Little Sandy Creek, Venango County, May 31

[greenghost]

Fished the FFO section as well as upstream for 1/4 mile or so. Warm day in the mid-80s. Water temperature 64. Water level was very low.

Caught a number of stocked rainbows upstream of the project. Caught a number of small browns, 6-7 inches, in the special regs area. All on top using ants, small Adams and gypsy moth caterpillar imitations.

NOTE: I saw exactly two caddis all day. And nothing else on the water aside from the odd gypsy moth caterpillar that dropped in from the overhanging trees. That's it... No BWOs, March Browns, Drakes, nothing. Na-da. Zilch. I hope their absence was a result of the weather, and not the water quality. But in the countless trips I've made here in all kinds of weather this was the first time I saw no bugs. And I stayed until about 8:00 pm.

Although a nice day fishing, I felt like it was a waste of gas coming all the way from Pittsburgh.

 

[TYoung]

You can't form any conclusions from one day's observations.

 

[streamerguy]

Good report. Have you by any chance fished it in the fall? And if you have, how have the fingerling browns changed since then(size, color, location, etc.)? Last time I fished it was in January.

 

[greenghost]

Streamerguy,

I did fish it once in the fall. All the fish I caught then (in the project) were near the trestle. I caught many other fish outside of the project though.

Last weekend I caught 6 inch fish pretty much through the whole project, from Rt 62 all the way up to the pump house pool. The few fingerlings I caught back then were probably around 4 inches.

Once again the stretch between the jackdams downstream of the pumphouse to the first pool above the trestle seemed void of fish.
(A couple of Merganser ducks I saw along that stretch didn't help the situation, I'm sure.)

 

[elguapogurn]

I fished the project, and upstream a short ways, with a buddy on May 29th. All I caught were those stocked fingerlings in the 8 inch range. There seemed to be a lot of them still around which was good to see. And they were both Rainbows and Browns. Also caught a wild brookie. My buddy caught what appeared to be a holdover brookie in the 10 inch range. I doubt a stream bred brookie could get that big in Little Sandy, but it had nice fins and looked like it had been in there a while. Not sure where he came from. Caught trout on Elk Hair Caddis and Beetle patters.

 

[streamerguy]

Huh, the PFBC doesn't stock brookies in Little or Big Sandy. Not sure about any clubs. I have caught 2 wild brookies out of Little Sandy one day, upstream of the FFO.

So the bows were about the size of the fingerling browns? Interesting, I know some people have caught wild bows out of there before.

 

[bikerfish]

I don't doubt a 10 inch brookie, because I've seen the size of some of the browns that are wild in that stream!!!!!

 

[greenghost]

bikerfish wrote:
I don't doubt a 10 inch brookie, because I've seen the size of some of the browns that are wild in that stream!!!!!

Yep. But they are fickle in the project. I've caught and seen native brookies on one trip only to return a month or so later and catch or see none. That doesn't mean they aren't there, it's just catching them seems to be hit or miss... UNLESS you fish outside of the project.

 

[elguapogurn]

Luckily I have a picture of it. Although not a great one with the glare coming off the fish. The camera man stunk (yea, that was me)! But you can see that it's a brookie by the fins. And I think 10 inches is pretty accurate.

I think i only caught a couple bows. Both were right below the pump house bridge. There were bigger trout in that hole, but only the lil ones weren't spooked when I triggered a small landslide climbing down to the hole. They weren't wild, and they were of similar size to the smaller browns.

Oh yea, both brookies were caught in the project area. And no it wasn't right above the Ol Tressle.

Has anyone seen the Beaver below the tressle? Never saw him before, but he sure did give me a spook. For a very brief moment I thought I was looking at the biggest trout South of Erie! And if there were trout in the area, I don't think they were coming out from wherever they were hiding for a long time.

 

[elguapogurn]

Ah man! Tried to make the picture smaller and cut out half the fish. Will try again.

 

[elguapogurn]

This should be better!!

 

[ryguyfi]

the camera washed it out, but just looking at those nice crisp lines on the fins makes a good case for wild. I've seen some solid wild browns in that stream, so a 10" brookie isn't outside the possibility.

 

[Brownie101]

That Brookie definitly looks wild to me.

 

[streamerguy]

I vote wild. Nice fish!!

Here's a for sure wild brookie I got out of there last year. Got another one about the same size that day.

 

[pcray1231]

Both are poor pictures to know for sure. And it's not out of the realm of possibility that fingerling stockings could have gotten a few brookies mixed in by accident, meaning you have fingerling stocked brookies growing up in there.

But if I were guessing, I'd guess wild for both.

 

[PennKev]

Certainly wild fish.

I've caught so many wild brookies in LSC over the years to know that an accidentally stocked brookie would be the rarer of the two by a wide margin. Even for a fish of that size (which is not huge anyway).