JeffP
Well-known member
The ridge behind the cabin was timbered a few years ago. If you park at the cabin, look up and you can clearly see it. I guess that was game lands but I don't know.
Segloch, Lancaster County, 2/12/2013
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Those are a couple of the main points I think that point to the loss of habitat from the natural sandy geology. All of its neighbors were fishing well, and had much improved habitat, over that same time period. I could regularly expect a good, or at least decent day, depending on conditions, on any one of them during that time period.
They’re all fishing poorly at the moment. I caught Shearers twice in really good conditions in 2019 and 2020. Up and off color, and 60ish water temp. Caught maybe 3 in 2019 and a skunk in 2020. In 2014 to 2015 those conditions would have produced a 40+ fish day, easy. Maybe more.
I too have largely written that area off for the time being. Unfortunate, as I like it, and it’s close to home. I fished Segloch the most recent of the bunch, Winter 2022, and got skunked.
I’ll probably try Furnace at some point this March, while the stocked streams are closed. My wife is pregnant and due any day now, so my Spring 2023 outings are likely to limited in frequency, and short in duration, and it’s still pretty quick for me to get to these streams. I’ll report back with how I do.
wgmiller
Well-known member
I was following this thread loosely and didn't really have intentions of visiting Segloch, until I ended up hitting a few northern LanCo streams yesterday.
The first thing that struck me, as mentioned by the OP, was purple paint and posting where the "hard road" turns into the "no winter maintenance" road. Many of us park in that area and fish up or downstream. Parking on the right side heading north was open, but the opposite side of the stream was posted with "No Parking" signs and purple paint galore. It took me a little bit to figure out what was going on, as you could easily see SGL signs on the opposite side of the postings. I did a little streamside recon and discovered that the area of posted land is literally a sliver of the poster's main body of land. That being said, the stream IS on SGL and there can be fished. The workaround for this situation is to walk upstream and access the stream, just past the posted land. Again, the stream is clearly on SGL and therefore is not a part of this posting. If confronted by the property owner, clearly state that. I'm not sure what the reason for posting this land is, other than perhaps trash being dumped or "because they can".
The thin sliver between the creek and road is the newly posted land. As you can see, the creek is clearly on SGL.
As far as the creek goes, like most of you, it's a "once or twice a year" stream. I never make it a destination stream, but instead a diversion along the trip to another stream. I'll echo many of the observations in the original post, as it suffers from high water events, a lack of habitat, and limited macro life. I have no doubt that it is very cyclical in nature when it comes to fishing better some years compared to others. I'd also be willing to bet with the limited forage base that many YOY browns become a food source.
The water was a little off-color yesterday and had a good flow to it. I'd say average to slightly above average flow, as we had some rain the days previous. The stream fished about as well as it always does for me, which translates into a dozen or so fish. I tossed a #12 Mayer's black mini leech and had a lot of success with it. I fished up and downstream of the parking area a half mile or so in each direction, catching and moving fish, albeit not in every run/hole.
My best fish of the outing
Typical-size fish caught (6" +/-)
Welcome to the Furnace Hills!
*Of note, I didn't find the best fish I've ever caught in the stream in his lair. Instead, I found a smaller fish, which tells me that the hole has turned over and the bigger fish may not be around anymore. I caught this fish back in 2021 on an olive sculpin pattern. Quite a gem for Segloch!
The first thing that struck me, as mentioned by the OP, was purple paint and posting where the "hard road" turns into the "no winter maintenance" road. Many of us park in that area and fish up or downstream. Parking on the right side heading north was open, but the opposite side of the stream was posted with "No Parking" signs and purple paint galore. It took me a little bit to figure out what was going on, as you could easily see SGL signs on the opposite side of the postings. I did a little streamside recon and discovered that the area of posted land is literally a sliver of the poster's main body of land. That being said, the stream IS on SGL and there can be fished. The workaround for this situation is to walk upstream and access the stream, just past the posted land. Again, the stream is clearly on SGL and therefore is not a part of this posting. If confronted by the property owner, clearly state that. I'm not sure what the reason for posting this land is, other than perhaps trash being dumped or "because they can".
