Penns Creek, Centre County, 6/21/2011

[PA12pt]

Had a good day around the poe paddy area on penns creek the other day. Started around 630 a.m. and ended around 1130 a.m. Not much to speak of for hatches, a few slates, and caddis and what i believe were blue quills dancing around. Nymphed all morning and brought about 8 or 9 to the net including one of my best fish ever on penns around 19 inches. A few other decent fish too. Had quite a few get off which usually happens to me when im fishing size 18 caddis larva. The nice one took a size 14 pheasant tail. My dad only brought 2 to the net and oddly enough they were both rainbows that took a big stone. Now we were a mile or better down in the C&R so this threw me for a loop as to how they were down there. All the high water maybe? I dont know. Beautiful day on penns though as it always is.

 

[3wt7X]

Nice Report and great brown. I love Penns, and I gotta get back there soon!

 

[pcray1231]

There's always a few bows down there. Isn't one of those riffles actually locally referred to as "rainbow riffle"?

It's a big stream, rainbows are stocked both above and below and known to travel many miles, it's not hard to figure out how they got there. High water helps, but is not required on a stream like Penns.

Great report and thats a beauty of a brown!

 

[csoult]

Nice pics and nice report.

 

[PSUFishMenace]

That first pic is awesome! Looks like my kind of stream, lots of fast pocket water. Hope I can get to it this fall!

 

[afishinado]

Nice report, pics and a really nice fish! Thanks.

 

[troutpoop]

Nice Brown!! Beautiful Creek.

 

[albud1962]

State stocks rainbows above coburn and in weikert so the fish could have come from both directions. Numerous streams are also stocked with rainbows with drainage to Penns Creek.
I caught a rainbow at the little j today tbat looked wild. Had nice fins.

 

[albatross]

Nice photos, nice fish, and sounds like a nice day on the water with your dad!

 

[mcfinn]

Nice! Good lookin' pics... looks like you even captured the new grey-gravel road from the boat ramp @ Poe Paddy SP.

 

[volcanomil]

nice report and fish

 

[PA12pt]

Thanks guys, that stream never gets old. And that makes sense with all the stockies around i just didn't think they traveled that far, i always thought where we were was extremely far for a fish to travel from a stocked stream but i'm no fish biologist, i just like to catch em haha.

And McFinn, the road pic is supposed to be a pic of that turkey in the weeds i just couldnt get zoomed quick enough lol. But they did fix that road a good bit finally

 

[pcray1231]

The PFBC did some studies on this:

http://www.fish.state.pa.us/images/fisheries/info_sheets/trout_movement.pdf

Summary:

They tagged a bunch of fish, and put radio transmitters on others and tracked them.

1. They couldn't figure out why the fish moved. Movement didn't seem correlated to pH, hatchery location, etc.

2. Timing of movement varied by species. Rainbows stay put the least amount of time and travelled the furthest. Brookies tended to stay put and when they did travel, went less distance. Browns were in between.

- A total of 9 rainbows got the radio transmitter. Almost all of them left after 3 days, only 1 remained in the stocking limits after a few weeks. One was found 123 miles away!!!! Thats not a typo, 123 stream miles!!!

- A total of 8 browns got the radio transmitter. Almost all stayed for at least 7 days. When they did move, they didn't go that far, the longest traveler went 6 stream miles.

- A total of 8 brookies got the transmitter. Almost all stayed for at least 10 days. Even then, very few moved much distance, though one did go 11.6 miles, and another went 7.5 stream miles and then went up a tributary.

Now, from Coburn to Weikert is what, 10 stream miles (guestimating)? For a rainbow, thats absolutely nothing, and not too far out of the ordinary for browns either.

 

[PA12pt]

Those are some amazing numbers, thanks alot for the info

 

[bikerfish]

I guess rainbows get a severe case of wonderlust and feel the need to explore!
I wonder if that occurs because rainbows are native to tribs of the pacific(steelhead, same fish) and it's in thier genetic makeup to travel.

 

[pcray1231]

I'm sure that's part of it.

 

[pspaint]

Beautiful brown! Well done, sir! I'm sure the high water moved those fish down there. It moved a lot of stuff around! lol.