Shaw Run, Blair Co/SGL-158, 29 June 2026

CinnamonJoe

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MOUNT VERNON
Time of day: 10am-2pm
Air Temp/Weather: 75-80°F/Partly Sunny
Water Temp: 56°F

Hatches: light/sporadic small grey mayflies & grey colored caddis, #16

With a heatwave on the doorstep, I made arrangements to fish yesterday & today ahead of it.

Typical Allegheny Front mtn freestone stream; some springs still trickling in, but obvious the creek was poised for a summer drop. Full, deep forested canopy, along with recent rains (still ample puddles in the deep woods) were working together to keep it cool.

Started with my #16 'Coachman dry, and got into them right away; after a brief slump, I tied on a beadhead #16 Hare's Ear, fished in the older indicator style, and got right back into them. Caught several/missed several.

Most fish came from the plunge pools, but some were caught off guard loafing in the riffles. A stealthy approach helped.

All Brookies, save for one Brown. I destroyed my legs today back in there. I will sleep well tonite! I had plans to hit another stream a valley over, but being sore and hungry by 2pm; with a long hike to the truck ahead of me, I decided to end the day on a high note & surprise my wife by arriving home early, ahead of schedule! LOL

(the pizza can be got @ Dino's in Altoona)

Thanks for the memories!

Joe

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What really surprised me on that stream was where the old railroad grade crossed the stream. Instead of the building a bridge, like usual, they ran the stream through a culvert and just added enough earth on top of the culvert to fill in the valley and allow the train tracks to keep its grade level high up on the hillslopes.

Big Fill Run was supposedly named after a similar feature, but that "big fill" is on private, posted land, I think, so I never saw that one.
 
What really surprised me on that stream was where the old railroad grade crossed the stream. Instead of the building a bridge, like usual, they ran the stream through a culvert and just added enough earth on top of the culvert to fill in the valley and allow the train tracks to keep its grade level high up on the hillslopes.

Big Fill Run was supposedly named after a similar feature, but that "big fill" is on private, posted land, I think, so I never saw that one.
You mean this?

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Joe
 
Yep! It's cool to see that again.

It took a massive amount of fill material to create that.

I'd imagine so.

The picture doesn't do justice to the scale of the switchback & the railroad ballast/bank. I felt very small back in there.

Joe
 
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Cool stream. Fished like junk the day I was there (high, cold, early Spring water), but the fill and culvert was worth it. Definitely (relatively) unique.
 
Looks like a good day!

That fill slope/culvert is impressive. I'm guessing they had an excess of fill from a nearby cut, and it was easier to build a culvert versus a bridge as they were going to need to build the grade up anyway, nonetheless really cool. As civil engineer, I always like finding cool old structures when I am fishing.
 
Thats a significant fill, there are lots of railroad grades similar. Plenty of big ones on erie tribs, but I can think of several in the Loyalsock State Forest. Well one was blown out during 2016/18 flooding.
 
Time of day: 10am-2pm
Air Temp/Weather: 75-80°F/Partly Sunny
Water Temp: 56°F

Hatches: light/sporadic small grey mayflies & grey colored caddis, #16

With a heatwave on the doorstep, I made arrangements to fish yesterday & today ahead of it.

Typical Allegheny Front mtn freestone stream; some springs still trickling in, but obvious the creek was poised for a summer drop. Full, deep forested canopy, along with recent rains (still ample puddles in the deep woods) were working together to keep it cool.

Started with my #16 'Coachman dry, and got into them right away; after a brief slump, I tied on a beadhead #16 Hare's Ear, fished in the older indicator style, and got right back into them. Caught several/missed several.

Most fish came from the plunge pools, but some were caught off guard loafing in the riffles. A stealthy approach helped.

All Brookies, save for one Brown. I destroyed my legs today back in there. I will sleep well tonite! I had plans to hit another stream a valley over, but being sore and hungry by 2pm; with a long hike to the truck ahead of me, I decided to end the day on a high note & surprise my wife by arriving home early, ahead of schedule! LOL

(the pizza can be got @ Dino's in Altoona)

Thanks for the memories!

Joe

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Pizza......knife & fork?
 
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