Penns Creek: 1st trip.

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Worth723

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Apr 18, 2022
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Richmond, Virginia
Hey y’all,

I’m gearing up for my annual trek to central PA from central VA to treat myself to a long four days on the water chasing wild trout. I’m going to venture up to Penns Creek from Huntingdon county one of the days to get my taste of a piece of water many of you know so well.

Please take a look below at my game plan for Penns Creek and let me know if I’m on the right path. Thanks in advance for any input.

1) When I’ll be in central PA? Late April. I’ll have my eye closely on the gauges and the weather.

2) When I’ll hit Penns? A weekday, likely just before the weekend.

3) What’s my style of attack? I’m thinking of nymphing primarily with my 10’ 2wt. but I will have a few other sticks waiting in the wings should I be blessed with good flows, temps and surface activity, or conversely a streamer rod if she’s looking to be on the high side.

Back to the nymphing. I’m a strong wader and very confident when in the water, but I never take it for granted. I’ve read of the pushy currents on this water so I’ll be mindful of the slick rocky substrate and aggressive currents. I think I’ll grab a wading staff. Better to have it and not need it then to need it and not have it right?

Also, I’ve historically done very well in central PA with Walt’s worms and variants, particularly a #18 walts with a silver bead and a purple collar. Also, pheasant tail jig variations, perdigons and one of my favorites, a peeping (peeking) caddis in a #14. I tie this essentially as a regular walts but with a piece of small green ultra chenille coming out of the tail with a burned tip to imitate caddis.

Are there crawfish in this system? I also love little jig buggers and may try working those if I’m feeling frisky.

4) Which stretch do I have my eye on? Well, I’m looking for good riffles and pocket water on maps and the catch and release section from Cherry Run up to Po Paddy look to have plenty of that to offer. I’ll do some walking and get in when it looks juicy, bounce around.

Whats an ideal fishable flow range? My research tells me somewhere between 300-600. Thoughts?

All in all, I’m going to work my tail off and fish sun up to nearly dark and hope to have weather and flows on my side. I’ll take care of the rest and scratch a big want off my list, a day on beautiful Penns Creek.
 
Size 12-8 Golden Stones are always in season on Penns. I would look at Scott's Big Ginger nymph.
For others, its alot of hit or miss, ive had success on a number of perdigons specially quilldons and olive flash perdi. But what i mean by hit or miss is there are so many bugs in Penns it is often times hard to narrow down on what they are actually keying in on. Ive heard that orange is a popular trigger color for Penns but i havent had any experience or success with it, YET. Waltz and other caddis types are also very good. Some days it feels like no matter what you throw in youll get something. Jiggy Fry might also be good around then.
 
Dear Worth 723,

Depending on flows, weather temps and water temps you might even have some Hendrickson's around. For late April, March Browns/Gray Foxes might also be in play too.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
 
Duriensbane said:
Size 12-8 Golden Stones are always in season on Penns. I would look at Scott's Big Ginger nymph.
For others, its alot of hit or miss, ive had success on a number of perdigons specially quilldons and olive flash perdi. But what i mean by hit or miss is there are so many bugs in Penns it is often times hard to narrow down on what they are actually keying in on. Ive heard that orange is a popular trigger color for Penns but i havent had any experience or success with it, YET. Waltz and other caddis types are also very good. Some days it feels like no matter what you throw in youll get something. Jiggy Fry might also be good around then.
Click to expand...
I’ll tie a golden variation of my black stone. Thanks!
 
I tie my Grannoms on size 14 hooks, though other guys prefer 16s. It's also worth noting that when the grannoms are hatching, the fish often take them as they are coming up through, and a Leadwing Coachman wet fly fished just under the surface is often better than a dry fly, at least for me.
 
You've got a solid plan and there's some primo advice on offer here. I'll add:

The conventional Penns advice on nymphing is if you're not getting hits, go smaller and darker.