The thin sliver between the creek and road is the newly posted land. As you can see, the creek is clearly on SGL.
As far as the creek goes, like most of you, it's a "once or twice a year" stream. I never make it a destination stream, but instead a diversion along the trip to another stream. I'll echo many of the observations in the original post, as it suffers from high water events, a lack of habitat, and limited macro life. I have no doubt that it is very cyclical in nature when it comes to fishing better some years compared to others. I'd also be willing to bet with the limited forage base that many YOY browns become a food source.
The water was a little off-color yesterday and had a good flow to it. I'd say average to slightly above average flow, as we had some rain the days previous. The stream fished about as well as it always does for me, which translates into a dozen or so fish. I tossed a #12 Mayer's black mini leech and had a lot of success with it. I fished up and downstream of the parking area a half mile or so in each direction, catching and moving fish, albeit not in every run/hole.
My best fish of the outing
Typical-size fish caught (6" +/-)
Welcome to the Furnace Hills!
*Of note, I didn't find the best fish I've ever caught in the stream in his lair. Instead, I found a smaller fish, which tells me that the hole has turned over and the bigger fish may not be around anymore. I caught this fish back in 2021 on an olive sculpin pattern. Quite a gem for Segloch!
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JeffP
Well-known member
Glad to see you did well. I must just suck! I'm guessing your black leech was close to my black bugger. Any brookies?
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Nice to see a good outing on it. You caught it well, up a bit, and after a warming trend. Those conditions tend to favor catching more Browns in a stream with a mixed population but I too would be interested what the species breakdown was, or, if it was all Browns.
Either way, that was 12x better than my last two outings there.
Either way, that was 12x better than my last two outings there.
wgmiller
Well-known member
Ha! Nah, it's all about conditions, conditions, conditions! I caught it with slightly stained water and bit higher-than-normal flow. To me Segloch fishes like a brookie stream that is full of browns (I mean, it is by nature a brookie stream after all). Lots of pocket water and short runs. Getting them on top is the easiest way to have a successful day, but that window is only open part of the year.
No brookies. I likely don't fish far enough upstream to get into brookies. I always end up hopping out where the water appears to get skinny. I need to explore further upstream, because it would be neat to catch some brookies as well. TBH, I haven't even fished it up to the point it goes under the road, so I have a good ways to fish upstream!
As far as Mayer's mini leech goes, it's in the same vein as a black bugger, but much smaller in profile. This fly has really been a solid producer for me (dead drifted and twitched) over the past year or so.
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I fished Furnace today. Caught 2 dink Brookies, and kicked out one Brown, slightly bigger. Lots of red sand. Sank in several times over my wading boots. All of the big holes were roughly half as deep as they were prior to the floods and had huge sandbars in them, and I didn’t catch or see a fish in any of them.
I sat and ate my lunch next to one of them and pondered a bit. What the sand seems to do is pile up into sandbars just off the main current tongues, where fish typically like to lay. The main current tongue is still reasonably deep, but fish don’t like to sit in that real heavy stuff. The area off the tongue is a sandbar that shallows out into a couple inches of water, where there used to be a deep back eddy that would hold fish too.
I think I’m about done with the FH streams till we get another flood event. There’s still fish there, but the “fun to fish” factor with the junky habitat is way down.
The pic below is the “best” hole that’s left. Note the sandbar on the right middle of the hole that goes down into the tailout. The left side is still deep and undercut, but the current down through is pretty strong. I typically would catch fish from this hole from roughly where the sandbar starts, between the left and middle plunges.
Edit: One last thought. If you go to fish this one, don’t wear your good waders. The multiflora rose on the west side of the stream down from 501 has gotten really thick.
