Penns Creek - Centre/Mifflin/Union - 5/1 to 5/2/26

tjsingle

tjsingle

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 27, 2017
Messages
953
City
Downingtown, PA
Hey all -

I was off work on Friday and decided to make the haul up to Penns with the flows and weather being good. I fished the afternoon until dark on Friday, and the morning until 130P yesterday. I sprained my ankle pretty good earlier in the week, and debated not going but I figured I would be more mad sitting at home than giving it a go.

Flow: 500ish CFS
Water: Low 50's if I had to guess
Clarity: Green, 1-2-ft of visibility.
Weather: Friday mid 50's, period of rain. Saturday mid 40's Sunny.

Friday:

I took my time getting up there, as it was bright sun in the morning in Downingtown. I didn't wake up when I wanted to but I also knew that I wasn't going to be able to fish all day with my ankle. I decided to be there by 1pm so I could fish all afternoon/evening. Once I got on to the stream, there was a pretty consistent mix of BWOs, tan caddis, occasional march browns, and crane flies. I started out with a march brown and got on the board quickly with a average brownie. Kept moving and caught an 11" brookie, which was pretty sweet. I've caught some brook trout at Penns before, but nothing that size though I know others have. Probably the second biggest brookie I've caught in PA.

1777826477488.png

Kept fishing that particular pool with BWO emergers and landed a few more 12" to 14" browns. It was around 430 when the rain started, went back up to my truck to grab my rain coat, and picked up where I left off.


1777826511845.png


At that point the hatches/surface activity was waning and most of the fisherman were headed out. I decided to make the change to a streamer. Action was pretty good, probably a 3 or 4 to 1 strike to hookup ratio. Usually I do well with rain at Penns and streamers. I landed some fish quickly starting with a 14-15" brownie. Moved some bigger fish, one was definitely 18-20".

1777826592972.png


1777826631204.png

​
Kept moving and continued to move decent sized fish, but none to net. I had two pop off, both were good but the hookset wasn't great. They were more so swiping at the streamer rather than fully committing. After some average 12" browns, I decided to go back to the spot I had a bigger fish chase. Immediately got a hit from one and thought well I guess that's it for the day. Another cast, strike. Third cast, finally hooked up and landed a nice 16-17" brown. At that point it was getting dark, and I decided to hobble to my truck.

1777826756568.png
Saturday:
I wasn't sure how well I would be able to fish on Saturday because of my ankle, and to no ones surprise Saturday was ROUGH. Pretty stiff as compared to Friday and so I decided to take my time getting out and fishing, and would just limit myself to a general area that was OK to wade in my current state. I posted up in a spot I knew could see some surface activity, and I nymphed most of the time. Hatches/rises were spotty due to the cold mid 30s temps plus the sun. I decided to nymph and got into a small wild bow, stocker bow, and a 14" wild brown. Got one for the road on a streamer and decided to call it.


1777826892568.png

​


Was it smart to fish one of the more treacherous creeks for wading on a bad ankle? No. Did I learn my lesson? Also no. If you were at Penns and saw an idiot hobbling around the general area with a somewhat straight tree branch as a wading staff, that was me.

While I fishing at my normal pace or duration, I had a good time, and in a weird way it forced me to fish water a little more thoroughly than I normally might. On top of being hobbled, my normal wading boots were out of commission due to a broken lace cleat and my wading staff broke half way through the day Friday. Not really the best string of luck, but I've had worse days at Penns.

Tom
 
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The brook trout numbers seem to be on the rise. The average size also seems to be trending up. I caught a couple today around the 10" mark. A couple weeks ago I caught one that was over 12". It has almost gotten rare for me to not catch brook trout.

I only fished dries and wets today. There were more crane flies than anything but I didn't catch a single fish on them. For dries, tan caddis took the majority of my fish. I missed a few on March browns.

For wets, they seemed to want March Brown soft hackles. The takes were not nearly as solid as last week. My hookup rate was probably one of ten on wets today. Last week it was more like four of five.

I had to hunt the risers. There weren't a ton of them. If a fish rose more than once, though, I could almost certainly get a take.
PXL_20260503_203451683~2.jpg


PXL_20260503_190203694~2.jpg
 
@ROVERT

Yeah no crane fly eaters for me on Saturday. I think I saw a few Friday, but that got replaced by the BWO hatch.