Be prepared for dry flies and emergers in April - especially late April. If you're nymphing and all of a sudden the surface starts popping, pay attention because the fish are looking up. Dry fly action on Penns is great fun, but it's very section specific, and often short lived. Don' miss out by sticking too long with those nymphs.
 
I don't have anything to add, just wanted to say thanks for this thread. I'll be fishing Penns for the first time in mid-April (hopefully - it was blown out when I tried last year, and I just enjoyed the small streams around Poe Paddy instead), so I'm taking notes.
 
JimKennedy said:
You've got a solid plan and there's some primo advice on offer here. I'll add:

The conventional Penns advice on nymphing is if you're not getting hits, go smaller and darker.

Be prepared for dry flies and emergers in April - especially late April. If you're nymphing and all of a sudden the surface starts popping, pay attention because the fish are looking up. Dry fly action on Penns is great fun, but it's very section specific, and often short lived. Don' miss out by sticking too long with those nymphs.
Click to expand...
Thanks for this advice, Jim.

I’ve got varying mayfly nymphs down to #18. Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to sprinkle some #20’s in.

As far as being prepared and observant for the section specific surface activity, full transparency, many of times Ive been guilty of sticking with nymphs for too long and missing the window. The larger freestone streams that I primarily fish in Virginia just do not have the rich diversity in bug life that I’ve encountered on the limestoners of central PA. That isn’t a complaint, just an observation and a challenge I’ve grown to appreciate.
 
cpc1027 said:
I don't have anything to add, just wanted to say thanks for this thread. I'll be fishing Penns for the first time in mid-April (hopefully - it was blown out when I tried last year, and I just enjoyed the small streams around Poe Paddy instead), so I'm taking notes.
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I’m hoping we both strike at the right time, as far as levels and water temperature are concerned.

I take it you encountered brookies and smaller browns in those little tribs?
 
We got into a few little brookies on some tiny streams, but that was our first trip, so we were doing as much hiking and exploring as fishing.

I don't know how quickly the fishing is expected to recover from heavy rain in those streams. They weren't blown out when we were there, but it had only been about 24 hours since the rain. The largest stream we fished was Big Poe Creek, and the fishing was slow there, though I think it had been fished hard since everyone who was in the campground probably fished it as an alternate to Penns.
 
Duriensbane said:
Size 12-8 Golden Stones are always in season on Penns. I would look at Scott's Big Ginger nymph.
For others, its alot of hit or miss, ive had success on a number of perdigons specially quilldons and olive flash perdi. But what i mean by hit or miss is there are so many bugs in Penns it is often times hard to narrow down on what they are actually keying in on. Ive heard that orange is a popular trigger color for Penns but i havent had any experience or success with it, YET. Waltz and other caddis types are also very good. Some days it feels like no matter what you throw in youll get something. Jiggy Fry might also be good around then.
Click to expand...
Scott's Big Ginger Nymph, do you know where I can find a pattern for it? I'm going back up to Penn's this year. I haven't been there for several years.
 
goose54cdd said:
Scott's Big Ginger Nymph, do you know where I can find a pattern for it? I'm going back up to Penn's this year. I haven't been there for several years.
Click to expand...
Think there’s a YouTube video on his PaWoodsNWater channel. I will say that a lot of his larger patterns can take forever to tie (his wiggle nymph is basically the same commitment level as a KG articulated streamer) and, as far as I can tell, don’t work any better than guide flies like a Pats RL. I can lose half a dozen big stoneflies in a single trip.
 
Nocktavius said:
Think there’s a YouTube video on his PaWoodsNWater channel. I will say that a lot of his larger patterns can take forever to tie (his wiggle nymph is basically the same commitment level as a KG articulated streamer) and, as far as I can tell, don’t work any better than guide flies like a Pats RL. I can lose half a dozen big stoneflies in a single trip.
Click to expand...
There’s also this video from Shawn Holsinger.

 
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