Spring Creek, Centre County, 2/20/2010

[JackM]

Albatross and I visited Spring Creek today. Water was clear and not high. I would say it was a little on the low side, but still good flows. There were a few black midges in the air, but between us we only saw a few trout rise. #16 light green scuds and a pink egg brought some fish to hand for each of us. Air temps reaches mid-thirties, didn't take the water temps.

Here are a few impressions of my day:

 

[dryflyguy]

Nice way to break the cabin fever.
I guess there's probably just as much snow on the ground up there as around here?

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

nice Jack.🙂 I gotta get back that way myself. Thanks 🙂

 

[midgeman]

Great job Jack! Man the fish in Pic 1 and 3 look as big as the stream! How was access where you entered the stream? Was there as much snow as what we have here on the Mason Dixon Line? I went to the Gunpowder yesterday with a buddy and we trudged through A LOT of deep snow 😉 and well got skunked, haha!

 

[JackM]

State College got a lot less snow than other parts of the east coast. I would estimate that walking through the wooded areas, there was only about 12-14 inches of snow on the ground. The parking areas on Spring Creek Rd. where we fished were partially plowed, leaving room for a couple vehicles at each one. For a cold day in February, there were surprisingly a good number of anglers out, but as you can see (if you look real close) the section of streams used in my photos were devoid of other anglers.

 

[albatross]

I'll post a few pics tonight. Had a great day outside with Jack yesterday. Really helped my fever...

I'm not saying that Jack actually fished with a scud, but I caught all my fish on the magical pink egg (sz 18) from 4:30 to 6:00 PM after being skunked from 11-4:30.

 

[dryflyguy]

Glad to hear the snows not quite as heavy there. I'm hoping to fish BWO's on it in a few weeks.

 

[JackM]

albatross wrote:
I'm not saying that Jack actually fished with a scud, ...

 

[greenghost]

Glad you guys got out. I was thinking of making a trip to limestone country myself as soon as the snowpack comes down a bit more. Out of curiosity did you see any rising fish?

 

[JackM]

"... between us we only saw a few trout rise."

 

[salmo]

I will be in that area in late April. Hope to catch some nice hatches.

Salmo

 

[albatross]

Here are my photos.

1. Jack and my fishing vehicle.
2. Brown
3. Bow

I believe I left my Lamson Radius 1.5 reel on top of my vehicle when we left. It didn't make it home. May be in the lot we parked on along spring or on a road nearby. Its in a black Lamson neoprene case.

If anyone finds my reel, I'll be happy to pay shipping and a modest finders fee. I got the reel on clearance for $90 and I have another 30 or 40 in the line.

I plan to call the two big local fly shops tomorrow and let them know I've lost a reel, and I may put a post on FFP's forum.

 

[tomgamber]

Bummer about the reel Alby. Hope someone find sit and does the right thing. I so need to get out.

 

[JackM]

Here's another with Greg losing grip on that sucker.

 

[pcray1231]

I drove past you, in fact I remember seeing a fisherman right where alby is in that last pic. I went out fishing that same day, fished a small wild trout stream a little north of you. There was a little more snow in the mountains than in the valley and the stream was maybe 2/3 frozen over, which made things tough. I ended up with 4 brookies, 3 browns, one of the browns was in the solid 14-15" range. I fished a dry dropper all day, all the browns took the dropper and all the brookies took the dry.

By the way, as far as the "stream speed" discussion, I paid some attention to it since the recent discussion. I fished for 2 1/2 hours, starting at the car and fishing upstream. Then I turned around and hiked directly back to the car. The hike back was almost exactly 1 hour. So my deep snow walking speed is about 2 1/2 times faster than my deep snow fishing speed.

With the snow, I'm not sure how it effected my fishing speed. The walking between holding water was slower, but I had to skip some decent water due to ice as well. The walk back was certainly slower.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

i bet its faster also when there is no snow. Probably on both sides.

 

[David]

Hey Albie...
Where's that no-slip glove?

 

[Squaretail]

Dang, either that rainbow is of the pre-altered era or its just a pig. What a belly.
Glad you two got up there.

 

[albatross]

The rainbow was only 13 inches, but the girth was like a softball and he fought like a champ. Nice fish!

 

[tomgamber]

Yeah, I was thinking that rainbow looked like its been hanging out with me this winter...