East Branch Brandywine surges

[lestrout]

Yo all

Every once in awhile, Marsh Creek Lake opens the valves above the old paper mill and the stream from just above the Special Reg area jumps in volume. In fact, last fall, an angler got caught by the sudden release, struggled to get to the bank, but unfortunately that was the bank on the wrong side. It was a long walk through the woods to get to one of the only two bridges in that whole section.

When Valley Forge TU heard about this near accident, they contacted the Park Managers at Marsh Creek and got the agreement to be pre-notified (along with some other conservation organizations) before each release.

The last surge was on 7January, and although VFTU pumped out EMails to the membership, it occurred to me that this safety issue has a broader involvement.

I plan to post each Marsh Creek Lake valve opening here on PAFF and on FB in the future.

 

[sgrim]

Good heads up. Thanks Les.

 

[herbalwizard]

I showed up there on one of those days in 2019. No harm done as the water was already up when I arrived. Couldn't figure it out, there hadn't been any recent rain. Did some digging when I got home, and found the USGS gauge on Marsh creek just up from where it empties into EB brandywine. Saw that there was a big spike and figured it was a release of some sort. I check that before heading there to fish, but that wouldn't help if I got there prior to a release. There's a section of the DHALO that has deeper channels with softer bottoms on both sides of the creek where the middle of the creek is shallower and pretty stable footing. I've waded down the middle casting to both banks working through that section. That'd be a heck of a place to be with a sudden water surge. Will certainly check here prior to any trips to that stream. Thanks for the info.