Penns Creek, Centre Co. 03/22/12

[renegade]

Finally got a chance to get out and fish after over a year of not being able to fish... felt great to finally get out and find out that I didnt lose my touch. Made it out to the cherry run area at about 9:30, on the water at about 10:00. Finally had to leave at about 4:00. Air temps were warm, no therm. so i can't give exact temps. Water seemed warm as well, someone else reported 60 though that seemed a bit warm. Water had an olive color to it.

Flies were coming off all morning/afternnon though heaviest around noon-2. Stoneflies seemed to be most prominent and desired. After walking a bit I was able to locate a long run with risers... first to hand was the smallest of the day still measuring about 12". Largest for the day was just short of 15". A bonus for the day was seeing this furry little critter, I believe it may be a fisher? Just a guess so correct me if I'm wrong.

Most of the catches for the day came to hand on flies I tied myself, and on Penns it was a huge pat on the back for me as I usually struggle here. All in all it was a great day to be out and I was extremely happy with the outcome, 7 total to hand all on dries.

 

[timmyt]

Dude that sounds like an awesome day, penns hqs given me the skunk the couple times i have fished it

 

[midnightangler]

The water temp on the C&R was SIXTY!!!

 

[iceyguides]

Renegade, sounds like a great day. I'm pretty sure the little furry animal is a mink. It's hard to see much detail in the picture but it's right next to the water and it doesn't look too big, so i'd guess mink.

 

[renegade]

yeah I usually leave with some very low numbers from penns, I just enjoy fishing there too much to leave it alone. By far my best day there to date. Couldnt have been happier

Thanks for the update on the mink. I had no idea what it was, i just know it was small and fury. He was pretty entertaining to watch for a while.

 

[troutpoop]

Last year I watched a river otter there for three days in a row in June. Every evening he would run up and down the bank. I can't get a scale to the size of the critter in your pic. I used to raise mink as a kid to sell the pelts. That is a correct color for a mink but I can't tell from the size, it could be a river otter too.

 

[TYoung]

That way too small to be a river otter.

 

[tomgamber]

I have seen a few fishers on penn's. Very likely.

 

[bikerfish]

kinda looks too small to be a fisher, the ones I've seen are the size of racoons. maybe that one is that size, hard to tell from the pics. whatever it is, it's cool and looks like a wonderful day of fishing!

 

[wgmiller]

Very nice fish!

 

[csoult]

bikerfish wrote:
kinda looks too small to be a fisher, the ones I've seen are the size of racoons.

And bigger.

 

[tomgamber]

How about a mink?

 

[bikerfish]

it's a penns creek chupacabra!!

 

[troutpoop]

minkacabra

 

[tulenkot]

Congratulations on the creek, it can be tough even if your fishing it all the time. That critter is 100% mink. I saw a bunch on Slate Run once and made a video. Seeing them does not happen to often and i consider it very special! One stole toilet paper that was left out from my friend.
]Minks

 

[wbranch]

Looks way too big to be a mink, not an otter, I'm betting on a weasel.

 

[tomgamber]

wbranch wrote:
Looks way too big to be a mink, not an otter, I'm betting on a weasel.

And you'd right...because weasel refers to an entire genus I believe including minks and ferrets and the like. Weasel as a single species used to refer to the animal that lived in Europe so I don't think weasel in your usage would be correct. I cannot tell how big it is which is why I suggested animals in the weasel family on each end of the size range.

 

[SBecker]

Bigfoot baby

 

[wbranch]

Tom Gamber,

Thanks for setting me straight on the terminology. Weasel may be a somewhat generic term used to describe members in Mustelidae but Pennslyvania does in fact have two members of the genus that specifically carry the name weasel.

According to Wikipedia 6 species of weasels occur in Pennsylvania.

River otter
Northern Fisher
Ermine
Long-tailed weasel
Least weasel
Mink

After looking at the picture again I'm now convinced it's a wolverine! Just kidding - whatever it is it's really neat looking. Last Wednesday I was on a stream in Berks county and watched an animal the same color as the one in the picture, and about 24" long from tip of nose to tip of tail, scamper right along the streams edge and down into a hole at the base of a tree.

 

[renegade]

24" sounds about right. It was far away but it looked like i could put my hands around the body of the critter. Wish I could have gotten a better picture, oh well it was a good conversation piece.