I sat and ate my lunch next to one of them and pondered a bit. What the sand seems to do is pile up into sandbars just off the main current tongues, where fish typically like to lay. The main current tongue is still reasonably deep, but fish don’t like to sit in that real heavy stuff. The area off the tongue is a sandbar that shallows out into a couple inches of water, where there used to be a deep back eddy that would hold fish too.
I think I’m about done with the FH streams till we get another flood event. There’s still fish there, but the “fun to fish” factor with the junky habitat is way down.
The pic below is the “best” hole that’s left. Note the sandbar on the right middle of the hole that goes down into the tailout. The left side is still deep and undercut, but the current down through is pretty strong. I typically would catch fish from this hole from roughly where the sandbar starts, between the left and middle plunges.
Edit: One last thought. If you go to fish this one, don’t wear your good waders. The multiflora rose on the west side of the stream down from 501 has gotten really thick.
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wgmiller
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This is what I saw in many areas of Segloch as well. We need a good monsoon to get that stuff moving!
Fish Sticks
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Beautiful shot, family is dealing with latest daycare diarrheal illness and I have been on lock down cannot wait to get out eventually.
I am not familiar with the stream and I will never travel that far to fish it, but that looks beautiful Swattie. A stream with a lot of potential. It looks like a lot of small creeks around me in the valleys, actually. My streams don't have that sand/sedimentation problem, though.
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Meh. That shot is deceiving. Ignoring the sand geology issue for a moment, the stream is very low gradient with junky habitat, save for roughly a 1/3 mile stretch, that fortunately is on SGL. It look me maybe an hour to fish it the other day. With the sand, even most of that short steeper stretch is pretty junky right now.
Disappointing. Low gradient isn't always a bad thing, it just lends itself to different styles of fishing.
Every stream is a unique adventure. Some adventures, obviously, more fun and exhilarating than others.
sixfootfenwick
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Actually id go as far to say that low gradient is very good for brook trout. It is what they actually prefer, grow bigger in etc...
Problem is that stream is small, infertile, has poor habitat, various ponds that warm it and has silt issues.
Low gradient certainly isn't it's big issue.
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Low gradient pool habitat is very much favored by brown trout, too.
sixfootfenwick
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Maybe so, but my point was it isn't a limiting factor.
Here are the recommendations for the stream.
Here are the recommendations for the stream.
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That’s a good article, pre floods, from 2004. This is essentially the conditions we have now. Note the sandbar discussions in the pics of Segloch, and all the sand in the “bridge” hole. This hole fished well during that brief habitat renaissance from during the mid 2010’s, but looks similar to the 2004 photos again now.
Sure. and my point is, no one ever said low gradient is a limiting factor.
From an angling perspective it is way, way easier to catch fish in broken water and not a stream with a super low gradient.
sixfootfenwick
Well-known member
Erm. No.
I believe , at least as I read it Swattie was saying that beyond the silt, it is low gradient with poor habitat as a negative.
The low gradient isnt a strike against it in either atheistics(user decided), in it's populations or in it's abilities for anglers to catch fish.
sixfootfenwick
Well-known member
Actually come to think of it, how close did you get to Fox Road?
I was just hiking it about 3 weeks ago and there is a big hole with a big downed tree and undercuts on either side. Certainly better than that one but you are right, it's looking pretty poor these days habitat wise.
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I did say that. And I did mean that lower gradient generally translates into poorer habitat for Trout, especially on small streams. Once Segloch and Furnace (since they’re the examples in discussion here) get below the TPike they become very low gradient. The sand issues become even worse because there is less water velocity to move it. (Look at their respective bridges on Hopeland Road to demonstrate this.)
Too much gradient isn’t good too. There’s definitely a sweet spot. Both Segloch and Furnace in their SGL stretches have decent enough gradient to make decent habitat (were it not for the sand). Outside of those stretches they don’t. See the report for pics and confirmation.
