Oil Creek, Venango County, 4-19-2020

[Bruno]

Well the rain was a bit disheartening last week. That is when you switch Gears and look for opportunity. That led us to Oil Creek. Flows were around 1000 cfs and perfect for a float.

We arrived around noon and put in at Petroleum Center. There were Grannoms everywhere and very few Fishermen. We very quickly found fish rising within a couple of feet from the bank. Were were able to stand on the bank and pick fish off. We moved on and spent the rest of the day searching for risers and did not have hard time finding them. We floated about three miles in total. Grannoms and March Browns were the flies of the day with the Lafontaine emerger being the fly of the day.

Great day to get out and super fun getting friends to see that creek in good form. Expectations were low and Oil Creek showed up and was pretty impressive.

i have also learned it is possible to go fishing without stopping at Sheetz twice on the way to the crick.

 

[drakeking412]

Nice report thanks Bruno. I still have yet to fish Oil Creek but it's on the to do list

 

[Bruno]

When things get back to normal stop here for post fishing beers

https://trailstoalesbrewery.com/ in Franklin

All stream reports should include a post vittles and drink stop moving forward.

 

[drakeking412]

I second this motion. Also when this all settles we need to link up for some fishing, beer, and bluegrass.

Also also thanks for the tip, the lady will be happy.

 

[dryflyguy]

I fished there today. So, I'll just add on here.

Got to Petroleum Center around 11:30.
Saw no other fishermen around, which made me wonder if perhaps the park was closed
Lots of grannoms hatching. But very few risers.
By the time I geared up and started fishing around 12:30, things started to pick up. I'm guessing the bright sunshine warmed the water up a bit.
Caught fish on grannoms until around 2:30. And a few more fishermen started appearing

Then I had a hard time getting strikes - even though the fish were still rising nicely
A closer look at the water revealed some gray winged mayflies had started hatching.
I switched to a Quill Gordon, and started catching fish again.

That went on until about 5. And then no more takes on that.
Switched back to grannoms - which were still on the water heavy.
And caught fish after fish until dark.

Definitely the best surface activity I've seen on Oil Creek in a long time

 

[Acristickid]

Sounds like good days all around. In the very times I’ve fished it- my recollections are that the stocked rainbows rise well and usually rise to Caddis. Great.

Nice wide creek to cast on and the wading isn’t too bad either.

 

[bikerfish]

Nice report Matt! I love oil creek, when it's good, it can be really good!
I also love Trails to Ales, one of my usual haunts now, and not that far from home!!

 

[Prospector]

Great to hear Oil Creek is fishing well. I appreciate the reports.

I’m working at home today and as I walked past a window the heavy wind caught my eye. I thought that’s about the only downside to Oil Creek. These early season blustery days are really frustrating when fishing wets. The wind on Oil always blows upstream (leading to many tangles). I suspect it makes dry fly fishing a little challenging too.

About 15 years ago I almost exclusively fished dries on Oil. Now I’m probably using dries only 20% of the time. Just not seeing many risers on the 3-4 days I’m there. But I also tend to avoid the Special Regs areas. I’ve never fished the lower one and I’ve only fished the upper one a few times. Maybe therein lies the problem.

 

[DaveKile]

Thanks Matt. Nice report and glad you had a good day. Sounds like DryFly Guy made out pretty well too. It's been prolly 30 years since I have been there, but remember lots a good caddis days there when I was living in western PA.

Isn't there a good sulphur hatch in May too?

 

[dryflyguy]

It did get a little breezy yesterday afternoon.
But the wind was blowing downstream where I was - the long flat section alongside the picnic/playground area in the park.

I had crossed over to the far bank, and was casting upstream to risers.
Sometimes I had to wait a bit for it to subside.

The good fishing surprised me, because of the high flow yesterday - 800 cfs.
I almost didn't even go there.
But decided to check it out anyway, planning on going to a smaller stream if it wasn't worthwhile

 

[NMR]

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to post great reports.

dryflyguy, if you wouldn't mind sharing, did you match the Quill Gordon because of size relative to the smaller grey-winged BWOs?

I haven't been able to get out since "lockdown" and have taken the time off the water to learn more bug identification. Being a pragmatist, I'm curious if a dark-bodied QG pattern could cover for the smaller BWO at times and in certain conditions.

 

[dryflyguy]

NMR -

The gray winged mayfly I saw hatching was #14 in size.
At this time of year, that usually means a Quill Gordon or Hendrickson.

I wasn't able to catch any for a positive ID.
I just put a Quill Gordonon as a guess. And it worked.

But they may well have been Hendricksons.
I've often used one to match the hatch - only to finally catch one, and find out that it was the other.

