Penns Creek, Centre County 4/22-4/23/23

[tjsingle]

Hey guys-

Decided to head up from SEPA this weekend to fish Penns Creek. From all the reports I’ve seen on here and some posts from other reports I figured it would be worth the drive.

4/22:

Flow: rising
Clarity: cloudier towards end of night

Drove up from SEPA, and got on the water around 11AM. We fished Poe Paddy SP for a couple of hours until the storms rolled in. We fished there for about 5 hours and saw plenty of risers on a mix of caddis and March browns (I’m not great with entomology). We managed to hook into a couple of risers but nothing to the net. I decided to use a streamer through some fast water and moved several fish. I figured with the rain and front coming in that’s streamers might be a good bet.

As the storm continued to roll in we decided to leave Poe Paddy to get on some different water if the weather continued to get worse.

We fished closer to Coburn, from about 4PM until dark through the rain. Streamers with the rising water seemed to be working well. I hooked a bunch of fish but lost more than I landed, but I guess that’s fishing. I’m not quite sure the reason, whether it was bad hook sets, or what. Closer to dark we fished BWOs in the rain and caught a bunch of 12” -15” browns to end the day. Nothing crazy size wise on 4/22, but still about 20 trout between the two of us. One of the trout I lost on a streamer looked like and fought like a 20”~ fish, losing that one still bothers me lol. Everyone has a fish story right?

4/23:

Flow: 350CFS and falling
Clariry: green, visibility was a little cloudier than previous day

With the front and 20F temperature change, we really had no idea how Penns would fish. We decided to fish Poe Paddy again, and got on the board early with two streamer fish in fast water. In the morning it was sunny and clear out.

We anticipated as the day warmed that we’d see some bugs start to pop and maybe fish some rising trout. But instead clouds rolled in, with intermittent drizzle and wind. We barely saw anything hatching and saw only a few rises to small BWOs. Nymphing was a constant cycle of trying fly after fly to try to move a fish, but nothing. After 8 hours of fishing, we decided to call it and make the trek home. The only fish we caught were the two early on 12” and 14-16” range

I’d be interested to hear if anyone did any better today, for us, we really couldn’t figure it out. I figure the temp drop might’ve screwed things up, but then again I don’t fish Penns regularly so I’m sure that factors into it.

Overall, solid trip up to Penns. Always good to get up there.

 

[Prospector]

I fish streamers a lot and hookup rates are generally 1:5 to 1:7. You just lose a lot of them. I think it’s related to the trout hitting the “head” of the minnow, so many times the hook point is outside of the fish’s mouth when you set the hook. Also if smaller fish were attacking your streamer, they are harder to hook since their mouth is smaller. You did just fine. Keep it up.

Your second day problem was probably related to a falling water temperature that turned off the trout. It usually happens when water temps steadily fall below 49 degrees. However it could also be any falling temp. It was just bad luck that a major front moved through when it did.

Keep doing what you are doing.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

I was at Poe Paddy this weekend with some friends. We arrived early am Sat, went below the tunnel and by 8-9am there were guys everywhere. For a mile below the tunnel to about swift run it looked like opening day of trout season. We fished right through the storm, thunder and lightning until 4 or 5. Quite a few bugs on the water and in air, but we never got into consistent risers. Some spinners in the air and maybe a light Hendrickson spinner fall in morning. March browns throughout the day, tan caddis and some Grey fox. We all caught 5-10 fish mixture between drys and nymphs. Of note, between 4 of us we caught 7 brook trout Saturday, most small 4-6in range, but 1 good one in the 9in range. Went back out for the last 2 hours of daylight right below campground and caught 1 or 2 risers, not much was happening.

Sunday, we were on the water by 8, again tons of guys wandering around between Swift run and the tunnel. Very slow action, we caught a few after persistent nymphing. We threw the bucket at them, between euro nymphing, multiple drys, emerges etc. The guys really cleared out by 11 or so, we fished until 1 and waived the white flag.

 

[Schaefer406]

Hey guys-

Decided to head up from SEPA this weekend to fish Penns Creek. From all the reports I’ve seen on here and some posts from other reports I figured it would be worth the drive.

4/22:

Flow: rising
Clarity: cloudier towards end of night

Drove up from SEPA, and got on the water around 11AM. We fished Poe Paddy SP for a couple of hours until the storms rolled in. We fished there for about 5 hours and saw plenty of risers on a mix of caddis and March browns (I’m not great with entomology). We managed to hook into a couple of risers but nothing to the net. I decided to use a streamer through some fast water and moved several fish. I figured with the rain and front coming in that’s streamers might be a good bet.

