (or at least a significant portion of it) pops out at once. So yes, rain in Summer generally cools the streams in these areas, in addition to adding flow. The higher the flows, the more resistant the stream is to warming to air temps too. More water takes longer to warm. So you get a few days afterward where the stream holds its temperature better too.

“Rain is a good thing.” I think somebody made a lot of money off a song about that.
 
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