Spring Creek, 5/22/16, Centre County

[albud1962]

Isn't it funny how you drive in your car for an hour and as soon as you are fully rigged and ready to head down the path the gods flush the proverbial toilet. And so it went for my first trip to Six Mile Run, Centre County. But wait, you thought this was a report about Spring Creek, and yes my friend it is. Frustrated in the drenching I received along the rocky bottomed Six Mile, I head eastward toward the smiling banks of Spring Creek in Happy Valley. It seems the rain front was stalled over the mountanious brook trout streams just outside of Phillipsburg, but only a gentle mist blanketed the environs of spring creek. I arrived and immediately looked for evidence of other anglers who might have already captured or startled the quarry of my pursuit. None were evident. The stream was a color and flow which shouted hungry unwary fish. But before flinging my pale yellow offering, I watched and observed. Small yellowish flies struggled to take wing, not many but enough to be noticed. Then a small splashy rise. Ok time to cast. Several drifts in the fast flowing water I made. I tied on an orange bunny creation I crafted the night before. The orange fly struggled to float in the heavy water. Hmm maybe not buoyant enough I thought. As it eased into the slower water a take! Two minutes later a nice ten inch brown came to hand. I proceeded to catch several more trout on the fly until it became embedded high in the branches of an adjacent tree. Fortunately, the fish took a variety of sulphur patterns as I moved upstream. There were not a lot of rising fish but a fly placed closely to the bank or near a jutting rock often illicited a strike.

At dawn I was hoping to find a new enticing mistress but at day's end I found solace with an old reliable friend.