Spring Creek, Centre County 3/12/2014 and 3/13/2014

[salmonoid]

I fished Spring Creek for a few hours over two afternoons. The area received close to an inch of rain on Wednesday, 3/12. The Houserville USGS gauge was at 208cfs when I left Williamsport around 3:30PM on Wednesday afternoon, and I drove through another band of heavy rain enroute to Spring Creek. By 6PM or so, the gauge was reading about 260cfs, and the creek showed it. With my streamer rod, I was tossing a size 2 olive Crafty Sculpin along the banks and into a few areas where eddies had formed, but I had nothing remotely resembling a hit. Air temperature on Wednesday ranged from the mid-40s when I started but dropped into the upper twenties when I finally threw in the towel. Water temperature was 43.5 degrees. I started at FFP and finished at Benner Springs.

On Thursday, after walking halfway across the blustery and frigid Penn State campus tundra, I had pretty much resolved myself to just head home and not fish. But, as I drove down Park Avenue, the car had a mind of it's own and continued onto I-99 and got off at the Shiloh Road exit. The air didn't feel as cold in the Canyon, perhaps because there was a little shelter from the wind. The stream had dropped a bit and had also cleared up a tiny bit, but visibility was still less than a foot. I felt comfortable enough wading though. Houserville gauge was showing around 150cfs. Probably due to the cold air mass overnight, water temperature had dropped to 41 degrees and the air temperature in late afternoon was 25 degrees. I only fished for an hour and only had one strike, but that strike turned out to be a 16" brown. I saw one other guy fishing downstream but he walked out before I got a chance to talk to him. See if you can spot him in the second picture. I was glad to chase the skunk, but thought I might do a lot better, given the falling water. Perhaps the two degree water temperature drop put them down for a bit.









From 2014/03/13












From 2014/03/13












From 2014/03/13

 

[sarce]

Nice fish, you got one at least. You're right, you do seem to run into crappy weather every time you visit SC. If you're going up next month let me know, I'll be around.

 

[BrookieChaser]

Frozen Penn State tundra, with constant wind... I remember that all too well.

 

[nymphingmaniac]

FYI: anytime the houserville gauge is over 100-120, you're in for a tough outing

 

[salmonoid]

nymphingmaniac wrote:
FYI: anytime the houserville gauge is over 100-120, you're in for a tough outing

I had 70-80cfs in the back of my mind as to what someone had said it was fish able at. I went back and looked and it turns out it was your post. I did not feel that Thursday's water conditions were tough. Wednesday, I had no expectations at all. Thursday water conditions, at double what you said was fish able, seemed prime to me. The weather - not so prime.

 

[nymphingmaniac]

I would be interested in when I opined 70-80 is the fishable level.
80 might be perfect in april, but 80 in june or oct means water is up and dirty. we all have different standards of what's fishable, what's good for fishing and what's perfect. No worries. May be my opinion is shaped by the fact I can be on spring in 5 min any day of the week and I can be more picky. I don't chuck streamers, SJ or valid worms or big walts worms, so I like it a little clearer

 

[Swattie87]

Nice Brown...didn't want to get the hands wet I see. 😎 Don't blame ya given the weather Thursday!

 

[lv2nymph]

Great report, glad you got into one.