Penns Creek, Centre County, 5-1-15

[McSneek]

Greeted by high water but it was fishable if you chose your spots carefully. Water was tinted green. Visibility improved during the day. Wading was a challenge to say the least. I walked from the campground down to the upper catch and release section. Did stop and nymph a few spots upstream of that with no success. Fishing started off slow. There was a heavy black caddis hatch throughout most of the morning and into early afternoon. Probably a size 16. Don't think these were grannoms. Fish weren't on top eating them, that's for sure. By mid afternoon the air was full of thousands of hendrickson spinners plus some hatching along with continued caddis. Fish started coming up everywhere in the Broadwaters. Did well on a red quill emerger. The amount of spinners in the air was stunning. All had the prominent yellow egg sack on the abdomen. Other productive flies were dark cdc caddis, olive bead head caddis pupa, yellow woven stone fly and bead head pheasant tail.

If that area doesn't get a lot more rain the stream is really going to be in nice shape in a few days. It was OK yesterday, just high. A good shot of rain and you can probably forget it. Be safe and use a wading staff!

Yesterday reminded me why Penns Creek is far and away my favorite stream. Just awesome.

 

[JackM]

The first time I really "looked" at Penns, I thought that this is what happens when God sits down to create a trout stream.

 

[Luke]

JackM wrote:
The first time I really "looked" at Penns, I thought that this is what happens when God sits down to create a trout stream.

Amen.

And on some days on Penn's the good Lord giveth and other days he taketh away.

Glad you had an awesome day McSneek. That was what I was trying to find a week ago, but missed.

 

[agent229]

Just a newbie question... went to Penn's once during summer, so it wasn't crowded because it was really too hot to fish, but we wanted to see what it looked like. But honestly had a heck of time imagining how we would fish it. Do people wade, carefully, only in certain spots? Do people stand on the shore and fish somehow? It just seemed very tricky to access and there wasn't really anyone there to watch. I might be up that way in a few weeks and would like to give it a shot.

 

[McSneek]

Penns is very wadeable. Perhaps you were just at a spot that appeared too difficult to wade. By summer water is down and all but the heaviest riffles or deepest areas would be inaccessible. Give it a shot.

 

[fishngun]

I fished Penns too. We experienced the caddis and no rising fish all day too. I felt the water was perfect, I prefer a little color over low and clear any day of the week. We made a last ditch effort and moved locations for the last hour of the day and salvaged an otherwise fish less day with enough to send us home smiling.

 

[JackM]

If Penns is high, it can be treacherous to wade beyond a few feet of the waterline, but when it is normal to low, you can cross in many places without a lot of trouble.

 

[fishngun]

Agreed. I will say that I personally have no issues wading the stream at or even a little above 800 CFS. It's not for everyone though.

 

[JackM]

To me, a wading staff is not so much something to lean on as it is something to poke ahead like a blind person's cane. Any old stick will do.

 

[ROVERT]

I crossed it a couple of times yesterday. I chose the place to do so carefully. This was only my second time fishing Penns. The last time was 15 years ago in July. I remember crossing it easily then.

There were tons of caddis yesterday and quite a few hendricksons. There were also very few rising fish but I had to leave at 5:00. I'm sure things picked up after that. I did hook a really good fish on top. He took off downstream and I was in too deep to give chase. He broke me off when I tried to slow him down a little.

 

[blueheron]

Fished below Coburn on Sunday, grannoms were heavy with few fish rising due to the bluebird skies. The largest fish we saw was in the talons of an osprey, truly a memorable sight. Did not see a single Hendrickson dun or spinner just several sizes and colors of caddis, the water was near perfect in flow, temps and color. Sometimes I hate a sunny day.

 

[Acristickid]

Caddis was lighter yesterday that it was Monday. Most of the rain was north of Penns but still got a few hours of showers last night. Water level was great yesterday.