Spring Creek 7/20/14, Centre County

[albud1962]

Tried fishing near Milesburg but the whole lower section was crawling with anglers. Went to another less popular stream until 4 pm. Did ok catching some wild browns and rainbows on terrestrials. Headed upstream of Benner Springs. The fish are smaller up there, but fished pretty much unmolested. Killed on green inch worms and greenie weenies. The evening bite was tougher. lots of risers but I couldn't see what they were taking. Definitely emergers as many fish were coming out of the water and one followed my green weenie as I lifted for my next cast. Tried a small snowshoe emerger with no luck. The fish shut off and I started downstream to my car. It was getting dark and the fish started to make splashy rises. I threw on a size 14 stimulator and the game was on again. Caught ten in a matter of a half hour. Got too dark to see so I packed it in. Not sure what was coming off, any opinions are appreciated. Really liking my 10ft 4Wt. with a 12 ft leader. Makes me think I know what I am doing when I cast🙂

 

[troutbert]

albud1962 wrote:
Tried fishing near Milesburg but the whole lower section was crawling with anglers.

There was a tournament going on.

 

[3wt7X]

Great report, green weenies and stimulators, two of my favorites!!!

 

[albud1962]

Troutbert:
I wish I would have known. I would have gone with a tub of waxworms,spinning rod and joined the crowd.The dirty looks would have been priceless!LoL

 

[SBecker]

Albud,

You know.....

I would have no problems posting up the Pennsylvania competitions that are held. However, every time I would, it would become a #censor# show thread. Might be a reason no one else does either. You can check out the Troutlegend site for dates that events are held.

In regards to the dirty looks. You would be wrong. I know many competitors and I shared water with bait, spin, and other fly fisherman with only pleasantries shared. I had one bait guy literally jump in the hole I was fishing after I landed and measured a fish. I turned around measured it, turned around to release it, and he was there. I just laughed and wished him luck. The tubers and kayaks were really fun too! I have a good video of the guys practicing some type of kayaking tricks while one of my competitors was about to begin fishing. It was pretty funny.

 

[1hook]

Might run over there tonight. What's the best stretch to run the old hopper dropper?

 

[albud1962]

Sbecker, no worries. Was a great day to be out and I was able to fish in solitude.

 

[albud1962]

You know I never did well with hoppers at Spring Creek. last year the area near the sheep farm was loaded with them but I had no looks at my hopper. ants and the above mentioned green inch worm seem to be my best bets.

 

[dryflyguy]

I've often seen caddis hatching on spring creek right at dark during the summer months

 

[albud1962]

That would make sense as they hit the stimulator readily. I didn't see anything over the water except fire flies. I guess the only thing one can do in these instances is to cycle through the fly box and hope something works.The reason I used the stimulator is it was something I could see as it was getting dark.

 

[boychick]

Where is the sheep far on Spring Creek?

 

[1hook]

I fished the stretch above the bridge there at Benner springs, had some luck on greenie weenies, stimulators, Griffith nats. Most fish were taken on the greenie weenie. Tried hoppers and beetles with some missed takes but didn't land anything on them. Pretty similar experience that you had albud. Definetly had a good time and the fish did shut down on me later in the evening. I fished till about 745

 

[troutbert]

boychick wrote:
Where is the sheep far on Spring Creek?

Just downstream from Spring Creek Park in Houserville.

 

[mario66pens]

dryflyguy wrote:
I've often seen caddis hatching on spring creek right at dark during the summer months

I saw this last night, I did pretty well on a #14 brown stimulator until I couldn't see anymore at the axemann bridge were we fished that sulphur hatch.

 

[dryflyguy]

troutbert wrote:

boychick wrote:
Where is the sheep far on Spring Creek?

Just downstream from Spring Creek Park in Houserville.

There is a sheep farm downstream from the trout road bridge - and it's posted. Guess that's the same one?

 

[troutbert]

dryflyguy wrote:

troutbert wrote:

boychick wrote:
Where is the sheep far on Spring Creek?

Just downstream from Spring Creek Park in Houserville.

There is a sheep farm downstream from the trout road bridge - and it's posted. Guess that's the same one?

No, that's a different place.

I'm talking about the Penn State Univ sheep farm. It is directly downstream (the next property) from Spring Creek Park in Houserville, just below Puddintown Rd. It extends downstream about 2/3 mile or so.

If you go there check out the riparian buffer work. This was initially done by Spring Creek Trout Unlimited with cooperation with PSU.

In more recent years the width of the buffer was expanded greatly. Partners: Spring Creek TU, Clearwater Conservancy, PSU.

 

[Mike]

mario66pens: Axeman Bridge? That sounds to me like Logan Branch, not Spring Creek. Is there an Axeman Bridge on Spring Ck?

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear Mike,

The USGS gauge for Spring Creek refers to the Axeman Bridge. It's the bridge about 1 1/2 miles below the Paradise. There is a USGS transmitter immediately below the bridge on the right bank facing downstream.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂

 

[troutbert]

Axemann is on Logan Branch, not Spring Creek.

That bridge is locally called "Hartles bridge." This is the bridge below the "cottage stretch", the first bridge you come to driving down from Fishermans Paradise.

The gauge on Spring Creek just below Hartles bridge is referred to the USGS as the Axemann gauge.

Even though that location is not called Axemann locally, and is not shown on any map as Axemann, and was never named that historically.

Axemann is definitely on Logan Branch. It was named for the Mann axe factory that was there back in the day.

Apparently the USGS calls that the Axemann gauge because there is no other name nearby in their geographical names database. So they just call it by whatever geographical name is closest.

A bad choice IMHO. It is very confusing geographically.

Do you think it would be possible to get USGS to change the name?

What would be a better name?

Maybe they could call it the Fishermans Paradise gauge. It's not at FP, it's about a mile downstream. But it is definitely not at Axemann either. Axemann is on a different stream!

 

[boychick]

Troutbert and Dryflyguy,

Thanks for the info guys. I never knew there was a sheep farm there. I appreciate the clarification. I'm not all that familiar with Spring Creek above Rock Road, most of my fishing has been from there down.