How common are rainbows on Penns?

[discomidge]

This afternoon I caught the first rainbow I've seen on Penns (C&R) in a couple years and it got me wondering - how common are rainbows in the C&R? I've caught hundreds of browns and lots of brookies between catching my two most recent bows (last one was May 2021 I think). I gather that they're stocked/holdovers but I was so psyched to see the pink stripe flash when I was fighting it, even though I tangled with some nice browns today as well. Go figure. Do you all regularly catch rainbows out there?

 

[mt_flyfisher]

Ryan -

I believe they’ve been stocking some Rainbows in Big Poe Creek as the past couple years I’ve caught a few in Penns at Poe Paddy and perhaps a mile or so downstream from there. I’m surprised you haven’t caught any farther downstream before now. I’m sure others on here will have more information.

By the way, that’s a very pretty, and healthy looking rainbow that you caught.

John

 

[6xAdams(Jones)]

Did anyone else initially misread this thread title?

 

[McSneek]

I think I have caught two rainbows in the C&R section. Both very nice looking fish that I assume swam in from a stocked stream.

How were the water temps with this hot spell?

 

[discomidge]

Thanks John. Big Poe really isn't too far from where I was, maybe 2 miles. Good to know.

6x - I got rained on yesterday but the only rainbow I saw was in the stream.

McSneek - Water temps, amazingly, have been fine for weeks. Before the hot spell it got down into the low 50s - we had some cold nights. I took the hot spell off thinking it'd warm up the stream, but I talked to Bruce at PCA who said that the hottest it got during that stretch was 68. Yesterday topped out in the low 60s.

 

[troutbert]

From Coburn up to Spring Mills is still stocked, so hatchery trout could drift down from there.

Also, private parties have been stocking wild strain rainbows in Elk Creek and that stream now has a reproducing population of rainbow trout, so it would be no surprise if Penns Creek also develops a rainbow trout population.

 

[silverfox]

The state stocks a bunch of fingerling rainbows in the mixed Class A/Stocked Trout Water section.

 

[Clams]

I caught a couple small ones (like 6 or 8") in the Inglby area about a year ago

 

[JeffP]

I caught a couple small ones (like 6 or 8") in the Inglby area about a year ago

Most trips we catch a few from Ingleby down to Poe Paddy.

 

[GoldFinch]

Caught one at the beginning of the month -- presumably an escaped stocker from Big Poe Creek. This was caught just above that confluence.

 

[brookieteeth]

I've caught rainbows above Weikert and below the C&R section, and up by Coburn. Not in between. Pretty good size ones. They don't look wild, but at least they look healthy. Like the fish in the top photo.

(The hatchery rainbows in California that get dumped into one of the forks of the Carson River are the ugliest trout I've ever seen. It's like they're bred to be ugly and unhealthy looking. But here on the East Coast, I've caught gorgeous rainbow trout in both Falling Springs and Virginia's Whitetop Laurel that are as richly colored, heavily spotted, flawlessly pink-finned, fat and feisty as wild-bred fish from the Sacramento River above Shasta Lake.)

 

[Jemoca75!]

I've caught rainbows above Weikert and below the C&R section, and up by Coburn. Not in between. Pretty good size ones. They don't look wild, but at least they look healthy. Like the fish in the top photo.

(The hatchery rainbows in California that get dumped into one of the forks of the Carson River are the ugliest trout I've ever seen. It's like they're bred to be ugly and unhealthy looking. But here on the East Coast, I've caught gorgeous rainbow trout in both Falling Springs and Virginia's Whitetop Laurel that are as richly colored, heavily spotted, flawlessly pink-finned, fat and feisty as wild-bred fish from the Sacramento River above Shasta Lake.)

Those ugly California strain of rainbows that come out of oswayo fish hatchery are by far the best fighting trout that the fish commission stocks, those things rocket out of the water repeatedly and damn near kill themselves every time.

 

[brookieteeth]

Those ugly California strain of rainbows that come out of oswayo fish hatchery are by far the best fighting trout that the fish commission stocks, those things rocket out of the water repeatedly and damn near kill themselves every time.

I don't think we're talking about the same strain. The ones I caught fought like they were half thawed out with a bad case of freezer burn. Roughly the same color, too.

 

[PAsteelonthefly]

Are there other lakes in Pennsyslvania that have lake run rainbows?

 

[jifigz]

They are pretty dang common.

 

[Jemoca75!]

Not penns but I caught this guy today at the confluence of pine and elk so a couple hundred yards from penns, I fish this property at least once a month and have never caught anything but browns

 

[discomidge]

Caught another bow today in the C&R. Good thing cuz the browns weren't biting.