Class A Streams around Lock Haven

the lower part ain't that bad
 
I've fished them all or at least have fished around them. Most of what you mentioned are very difficult to fish to nearly impossible. Cherry Run you might as well forget it. Thats just mountain laurel. The Lick Run in Farrandsville gets more pressure then one would think. The Lick Run that flows into Sayers 90% of the fish live under the undercut banks. Kammerdiner Run I've never fished nor do I know if you can access it. Years ago I used to fish McElhattan Run that Kammerdiner Runs flows into quite a bit but its no longer accessable for the most part. Tangascootack Creek has a few fish here and there. A lot of that creek is still somewhat effected by mine acid but there are a few fish there. Funny all the streams you mentioned are definitely not what I'd be coming to the Lock Haven area to fish. Those streams you mentioned you kind of hit after you've experienced all the other gems in the area.
 
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If you're willing to drive north on Rt. 120 from the Haven, you'll find a number of fine, small freestone streams, including Baker Run and the beautiful Young Woman's Creek. YWC was once a wild trout stream but has been stocked with rainbows in recent years, so I haven't been there for a while. A little farther north, you'll find famous Kettle Creek and its tribs. You have gotten yourself into a good situation for fly-fishing for trout.
 
rrt said:
If you're willing to drive north on Rt. 120 from the Haven, you'll find a number of fine, small freestone streams, including Baker Run and the beautiful Young Woman's Creek. YWC was once a wild trout stream but has been stocked with rainbows in recent years, so I haven't been there for a while.
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I would love to have fished Young Women's Creek back in it's heyday. I've read it was quite the wild trout stream before it became so popular and started getting stocked. Apparently, there were some real nice size trout in there as well. Are there any "older" PAFF members who can share some experiences from the "good old days" on YWC?
 
Not sure how we revived a post from 2014. Unless you really dislike fishing for brown trout, it's hard not to start trout fishing in the area without focusing on Fishing Creek and Bald Eagle. Lots of other opportunities in the area, surprised nobody has mentioned spot burning in 2 pages of naming small streams.
 
Sorry about the post to a 9 year old thread. I should have taken Wavy Gravy’s advice at Woodstock and avoided the brown acid. Please don’t tell me that the Eagles broke up!🤫
 
wildtrout2 said:
I would love to have fished Young Women's Creek back in it's heyday. I've read it was quite the wild trout stream before it became so popular and started getting stocked. Apparently, there were some real nice size trout in there as well. Are there any "older" PAFF members who can share some experiences from the "good old days" on YWC?
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My question is similar: When were the “good old days” in anglers’ opinions regarding Young Womans? I am not asking for the comment “when it wasn’t stocked” because of course some individuals here will say that. I’m specifically asking for the years when those here, who experienced it, would call them “the good old days.” I know that it was popular with an avid PFBC fly angler and biologist/administrator in the 1970’s through at least the mid-1990’s and probably in part of the 1960’s as well.

Long Rn and Pepper Rn, a trib to Long Rn, were not all that impressive in survey work. Nice populations, but nothing very outstanding. It is my understanding that I didn’t find the best part of Long Rn though. As for Cherry Rn, I didn’t find the density of brush seen near the mouth when came in from the top and walked to about the mid-point of the stream’s length. Fish density was ok but nothing to write home about. Maybe that has changed. Nice stream though. I certainly wouldn’t trade those for what can be found in Fishing Ck…and I’m not speaking about the narrows or the Mill Hall stretches, which of course are well known.
 
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lycoflyfisher said:
Not sure how we revived a post from 2014. Unless you really dislike fishing for brown trout, it's hard not to start trout fishing in the area without focusing on Fishing Creek and Bald Eagle. Lots of other opportunities in the area, surprised nobody has mentioned spot burning in 2 pages of naming small streams.
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Apparently we didn't care about spot burning 10 years ago...
 
I've never fished Young Woman's, but I really should. I remember Craig at Aquatic Imitations in Hollidaysburg mentioned Young Woman's and how it's been "ruined." That was years ago. The notion that stocking has ruined it seems common.
 
For Mike -- I am sorry to say that I thought its best days were when it was not stocked (as you hoped not to read). For me, it was an exotic stream to visit, sandwiched between huge mountains, with a lot of lovely wild browns up to about 13 inches and brooks up to about 9 inches. I encountered some fine hatches on this lovely stream, too. When it was decided to stock it, I had no more interest in driving for two hours to fish there, even though it is a gorgeous stream. I suppose I could visit it again sometime -- and would hopefully find some wild browns and brooks mixed in with the hatchery fish; but if I wanted to fish for stocked trout, I could do it a lot closer to home.

For jifigz -- You might want to visit YWC just to see the beauty of the stream. It is a wild area. But, if you're from Mifflin Co., I think you have some better wild trout waters close to your home.
 
Mike said:
My question is similar: When were the “good old days” in anglers’ opinions regarding Young Womans? I am not asking for the comment “when it wasn’t stocked” because of course some individuals here will say that. I’m specifically asking for the years when those here, who experienced it, would call them “the good old days.” I know that it was popular with an avid PFBC fly angler and biologist/administrator in the 1970’s through at least the mid-1990’s and probably in part of the 1960’s as well.