The patterns I tie for them are pretty much the same:

gray wing
gray hackle
gray tail

Only difference:
Hendrickson - reddish gray body
Quill Gordon - tannish gray body

Dave -

I haven't fished oil creek in may for along time now.
But yes, it used to have a decent sulpher hatch.

 

[SmoothOperator]

dryflyguy wrote:
It did get a little breezy yesterday afternoon.
But the wind was blowing downstream where I was - the long flat section alongside the picnic/playground area in the park.

I had crossed over to the far bank, and was casting upstream to risers.
Sometimes I had to wait a bit for it to subside.

The good fishing surprised me, because of the high flow yesterday - 800 cfs.
I almost didn't even go there.
But decided to check it out anyway, planning on going to a smaller stream if it wasn't worthwhile

. Small world guy...... Fished up around the bend up top from 11:00 - 2:00 and was catching them on a #14 Hares Ear......Walked down to the flats and saw you fishing the lower end of the flats , fishing upstream tight against the opposite bank.....( saw you catch one or two fish)...... Was fishing right where the water starts to slow down at the head of the flat.....Some guy throwing hardware started fishing about 10' above me and then moved about ten foot below me...... Decided to call it a day with the wind kicking up......

 

[SmoothOperator]

dryflyguy wrote:
NMR -

The gray winged mayfly I saw hatching was #14 in size.
At this time of year, that usually means a Quill Gordon or Hendrickson.

I wasn't able to catch any for a positive ID.
I just put a Quill Gordonon as a guess. And it worked.

But they may well have been Hendricksons.
I've often used one to match the hatch - only to finally catch one, and find out that it was the other.

The patterns I tie for them are pretty much the same:

gray wing
gray hackle
gray tail

Only difference:
Hendrickson - reddish gray body
Quill Gordon - tannish gray body

Dave -

I haven't fished oil creek in may for along time now.
But yes, it used to have a decent sulpher hatch.

. Saw a few in my truck cab on the inside of my windshield on the way home.... Whole fly was grey ....even the body.....

 

[dryflyguy]

Smooth ;

You shoulda stuck around.
The wind died down around 6. And the grannoms - after hatching heavily all day - finally thinned to a point that getting strikes was easier without competition from the heavy hatch.

Those mayflies looked very gray on the water too. Prolly were Quill Gordons.

 

[Sylvaneous]

It would probably be, or have to be, I should say, a Hendrickson. It's pretty rare to find many Quill Gordons on this side of the Alleghenny Front. Well, Hendricksons aren't super common, either, but once in a while, they're spotted on Oil Creek (and other streams)

Dollars-to-doughnuts, a mayfly on Oil Creek now would be a Hendrickson. I don't remember seeing a Blue Quill or early spring Beatis mayfly on Oil Creek.

It would be nice if they became more prevalent since all the water quality efforts that have been done in the watershed. Oil creek certainly has the habitat for hendricksons.
Fishing-wise, don't bet very hard on anything besides caddis for another month. Anything else, like the Grey Foxes, are a bonus.

 

[dryflyguy]

Out of curiosity, I dug out my Keystone Fly Fishing book.
It has a lengthy piece about Oil Creek.
According to Mike Laskowsky of Oil Creek Outfitters, it has blue quill, quill gordon, and hendrickson hatches.

 

[RLeep2]

I always cast a skeptical eye on Mike's assertion of Quill Gordons on the main stem of Oil Creek, figuring it was more about advertising and wishful thinking than science. Hendricksons I could understand, but the Epeorus flies have a pretty high WQ standard that only a minority of the relatively small and undisturbed streams in the region could meet and produce a noticeable hatch.

The main stem side of the Oil Creek drainage (the branches that come out of lakes) is marginal trout habitat and the more "trouty" side of the watershed (Pine/Caldwell) always had one of the higher chronic sediment loads around despite being decent trout streams. Too many dirt crossings and too much oil/gas related disturbance.

I can't categorically say the flies being seen are not Quill Gordons but rather Hendricksons, but I've always been skeptical.

In the final analysis, it doesn't really matter what they are so long as they are there and the fish rise for them. But, I'd love to see a positive ID of these bugs one way or the other...

 

[Prospector]

I can’t specifically speak to overall water quality but in June one year (2016 or 2017) I did collect 8 different insects while I was fishing Oil Creek. I suspect that means there were a few types that I missed. Could have been 8-12 different insects in those 2 hours. I took that as a positive sign about water quality.

 

[dryflyguy]

Wish I had captured one now!
Maybe the ones smooth saw inside his truck cab are still there?