I've usually caught brookies in a few specific places, but this one is the first I got all year after 6 days on Penns. It seems like they often times are in the secondary habitat within the creek. Would be cool if we started seeing even bigger than 12". Though there seems to be plenty of forage all the fish in Penns, haha.
 
tjsingle said:
@ROVERT
I've usually caught brookies in a few specific places, but this one is the first I got all year after 6 days on Penns. It seems like they often times are in the secondary habitat within the creek. Would be cool if we started seeing even bigger than 12". Though there seems to be plenty of forage all the fish in Penns, haha.
Click to expand...

I'd say I've caught between eight and twelve this year. A few of those have been in more prime habitat. I saw the same thing last year. In general, though, yes, they tend to be in slower, shallower water.
 
Fished below Swift Run a couple years ago during a hatch. I don't think we ever figured out what they were taking but it turned out most of the couple dozen risers were small brookies. They were all rising in the shallow riffles below that pool while bigger fish rose in the actual pool.
 
I could be mistaken, but I was under the impression the brook trout that are in Penns are natives. Probable drop downs from the feeder streams

Obviously at some point it was all native brook trout before the wild brownies. I'd be interested to see if there is any history on that
 
I think most move about. It does seem odd that with increasing hot and dry summers, the brookies are coming back. Honestly it seems like the brookie tribs on Penns have fewer fish than years ago. That observation is not scientific at all.
 
tjsingle said:
Hey all -

I was off work on Friday and decided to make the haul up to Penns with the flows and weather being good. I fished the afternoon until dark on Friday, and the morning until 130P yesterday. I sprained my ankle pretty good earlier in the week, and debated not going but I figured I would be more mad sitting at home than giving it a go.

Flow: 500ish CFS
Water: Low 50's if I had to guess
Clarity: Green, 1-2-ft of visibility.
Weather: Friday mid 50's, period of rain. Saturday mid 40's Sunny.

Friday:

I took my time getting up there, as it was bright sun in the morning in Downingtown. I didn't wake up when I wanted to but I also knew that I wasn't going to be able to fish all day with my ankle. I decided to be there by 1pm so I could fish all afternoon/evening. Once I got on to the stream, there was a pretty consistent mix of BWOs, tan caddis, occasional march browns, and crane flies. I started out with a march brown and got on the board quickly with a average brownie. Kept moving and caught an 11" brookie, which was pretty sweet. I've caught some brook trout at Penns before, but nothing that size though I know others have. Probably the second biggest brookie I've caught in PA.


Kept fishing that particular pool with BWO emergers and landed a few more 12" to 14" browns. It was around 430 when the rain started, went back up to my truck to grab my rain coat, and picked up where I left off.




At that point the hatches/surface activity was waning and most of the fisherman were headed out. I decided to make the change to a streamer. Action was pretty good, probably a 3 or 4 to 1 strike to hookup ratio. Usually I do well with rain at Penns and streamers. I landed some fish quickly starting with a 14-15" brownie. Moved some bigger fish, one was definitely 18-20".

Kept moving and continued to move decent sized fish, but none to net. I had two pop off, both were good but the hookset wasn't great. They were more so swiping at the streamer rather than fully committing. After some average 12" browns, I decided to go back to the spot I had a bigger fish chase. Immediately got a hit from one and thought well I guess that's it for the day. Another cast, strike. Third cast, finally hooked up and landed a nice 16-17" brown. At that point it was getting dark, and I decided to hobble to my truck.

Saturday:
I wasn't sure how well I would be able to fish on Saturday because of my ankle, and to no ones surprise Saturday was ROUGH. Pretty stiff as compared to Friday and so I decided to take my time getting out and fishing, and would just limit myself to a general area that was OK to wade in my current state. I posted up in a spot I knew could see some surface activity, and I nymphed most of the time. Hatches/rises were spotty due to the cold mid 30s temps plus the sun. I decided to nymph and got into a small wild bow, stocker bow, and a 14" wild brown. Got one for the road on a streamer and decided to call it.



Was it smart to fish one of the more treacherous creeks for wading on a bad ankle? No. Did I learn my lesson? Also no. If you were at Penns and saw an idiot hobbling around the general area with a somewhat straight tree branch as a wading staff, that was me.

While I fishing at my normal pace or duration, I had a good time, and in a weird way it forced me to fish water a little more thoroughly than I normally might. On top of being hobbled, my normal wading boots were out of commission due to a broken lace cleat and my wading staff broke half way through the day Friday. Not really the best string of luck, but I've had worse days at Penns.

Tom
Click to expand...
That’s a good full season of fishing for me!
 
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