I said I wasn’t going to spend my whole trip on Penns Creek this year. I did get one one day on the Little J, so I guess I stuck to my guns. This stream just sucks me in to meet the challenges and think that I can figure out her out. I did better and learned a few things, but I only gained feet not yards on this trip.
Many of the guys up for the Unofficial Jam went to Penns on Saturday. Maurice and I then left and stayed at a place in Millmont next to Penns until Wednesday. With the warmer weather over the previous two weeks I fully expected to see Green Drakes when we moved downstream after The Jam. We did and it turned into more of an obsession for several days about where and when they would hatching than I thought.
Weather - the early part of the trip the skies we very clear and temps were in the upper 80’s. The last couple of days things gotten better with temps in the barely in the 70’s and cloudy days.
Water - It had not rained for several weeks and Penns was low at about ~250 CFS during the trip. This was ideal for me and found it a lot easier to find the best riffles and runs. Water was very clear of course.
Hatches - Things really varied from day to day and location to location. Generally, we found sulfurs in the evening. Also in the evenings every night there were spinners of all kinds. I ran into a magnificent sulphur spinner fall Saturday night on Tunnel Road in the riffles of the faster water. Everything from Sunday through Wednesday was a mix of location and times.
The Green Drakes and Coffin Flies were full on and seemed like for several days below Weikert when we got that way on 5/23. There were moving upstream as they usually do and peaked on 5/24 in Weikert from 10-11 am we heard. The Coffin Flies were in full force most of the days. But completely gone in Millmont by 5/25. Upstream Green Drakes emerged steady during the day, but never in a condensed hatch.
We ran into evening sulphur hatches on 5/22, 5/23 and 5/24. These were on different parts of the stream depending on our day. But we also had nights when sulfurs we coming off and 100 feet away we didn’t have anything going on. We could have had Cahills, but the drakes, sulphurs and spinners in the evening overwhelmingly took the stage. Caddis were very sporadic everyday.
Evening spinner falls were generally pretty big very night. There would be be a mix of March Brown, sulphur, Cahill?, and Coffin Fly spinners all around in the evening depending on the day and location. Classic Penns Creek bug soup.
Generally, fishing turned out to be as crazy as the conditions. Saturday (5/22) with everyone on Tunnel road turned out to be a tough day with the blue bird skies even during the evening hatch and spinner fall. Didn’t do much better on the next day downstream. Things improved for me Monday night with the sulphur hatch around Weikert. Tuesday we keyed into the Green Drake hatch and missed a lot and caught some. That evening I did okay with my B52 Rusty Spinners.
Plenty of other people chasing Drakes and heard the Cherry Run parking was packed. We stayed away from that area.
Penns Creek really sucks me in with the the trout and beautiful setting. It was fun to hang out with Maurice and find some new places. I caught one of my better wild browns on drake at almost 20”. Penns is not easy on the legs with all those greased bowling balls on the stream bed. It can really beat you up and to think when I was younger I would run around there without a wading staff? Another great trip, as I caught more than I normally do on Penns, but she is a tough mother.
Many of the guys up for the Unofficial Jam went to Penns on Saturday. Maurice and I then left and stayed at a place in Millmont next to Penns until Wednesday. With the warmer weather over the previous two weeks I fully expected to see Green Drakes when we moved downstream after The Jam. We did and it turned into more of an obsession for several days about where and when they would hatching than I thought.
Weather - the early part of the trip the skies we very clear and temps were in the upper 80’s. The last couple of days things gotten better with temps in the barely in the 70’s and cloudy days.
Water - It had not rained for several weeks and Penns was low at about ~250 CFS during the trip. This was ideal for me and found it a lot easier to find the best riffles and runs. Water was very clear of course.
Hatches - Things really varied from day to day and location to location. Generally, we found sulfurs in the evening. Also in the evenings every night there were spinners of all kinds. I ran into a magnificent sulphur spinner fall Saturday night on Tunnel Road in the riffles of the faster water. Everything from Sunday through Wednesday was a mix of location and times.
The Green Drakes and Coffin Flies were full on and seemed like for several days below Weikert when we got that way on 5/23. There were moving upstream as they usually do and peaked on 5/24 in Weikert from 10-11 am we heard. The Coffin Flies were in full force most of the days. But completely gone in Millmont by 5/25. Upstream Green Drakes emerged steady during the day, but never in a condensed hatch.
We ran into evening sulphur hatches on 5/22, 5/23 and 5/24. These were on different parts of the stream depending on our day. But we also had nights when sulfurs we coming off and 100 feet away we didn’t have anything going on. We could have had Cahills, but the drakes, sulphurs and spinners in the evening overwhelmingly took the stage. Caddis were very sporadic everyday.
Evening spinner falls were generally pretty big very night. There would be be a mix of March Brown, sulphur, Cahill?, and Coffin Fly spinners all around in the evening depending on the day and location. Classic Penns Creek bug soup.
Generally, fishing turned out to be as crazy as the conditions. Saturday (5/22) with everyone on Tunnel road turned out to be a tough day with the blue bird skies even during the evening hatch and spinner fall. Didn’t do much better on the next day downstream. Things improved for me Monday night with the sulphur hatch around Weikert. Tuesday we keyed into the Green Drake hatch and missed a lot and caught some. That evening I did okay with my B52 Rusty Spinners.
Plenty of other people chasing Drakes and heard the Cherry Run parking was packed. We stayed away from that area.
Penns Creek really sucks me in with the the trout and beautiful setting. It was fun to hang out with Maurice and find some new places. I caught one of my better wild browns on drake at almost 20”. Penns is not easy on the legs with all those greased bowling balls on the stream bed. It can really beat you up and to think when I was younger I would run around there without a wading staff? Another great trip, as I caught more than I normally do on Penns, but she is a tough mother.