As the storm continued to roll in we decided to leave Poe Paddy to get on some different water if the weather continued to get worse.

We fished closer to Coburn, from about 4PM until dark through the rain. Streamers with the rising water seemed to be working well. I hooked a bunch of fish but lost more than I landed, but I guess that’s fishing. I’m not quite sure the reason, whether it was bad hook sets, or what. Closer to dark we fished BWOs in the rain and caught a bunch of 12” -15” browns to end the day. Nothing crazy size wise on 4/22, but still about 20 trout between the two of us. One of the trout I lost on a streamer looked like and fought like a 20”~ fish, losing that one still bothers me lol. Everyone has a fish story right?

4/23:

Flow: 350CFS and falling
Clariry: green, visibility was a little cloudier than previous day

With the front and 20F temperature change, we really had no idea how Penns would fish. We decided to fish Poe Paddy again, and got on the board early with two streamer fish in fast water. In the morning it was sunny and clear out.

We anticipated as the day warmed that we’d see some bugs start to pop and maybe fish some rising trout. But instead clouds rolled in, with intermittent drizzle and wind. We barely saw anything hatching and saw only a few rises to small BWOs. Nymphing was a constant cycle of trying fly after fly to try to move a fish, but nothing. After 8 hours of fishing, we decided to call it and make the trek home. The only fish we caught were the two early on 12” and 14-16” range

I’d be interested to hear if anyone did any better today, for us, we really couldn’t figure it out. I figure the temp drop might’ve screwed things up, but then again I don’t fish Penns regularly so I’m sure that factors into it.

Overall, solid trip up to Penns. Always good to get up there.

I fished Penns yesterday from 7 AM - 2 PM starting from the access above Weikert. When I fished there last Friday I had almost a 30 fish day with two fish of notable size, to yesterday, I got my butt whooped with only 2 fish to the net. I hardly saw any bugs, and the fish seemed to be very turned off and not active. For the life of me, I could not figure it out. I think the temperature drop and abundance of bugs in previous warmer days may have allowed them to remain "dormant" for the colder day. I did have 2 larger fish hit my streamer in tailouts, but no takes. Penns is a very moody stream at times, but thats why I keep coming back!

As George Daniels told me when I was in college, "Every now and then you get served a slice of humble pie."

 

[tjsingle]

I fish streamers a lot and hookup rates are generally 1:5 to 1:7. You just lose a lot of them. I think it’s related to the trout hitting the “head” of the minnow, so many times the hook point is outside of the fish’s mouth when you set the hook. Also if smaller fish were attacking your streamer, they are harder to hook since their mouth is smaller. You did just fine. Keep it up.

Your second day problem was probably related to a falling water temperature that turned off the trout. It usually happens when water temps steadily fall below 49 degrees. However it could also be any falling temp. It was just bad luck that a major front moved through when it did.

Keep doing what you are doing.

Thank you for the advice and input. Definitely a good point about the hook being outside the mouth. I think my catch rate was a little bit worse than 1:5 or 1:7, at least it felt like that!

I was at Poe Paddy this weekend with some friends. We arrived early am Sat, went below the tunnel and by 8-9am there were guys everywhere. For a mile below the tunnel to about swift run it looked like opening day of trout season. We fished right through the storm, thunder and lightning until 4 or 5. Quite a few bugs on the water and in air, but we never got into consistent risers. Some spinners in the air and maybe a light Hendrickson spinner fall in morning. March browns throughout the day, tan caddis and some Grey fox. We all caught 5-10 fish mixture between drys and nymphs. Of note, between 4 of us we caught 7 brook trout Saturday, most small 4-6in range, but 1 good one in the 9in range. Went back out for the last 2 hours of daylight right below campground and caught 1 or 2 risers, not much was happening.

Sunday, we were on the water by 8, again tons of guys wandering around between Swift run and the tunnel. Very slow action, we caught a few after persistent nymphing. We threw the bucket at them, between euro nymphing, multiple drys, emerges etc. The guys really cleared out by 11 or so, we fished until 1 and waived the white flag.

Seems like both our groups had pretty similar experiences over the weekend. We were in the Swift Run area as well on Sunday, definitely tough fishing!

I fished Penns yesterday from 7 AM - 2 PM starting from the access above Weikert. When I fished there last Friday I had almost a 30 fish day with two fish of notable size, to yesterday, I got my butt whooped with only 2 fish to the net. I hardly saw any bugs, and the fish seemed to be very turned off and not active. For the life of me, I could not figure it out. I think the temperature drop and abundance of bugs in previous warmer days may have allowed them to remain "dormant" for the colder day. I did have 2 larger fish hit my streamer in tailouts, but no takes. Penns is a very moody stream at times, but thats why I keep coming back!

