Spring Creek, Centre County, 3-23-09

[flyeyeeye]

Fished the paradise section on Mon. afternoon. Good bug and fish activity, even though the water was low, clear and spooky. Caught a good number of browns on a BWO parachute and also a soft hackle, a few were good sized. Noticed one spin fisher on the upper end near the footbridge, wish I had the phone on me to call it in. Next time for sure.

 

[pcray1231]

If you mean up the road a ways where the blue bridge is, then he was perfectly legal. The wire is right around where the police training stuff is on the road...

 

[flyeyeeye]

pcray,

You sure about that? This guy was downstream of the footbridge, and as I walked the road I read the sign tacked to the tree above the section he was fishing. It clearly stated fishing was to be done with a fly rod only.

 

[pcray1231]

Well, no I'm not sure, because I'm not sure I know exactly where you are talking about. I do know exactly where the wire is, and I would call the wire the upper limit of the Paradise.

If you start hiking upstream from paradise, through the woodsy sections and wing dams and such. You come to an area with some police training stuff, like a climbing wall and such, its on the right (shortly past this is the pistol range on the left). If you go down over the hill, you'll find the wire across the stream. Below the wire is FFO, above it is the general Spring Creek regs, which are All tackle C&R. There is a footbridge a relatively short distance (maybe a quarter mile?) upstream from the wire, so a spinfisher can fish for a little distance below that bridge. If that is not the bridge you are talking about, well then I apologize.

There are signs tacked the whole distance. The ones below the wire say Catch and Release Fly Fishing only and then the small print. The ones above it say Catch and Release All Tackle and then the fine print. The fine print reads something similar as follows (copied and pasted from PFBC)

"Open to fishing year-round (no closed season).
No trout may be killed or had in possession.
Fishing may be done with artificial lures, flies or streamers, natural bait, baitfish, and fishbait. Spinning or fly fishing gear may be used in these areas.
A current trout-salmon permit (or Combination Trout-Salmon/Lake Erie permit) is required."

 

[Acristickid]

Could have sworn I saw a FF only sign up at the old hatchery site which is upstream of the bridge last week. Could have been catch and release all tackle though- I did'nt pay enough attention though to say 100%.

Anyone?

 

[Fishidiot]

I think flyeye is reffering to the metal footbridge at the upper end of the hatchery across the street from the Stackhouse school. This is within the Paradise and is fly fishing only.

 

[albud1962]

No, there is a metal bridge about 1mile above the paradise. This is open water, c&R all tackle. There is a wire at the FFO. You go down over the hill but its pretty clear. Like was mentioned before its at the WCO obstacle course.

 

[pcray1231]

Acristic, the old hatchery is C&R All-Tackle, thats well above the FFO section. I see bait guys up there on a fairly regular basis.

If he was referring to the footbridge by the training area up there, then depending how far the guy was below it, it was probably perfectly legal.

But if, as Fishidiot said, he was referring to the footbridge across from the stackhouse school, as in adjacent to the parking area and current hatchery, then it was FFO. I consider that the lower end of paradise, not the "upper end" as in the original post, but it just might be a question of semantics.

 

[troutbert]

pcray1231 wrote:
Acristic, the old hatchery is C&R All-Tackle, thats well above the FFO section. I see bait guys up there on a fairly regular basis.

If he was referring to the footbridge by the training area up there, then depending how far the guy was below it, it was probably perfectly legal.

But if, as Fishidiot said, he was referring to the footbridge across from the stackhouse school, as in adjacent to the parking area and current hatchery, then it was FFO. I consider that the lower end of paradise, not the "upper end" as in the original post, but it just might be a question of semantics.

When talking about streams, doesn't "upper" and "lower" usually relate to the direction the water is flowing?

"Upper" referring to upstream. And "lower" meaning downstream?

 

[JackM]

Must be a wet fly angler, they work downstream.

 

[pcray1231]

troutbert,

Yes, upper and lower meaning upstream and downstream. The question is in what you refer to as the paradise.

I always took the "paradise" to refer to the entire FFO stretch. The downstream limit would be near the outflow of the hatchery. The upstream limit would be the wire a mile or so up into the canyon. As was stated the wire is near the obstacle course.

The confusion came when the original poster said "upper end near the footbridge." The upper half of the FFO stretch has no footbridge. There is a footbridge across from the Stackhouse building, but based on my definition of the paradise that would clearly be the "lower end." There is another footbridge up in the canyon shortly upstream from the wire, and thats the one I initially thought he was referring to. That bridge up in the canyon is not FFO, nor is the old abandoned hatchery that is upstream of it.

If, like Fishidiot said, the poster was referring to the footbridge at the upper end of the hatchery, well then I just read it wrong and I apologize for the confusion.

 

[troutbert]

Pcray,

That makes sense.

There's a rule against that on the board, you know. :-0

 

[JF_]

My only comment is that the wire upstream you guys are talking about has snagged me too many times. Last year during the cicadas I got tangled up (in blue) going after a fish. Two casts later, focused on this fish, I wrapped my line around it again. I thought, damn, how stupid was that?
John