This post comes a few weeks late, but better late than never. I was headed up bright and early to fish the cicadas on Penns. Central PA had gotten a bunch of rain the night before, but when my alarm went off and I checked the gauge, it still looked quite fishable. Knowing this could change at any time, I rolled the dice and hit the road at 5am. Coming from SEPA, I had about a three hour drive ahead of me.
About 30 minutes out, I got a heads up that the water was way up - it just had not gotten to the gauge yet. It was churning high and fast and looked like chocolate milk. It was at this point that I exited 22 near Mifflintown and pulled over on the shoulder, deciding what to do next. Do I push on to Penns and fish the chocolate milk? Do I turn around and drive 2.5 hours home, and deal with the sense of regret that would surely come with not at least taking a crack at some fish? I don't know Central PA all that well - I’m only familiar with Penns and Spring Creek, and was at a loss for what else might be fishing decent. I decided there was no better time than now to explore so I pulled out Google maps and looked around to see if there were any creeks nearby. Lo and behold, there was Lost Creek, not too far away. Having no idea if this held any fish at all, I set out for it.
I drove around a bit, trying to find access and scouting the general area out. I finally settled on a little pull-off that had decent stream access, pulled on my waders and boots, and rigged up a double nymph setup. The water was definitely a bit high and off color, but still totally fishable. The mosquitos were pretty bad, and i was happy to have a rain coat on that was keeping them mostly off of me.
On my second cast my indicator went under and I a quickly pulled in a lively little brown, maybe 10 inches. From there it was off to the races. I think I landed 8-10 fish in that first hole on the nymph rig before the bite slowed down, a smattering of browns and rainbows. They all seemed to be stocked but they were in really great shape, all good looking fish.
I moved downstream a bit where some faster moving water plunged into a nice pool, and rigged up a small streamer. The fishing was comical - I was catching fish on the swing pretty much every other cast for about 15 minutes.
I then started to explore a bit, trying to bushwhack my way downstream as walking through the water didn’t seem feasible - it was off color, maybe a bit deep, and I was just unfamiliar and uncomfortable with trying. I spent a good thirty minutes thrashing through thick underbrush before I gave up and went back to the car.
Turning my attention upstream of where I initially started, I kept the streamer on and started covering ground. The creek was a bit shallower this way so I had no qualms about wading upstream. I was pulling in lively fish (mostly rainbows) left and right.
In all, it was a great day. No, I didn’t get to chase the cicada bite on this particular day, but I did get to explore some new small water and catch a whole bunch of fish. Has anyone else fished Lost Creek? It really feels like a stream that some big browns could thrive on - however there seemed to be so many stockers that that might be a huge detriment to fish growth. I’m also wondering if it stays cool enough in the summer for holdovers, and the eventual wild population of fish.
Here are a few photos of some of the fish I was catching - this was about the average size of everything I was pulling in.
About 30 minutes out, I got a heads up that the water was way up - it just had not gotten to the gauge yet. It was churning high and fast and looked like chocolate milk. It was at this point that I exited 22 near Mifflintown and pulled over on the shoulder, deciding what to do next. Do I push on to Penns and fish the chocolate milk? Do I turn around and drive 2.5 hours home, and deal with the sense of regret that would surely come with not at least taking a crack at some fish? I don't know Central PA all that well - I’m only familiar with Penns and Spring Creek, and was at a loss for what else might be fishing decent. I decided there was no better time than now to explore so I pulled out Google maps and looked around to see if there were any creeks nearby. Lo and behold, there was Lost Creek, not too far away. Having no idea if this held any fish at all, I set out for it.
I drove around a bit, trying to find access and scouting the general area out. I finally settled on a little pull-off that had decent stream access, pulled on my waders and boots, and rigged up a double nymph setup. The water was definitely a bit high and off color, but still totally fishable. The mosquitos were pretty bad, and i was happy to have a rain coat on that was keeping them mostly off of me.
On my second cast my indicator went under and I a quickly pulled in a lively little brown, maybe 10 inches. From there it was off to the races. I think I landed 8-10 fish in that first hole on the nymph rig before the bite slowed down, a smattering of browns and rainbows. They all seemed to be stocked but they were in really great shape, all good looking fish.
I moved downstream a bit where some faster moving water plunged into a nice pool, and rigged up a small streamer. The fishing was comical - I was catching fish on the swing pretty much every other cast for about 15 minutes.
I then started to explore a bit, trying to bushwhack my way downstream as walking through the water didn’t seem feasible - it was off color, maybe a bit deep, and I was just unfamiliar and uncomfortable with trying. I spent a good thirty minutes thrashing through thick underbrush before I gave up and went back to the car.
Turning my attention upstream of where I initially started, I kept the streamer on and started covering ground. The creek was a bit shallower this way so I had no qualms about wading upstream. I was pulling in lively fish (mostly rainbows) left and right.
In all, it was a great day. No, I didn’t get to chase the cicada bite on this particular day, but I did get to explore some new small water and catch a whole bunch of fish. Has anyone else fished Lost Creek? It really feels like a stream that some big browns could thrive on - however there seemed to be so many stockers that that might be a huge detriment to fish growth. I’m also wondering if it stays cool enough in the summer for holdovers, and the eventual wild population of fish.
Here are a few photos of some of the fish I was catching - this was about the average size of everything I was pulling in.
