Prospector
Well-known member
I think this is a 26 mile stretch and I drove about 11 miles of it. It was difficult to find a stretch that wasn’t posted “No Trespassing”. Anyone who wants to fish here needs to invest a day or 2 getting permission to fish several posted stretches. Not sure what the sentiment is up in that neck of the woods but most people post land for hunting not fishing. In the end I found 3 locations that appeared to be open to the public. Two had no vehicles so I fished them and the other had 2 vehicles.
First location was above Patchinville
Time Fished: 845am-945am
Weather: 72 degrees and Sunny, although where I was most of the creek was shaded
Stream Conditions: 57 degrees and very off color with about 2.5 feet of visibility.
Insects: I saw several different types of mayflies but only 1 of each type. The 2 closest ones looked like a March Brown and a Cahill
This is fairly wide water with tree limbs hanging over the water, steep banks 5-7 feet tall and the bottom was sandy with maybe a hint of clay that made it slick. Water was up near my waist most of the time. There were logs, branches and overhanging brush on the opposite bank. Looked like great brown trout habitat. There appeared to be a recent rain event in one of the tribs leading to the off color conditions.
I ran a yellow streamer to start and but I soon tied on a Black Matuka
since I felt it could be seen better. I really thought good things were going to happen but I never had a strike. The hightlight of the stop were the 2 deer that swam across the creek below me.
Second location within North Cambria city limits
Time Fished: 1115 - 2pm
Weather: 76 degrees, Sunny, stream was mostly in sunlight
Water Conditions: 56 degrees, with a green hue, decent flow but I’d guess only 1/4 of the water volume compared to the earlier location. Despite that there were some good pocket water a couple nice holes
Insects: just some midges
I started with a small woolly bugger and caught an 8-9” wild brown on second cast. That would be the only trout of the day. I nearly landed one other that got off within a rod length. I did have 10-12 additional strikes from mostly small fish. This stretch has lots of overhanging brush on its banks, a stark contrast to the high and steep mud banks at the previous location. Depth was mostly knee deep with deeper pools being waist deep. I probably had 70% of my strikes casting underneath the brush the 30% of strikes came in the holes. I had no strikes in the best holes (big and deep). Probably indicates some nicer fish living there. I mostly fished the woolly bugger but I did try a few nymphs to see if the smaller fish could eat a smaller fly better but it did not seem to matter. I saw 3-4 rises fishing downstream so I tried blind casting a Caddis on the way back upstream but I didn’t bring up any.
Going back to fish in overhanging brush. Several years ago on a NWPA stream my father was slowly fishing downstream and I was standing a small bridge watching 3 trout in the deepest trough in the run. It was late June with low water conditions. I was trying to tell my father how close his casts were to the trout. Eventually he basically drops the fly right on the trout, they spook and charge underneath the streamside brush. Their urgency spooked all the fish under the brush and 20 trout came piling. So one bush can hide a lot of trout.
All and all an interesting day but I won’t be rushing back to fish this creek. However I liked the variety of insects I saw downstream and the cool water all summer will make it hard to ignore for long.
Photos
Single bush photo shows a location where I had a fish on and had 2 other strikes
Shows you on the upper section how much brush encroachment there is
First location was above Patchinville
Time Fished: 845am-945am
Weather: 72 degrees and Sunny, although where I was most of the creek was shaded
Stream Conditions: 57 degrees and very off color with about 2.5 feet of visibility.
Insects: I saw several different types of mayflies but only 1 of each type. The 2 closest ones looked like a March Brown and a Cahill
This is fairly wide water with tree limbs hanging over the water, steep banks 5-7 feet tall and the bottom was sandy with maybe a hint of clay that made it slick. Water was up near my waist most of the time. There were logs, branches and overhanging brush on the opposite bank. Looked like great brown trout habitat. There appeared to be a recent rain event in one of the tribs leading to the off color conditions.
I ran a yellow streamer to start and but I soon tied on a Black Matuka
since I felt it could be seen better. I really thought good things were going to happen but I never had a strike. The hightlight of the stop were the 2 deer that swam across the creek below me.
Second location within North Cambria city limits
Time Fished: 1115 - 2pm
Weather: 76 degrees, Sunny, stream was mostly in sunlight
Water Conditions: 56 degrees, with a green hue, decent flow but I’d guess only 1/4 of the water volume compared to the earlier location. Despite that there were some good pocket water a couple nice holes
Insects: just some midges
I started with a small woolly bugger and caught an 8-9” wild brown on second cast. That would be the only trout of the day. I nearly landed one other that got off within a rod length. I did have 10-12 additional strikes from mostly small fish. This stretch has lots of overhanging brush on its banks, a stark contrast to the high and steep mud banks at the previous location. Depth was mostly knee deep with deeper pools being waist deep. I probably had 70% of my strikes casting underneath the brush the 30% of strikes came in the holes. I had no strikes in the best holes (big and deep). Probably indicates some nicer fish living there. I mostly fished the woolly bugger but I did try a few nymphs to see if the smaller fish could eat a smaller fly better but it did not seem to matter. I saw 3-4 rises fishing downstream so I tried blind casting a Caddis on the way back upstream but I didn’t bring up any.
Going back to fish in overhanging brush. Several years ago on a NWPA stream my father was slowly fishing downstream and I was standing a small bridge watching 3 trout in the deepest trough in the run. It was late June with low water conditions. I was trying to tell my father how close his casts were to the trout. Eventually he basically drops the fly right on the trout, they spook and charge underneath the streamside brush. Their urgency spooked all the fish under the brush and 20 trout came piling. So one bush can hide a lot of trout.
All and all an interesting day but I won’t be rushing back to fish this creek. However I liked the variety of insects I saw downstream and the cool water all summer will make it hard to ignore for long.
Photos
Single bush photo shows a location where I had a fish on and had 2 other strikes
Shows you on the upper section how much brush encroachment there is
