Spring Creek, Centre County, 5/1/2011

[TYoung]

Yes Spring Creek is fishable. I fished at Fisherman's Paradise on Sunday From about noon until 3:00. It was cloudy when I got there, and started to rain shortly after that. The water was high and had that spring creek coloration to it. There was a decent amount of people there when I arrived, but most people left when it started to rain. The air temp was in the sixties, and I did not take a water temp. It felt quite cold the few times I waded fairly deep. Since the water was high, I wasn't surprised that that there was very little insect activity.

The only flies that I saw were very little midges. I managed to catch two browns on a beadheaded green weenie. I am surprised how well this fly works on wild fish. I use to think that it would only work stockies. The first one that I caught was real small one that I caught just below the lower bridge going into the hatchery. The second one that I caught was an 8 to 10 incher that I got up past the climing wall and pullup area.

The weather people are forcasting more rain tommorow, so I think that the stream level is going to stay high for the time being. I think that the sulphur hatch on Spring Creek is going to be the next hatch that is going to be affected by rain and high water. I have never fished the Spring Creek sulphur hatch during high water. I wonder if the fish will still rise if the water is high?

 

[jayL]

I wonder if the fish will still rise if the water is high?

Yep. I can confirm that they will. Of course, it depends on how high and how dirty the water gets.

 

[DaveS]

Tyoung,
I too was at Spring on Sunday. Fished up from the newer bridge below the Paradise. There were alot, I said ALOT of Blue Quills, comming off. They are hard to see, but hooo boy there were there... My brother and I ended the day at the Paradise, where we both took decent fish (14+ inchers) on dries!

Dave

 

[JackM]

"This spot-burning is making me thirsty. And, I don't like scrambled eggs."

 

[pcray1231]

I wonder if the fish will still rise if the water is high?

I can also confirm that Spring Creek fish rise just fine in high, even really high, water, so long as there's bugs there for them to rise to. In fact, some of my best dry fly fishing on Spring has been in such conditions on the BWO hatch, assume the sulfurs would be the same if not even more likely to rise.

Color is important. But again, some of my best dry fly fishing was in greenish brown, even shading primarily brown, water. I have fished sulfur hatches in this type of water, and the catch rate is higher than in normal conditions.

All relatively speaking of course, flood stage I'm sure it'd be off, and complete chocolate milk too.

 

[troutbert]

TYoung wrote: I wonder if the fish will still rise if the water is high?

Yes, trout often do rise to bugs when the water is high and off-color. That is true in general, on any stream that holds trout.

 

[wbranch]

I was unaware that Spring Creek had Paraleps. Are you sure or might they have been a larger Baetis? What size were the bugs? Paraleps are #18 - #20 and so are many Baetis species.

 

[DaveS]

I can't say for sure if they'er paraleps... No hind wing, legs lighter in color than the body. 18, or even a small 16. I didn't get too caught up in the ID. I just put on an 18 BWO when I found a riser!

 

[JackM]

DaveS wrote:
I can't say for sure if they'er paraleps... No hind wing, legs lighter in color than the body. 18, or even a small 16. I didn't get too caught up in the ID. I just put on an 18 BWO when I found a riser!

Exactly that! When I say bugs were hatching, I am fond of saying they were "BWO/Blue Quills." To me the imitation possibilities do not usually require a more exacting ID. Recently on spring, I got takes on #18 blue quill, but did not have such luck with #16 olive-colored BWO. Go figure.

 

[franklin]

When I stopped by yesterday it was running high but a nice deep green. I only saw one rise. A fellow I talked to had caught a couple on dries. It's back up this morning.

 

[DaveS]

I took a second this morning to consult "Hatches" and the mayfly I described was in fact, baetis sp. Perhaps beatis vegans. So it really was a BWO. Probably.

Not sure why I though Blue Quill...

 

[franklin]

Swung by today for a short visit before loading up my son. Water is above normal, fishable. I did not see any rising but had a number of chases and a few short hits on streamers.