Long Rn and Pepper Rn, a trib to Long Rn, were not all that impressive in survey work. Nice populations, but nothing very outstanding. It is my understanding that I didn’t find the best part of Long Rn though. As for Cherry Rn, I didn’t find the density of brush seen near the mouth when came in from the top and walked to about the mid-point of the stream’s length. Fish density was ok but nothing to write home about. Maybe that has changed. Nice stream though. I certainly wouldn’t trade those for what can be found in Fishing Ck…and I’m not speaking about the narrows or the Mill Hall stretches, which of course are well known.
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Dear Mike,

OK, I'll bite. I first started fishing YWC in the late 1980's based on recommendations from FFP.

My brother Terry and I skipped Spring Creek for a day and went up there to see what it was all about. We had the entire stream to ourselves that day in late May 1988 or 89.

The fishing was so good, and the area despite being traveled by roads, was so secluded that the next weekend we went back and slept in the truck in the pull-off by the stream gauge. We had great fishing tossing any attractor dry fly for both brown trout and brookies. We caught no trophies but browns to 13 inches were common and a 9-inch brookie was not uncommon. Of course, we caught smaller fish of both species, but with care and forethought we stopped launching them into the toulees on the hookset.

We spent several weekends there into the early 1990's when we knew from dialing the 1-800-SRBC river conditions phone number told us water conditions were right. We even brought buddies up there many times and never saw a single angler anywhere on the stream. Hell, we even took baths with Ivory soap in the crick under the first bridge on long weekends and never saw anyone, except for the occasional cabin owner or one of their family members. It was paradise!

I last fished there probably in 2000, maybe 2001? I know my brother had moved to Colorado and I still had my lab Sidney and my Dodge Cummins so we spent the weekend at the stream gauge one weekend that May, living on a tray of pizza from Soprano's Market in Waverly NY and Gennie beer. That was before the circa 2002 or so decision to succumb to the local pressure an commence with stocking. Perhaps the most locally influenced decision in the history of the PA FBC, and a monumentally stupid one, at that.

I've been back a few times since, mostly in the Fall and mostly when stream conditions were terribly low, and fishing was not an option for the prudent. Seeing Pally's swimming in a stream that was always 100% wild trout when I fished it in the past made me throw up in mouth, not just a little, but quite a lot.

Regards,

Tim Murphy
 
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rrt said:
For jifigz -- You might want to visit YWC just to see the beauty of the stream. It is a wild area. But, if you're from Mifflin Co., I think you have some better wild trout waters close to your home.
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Yeah, I would want to go to merely check out new streams and new environments. On some of the streams I fish, I feel like I know where every rock lies in every riffle, etc. There is a time and a place where that is great and cool, but that can also get stale.
 
YWC and its branches should not be stocked. Let me start with that. Agree with the others that the decision to stock that watershed is one of the biggest management headscratchers I can think of too.

I can’t speak to the pre-stocking “glory days” era, as all of my experience with the watershed is during the “stocked” era. It’s still a pretty good wild Trout system in a gorgeous setting that is seldomly fished once the stockers stop getting dumped in each year. If you can avoid it from say the stocking closure in February through Memorial Day or so, and you like similar streams in the area…Upper Kettle/Slate/Cedar/Cross Fork/etc, you’ll like YWC. I can’t say I always catch a ton of fish, but I consistently can catch fish there, most of them being wild. Yes you turn up some stockers too, but it’s one of those streams that I fish with a gallon Ziplock in my pack and I generally fish there with the mindset that the first couple stockers I catch are going home for dinner.

I have no doubt it fished better before it was stocked. And I’d love it if they’d stop stocking it, but even so, it’s still not a write off stream. FWIW and YMMV.
 
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As much as I love small wild streams, I've never fished YWC. I've driven past it many times on my way to other (non stocked) streams up in that region. I will have to give it a try at some point, just to see it's beauty, as others have mentioned. I understand that some of the YWC tribs are worth the effort, with less pressure, and less of a chance of catching stockers.
 
wildtrout2 said:
As much as I love small wild streams, I've never fished YWC. I've driven past it many times on my way to other (non stocked) streams up in that region. I will have to give it a try at some point, just to see it's beauty, as others have mentioned. I understand that some of the YWC tribs are worth the effort, with less pressure, and less of a chance of catching stockers.
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I'm just like you! I fished it ONCE! I fished it when the waters were very high and I fished one of the branches and caught a few brookies. Thats my only experience with YWC. My dad grew up fishing it. He lived right in North Bend. He used to fish down through the tiny town and then finish in the West Branch Susquehanna. He always knew he was going to get a few trout at and just below the creek mouth back in the 50s and 60s.
 
I think it would be cool if bbillings30, last seen on PAFF 5-6 years ago, would happen to revisit the site, notice his decade old thread is alive and well, and offer his input now 10 years later on YWC and the other surrounding streams.

I will make it to YWC this summer, and then I will return to this thread to share my thoughts, observations, and pictures.

Why were the locals pushing hard to have this stream stocked if it never was? Did they remove a stream from the stocking list in the area or something?
 
Western Clinton Co Sportsmens and Laurelly Fork Cooperative Nursery
 
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