Oil creek, Venango County, 5/30/2022

[Sylvaneous]

Extenuating circumstances prevented me from fishing, but I did bike over oil creek. It was higher than ideal and quite stained still. Hot air, bright sun and blue skies would preclude any dry fly action. WRONG! Around 430, I went back across the Pioneer bridge and watched trout rise in the 1/4 of the stream that was shaded. Sulfurs, olives(which I haven't seen in many years) and some Grey foxes were trickling off and trout were rising about as well as you'd ever hope them to. I cannot say anything about how well you could catch them or on what exactly, but those were the bugs I saw from the bridge.

 

[dryflyguy]

I had thoughts about going up there Friday or Saturday.
But the flows then, were way over my limitations there.
And family functions kept me away yesterday and today.

Nice to hear there are bugs hatching anyway.....

 

[jayded75]

Great dry fly fishing early this evening! 5 fish in an hour! Unfortunately that’s all the time I had. They were sipping spinners in the riffle below the old train trestle and happily taking a whispy, sparsely tied, light gray spinner in size 16. 5 to 6pm. Water was off color but… Oil Creek is definitely back on!

 

[Sylvaneous]

Stopped by the crik Thursday, 6/2. It was at a fishable level, 476, but muddy. One fish rising. The only mayflies I saw were drunella olives, so they're still going. If you go, get there by 4:00 or earlier. My experience with those olives is they come off mid-late afternoon and the spinners fall late afternoon. The spinners are black/green with oddly long, lobe-shaped wings. Some of these bugs are 14-16 and some are 18. I don't know which is which or why or under what conditions those different ones hatch. I've been seeing the 16's, but when you show up, they might be 18's or be gone altogether.

 

[Sylvaneous]

06-04 Update:
Water flow the best it has been since whenever. Like 290 cfs. Fished below Pioneer. Got there about 730; 3 hours later than I wanted to. Cahill spinners in the air while crossing RR/bike trail bridge. Gorgeous day and beautiful evening, but only 1 other person out fishing. Strange. Very little hatch activity, like almost none at this time. Everything to spinners. There were chalk cahill and sulfur spinners on the water. I stuck with the Jacklyn's para-spinner that I had on from last night. Sz. 16. Caught 11: 10 rainbows and 1 brown. Some of significant size and ran with an insanity that I can only compare to early season steelhead. These fish were nearly perfect in composition and form. I didn't see one with disfigured fins. They fought with every bit the fervor of western rainbows of that size. Acrobatic jumps powerful runs. Really not fish to be demeaned as 'rubber fish' or pellet-heads. Tremendous sport and picky , active surface feeders. Glad no one reading this was there to crimp my space. Nothing like freely wading where-ever on open waters in the silence of nature to rising, strong fish.

 

[JSky]

I fished Oil on 6-3. Water level and flow was fine, still a bit discolored. A few Cahill and what looked like trico coming off. Bite was ok early but slowed as it warmed up. Ended up with 8 trout, a smallmouth, and a couple chubs all on nymphs.

I am fairly certain two of the fish I caught were wild browns. 5-6” in length, large perfect fins, red adipose, yellow belly. Too small and pretty for stockies. I was not far from where some natural reproduction streams flow in. I’ve spent nearly 4 decades on that stream and the waters that flow into it. Every year I become more convinced that wild browns are migrating through the stream parts of the year or have taken up residency there.

 

[dano]

I am fairly certain two of the fish I caught were wild browns. 5-6” in length, large perfect fins, red adipose, yellow belly. Too small and pretty for stockies.

I have no doubt those fish you caught were wild. I've caught the occasional 4-6 inch brookie downstream of small tribs.
After the major hatches are over, the fish will start to key in to those tiny #24-26 bwo's you saw. Even down to #28 if we get a cool summer.

 

[Prospector]

……I am fairly certain two of the fish I caught were wild browns. 5-6” in length, large perfect fins, red adipose, yellow belly. Too small and pretty for stockies. I was not far from where some natural reproduction streams flow in. I’ve spent nearly 4 decades on that stream and the waters that…,,,,

Sounds like you have a lot of experience on Oil. I haven’t explored its small tribs since about 1984, but I found wild browns back then. I have no doubt you are correct.

 

[JSky]

Sounds like you have a lot of experience on Oil. I haven’t explored its small tribs since about 1984, but I found wild browns back then. I have no doubt you are correct.

 

[PennKev]

I am fairly certain two of the fish I caught were wild browns. 5-6” in length, large perfect fins, red adipose, yellow belly. Too small and pretty for stockies. I was not far from where some natural reproduction streams flow in. I’ve spent nearly 4 decades on that stream and the waters that flow into it. Every year I become more convinced that wild browns are migrating through the stream parts of the year or have taken up residency there.

There are wild fish in nearly every small stream in Venango county and many of the medium sized ones too, the exceptions being the ones affected by mine drainage in the southeast-ish quarterish-ish of the state. Even then, some of those streams have some wild fish also.

Numbers and size of said wild fish vary, but Venango is a great county to explore for wild fish.