As George Daniels told me when I was in college, "Every now and then you get served a slice of humble pie."

What you saw is the same thing we did. Seemed like when the clouds rolled in, the fish turned off big time. That's very true about Penns!

 

[discomidge]

Ditto. I took the second shift and fished from 2 to 7pm. It was pretty rough - cold, windy, and 3 fish caught on top. I got 2 bumps underneath as well but didn't get em. The lack of bugs was really something. There were a few MBs, small caddis, and crane flies around but it felt like a ghost town after hendos/grannoms. I didn't see any spinners in the air either, tho I didn't stick around til dark. It was one of the rare days this time of year where I had just had enough. Oh well, I'll be back tomorrow.

 

[tjsingle]

Ditto. I took the second shift and fished from 2 to 7pm. It was pretty rough - cold, windy, and 3 fish caught on top. I got 2 bumps underneath as well but didn't get em. The lack of bugs was really something. There were a few MBs, small caddis, and crane flies around but it felt like a ghost town after hendos/grannoms. I didn't see any spinners in the air either, tho I didn't stick around til dark. It was one of the rare days this time of year where I had just had enough. Oh well, I'll be back tomorrow.

Hopefully it’s a better outing tomorrow!

 

[Swattie87]

Penns, so hot right now.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Was anyone else surprised by number of people on the creek Saturday? I never expect solitude on Penns, but it was almost green drake esque or like opening day on a stocked stream from a good ways below the tunnel up to Poe Paddy on Saturday.

 

[Nocktavius]

Need a good bump in flows to the usual 600 cfs+ to take care of the riff raff.

 

[tjsingle]

Was anyone else surprised by number of people on the creek Saturday? I never expect solitude on Penns, but it was almost green drake esque or like opening day on a stocked stream from a good ways below the tunnel up to Poe Paddy on Saturday.

I didn't really feel that way on Saturday. We both had plenty of sections to ourselves. Sunday seemed to be worse in my experience.

 

[Schaefer406]

Was anyone else surprised by number of people on the creek Saturday? I never expect solitude on Penns, but it was almost green drake esque or like opening day on a stocked stream from a good ways below the tunnel up to Poe Paddy on Saturday.

It definitely has been much more trafficked in recent months than I can remember from previous years. The good thing is, this means people are leaving other (and IMO better) water alone. The key to getting away from crowds on Penns, to no suprise, is to fish in undesirable weather, higher flows, or fish in off seasons. I can go to Penns many days in fall and winter and never see another angler, but as soon as people hear about hatches starting and warm weather happens (hint hint fair weather fishermen) then you will see crowds.

I also notice a lot of the anglers on Penns come in large groups, or are beginner anglers which sometimes leads to frustrating high-holers on days when there is plenty of water open. I started at 7 AM yesterday and there was one other car in the lot with me, and I hop in one section and the guy immediately fished the riffle right above me and kept jumping up . . . Etiquette goes a long way.

 

[Nocktavius]

It definitely has been much more trafficked in recent months than I can remember from previous years. The good thing is, this means people are leaving other (and IMO better) water alone. The key to getting away from crowds on Penns, to no suprise, is to fish in undesirable weather, higher flows, or fish in off seasons. I can go to Penns many days in fall and winter and never see another angler, but as soon as people hear about hatches starting and warm weather happens (hint hint fair weather fishermen) then you will see crowds.

I also notice a lot of the anglers on Penns come in large groups, or are beginner anglers which sometimes leads to frustrating high-holers on days when there is plenty of water open. I started at 7 AM yesterday and there was one other car in the lot with me, and I hop in one section and the guy immediately fished the riffle right above me and kept jumping up . . . Etiquette goes a long way.

I saw somebody up there that put a note on their car that said something to the effect of "I went upstream, don't try to get ahead of me because I'll just pass you again" and I felt like writing "Kinda sounds like a good way to get your ****kicked 4 miles from the car to me ". Sure are all kinds of kinds out there with this low water.

 

[tjsingle]

I saw somebody up there that put a note on their car that said something to the effect of "I went upstream, don't try to get ahead of me because I'll just pass you again" and I felt like writing "Kinda sounds like a good way to get your ****kicked 4 miles from the car to me ". Sure are all kinds of kinds out there with this low water.

Nice.... People like that really ruin the relaxing part of fly fishing.

 

[Swattie87]

I’ve placed a reservation for this Saturday evening for the head of the Broadwaters for 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM.