"Penns Creek Special" fly pattern?

discomidge

discomidge

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 13, 2021
Messages
317
Location
Lewisburg
Ever heard of this pattern? A guy I've bumped into around town has mentioned it a few times and I'm just curious what it actually is and looks like. He says one of his family members invented it and then someone "put it on a magazine cover" and everyone started using it. I get the sense this was a while back as I can't find any info online about it. Plus searches for "Penns Creek special" turn up more results about the special regulations area than anything about flies. Any leads would be appreciated - not being able to find something on the internet is a strange experience.
 
Sounds like a fish story to me. Considering the diversity of hatches in that creek especially I can’t imagine that some magic fly would do you much better than the generalist patterns that already exist. And if it was blown up 40 years ago it probably has long since stopped being “special”
 
I'm not actually looking for a magic bullet, I'm just curious from a historical perspective. Any fly named after the stream I practically live on is a fly I want to know about.

I actually met a nice guy on the stream a few years ago that gave me a fly that may have been a PCS, but I can't confirm that either. Memory....
 
discomidge said:
Ever heard of this pattern? A guy I've bumped into around town has mentioned it a few times and I'm just curious what it actually is and looks like. He says one of his family members invented it and then someone "put it on a magazine cover" and everyone started using it. I get the sense this was a while back as I can't find any info online about it. Plus searches for "Penns Creek special" turn up more results about the special regulations area than anything about flies. Any leads would be appreciated - not being able to find something on the internet is a strange experience.
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Pshhh you don't need the Penns Creek Special when you have my "Schaefer Special" I showed you when we met at Penns Last year 🤣
 
I don’t know, but I’ll take a guess. I’m guessing it is a green drake pattern. But with small tweaks in size and color to match the exact coloration and size of the green drakes that hatch on Penns. If I remember right about ten years ago maybe it was oldlefty was talking about a pine creek special. It was a March brown tied in an exact size and coloration to match the local pine creek March browns. I’m just guessing though that the Penns creek special is something similar.
 
Schaefer406 said:
Pshhh you don't need the Penns Creek Special when you have my "Schaefer Special" I showed you when we met at Penns Last year 🤣
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Dude! I tied a ton of those up, turns out the "Schaefer Special" is also a "Big Fishing Creek Special". Friggin cleans up out there. I'm guessing it's because BFC is loaded with grannoms.
 
Some guys used to call a skittering caddis (one with hackle wound around front by the hook eye, not palmered) a Penns Creek caddis. I never heard of a Penns Creek special.
 
Pink-Squirmy-Wormy.png
 
20 or so years ago there was an ISO pattern, on the cover of Fly Tyer, I met the guy who originated it a few times, I hate to put names out I'm not sure of
 
discomidge said:
Ever heard of this pattern? A guy I've bumped into around town has mentioned it a few times and I'm just curious what it actually is and looks like. He says one of his family members invented it and then someone "put it on a magazine cover" and everyone started using it. I get the sense this was a while back as I can't find any info online about it. Plus searches for "Penns Creek special" turn up more results about the special regulations area than anything about flies. Any leads would be appreciated - not being able to find something on the internet is a strange experience.
Click to expand...
Are you sure he isn't confusing it with "Pine Creek Special".
Google it. It has been reported on this site many times in prior years.
 
For what's it's worth, for years I've told friends/strangers on the stream this is a 'Penns Creek Special' - but it's never been on a magazine cover that I know of. More a style than a specific pattern. Like a lot of flies we tie and use, it's pieces borrowed from other flies and put together this way. Here's a 'Sulphur' version and a 'BWO' or spinner version - I vary colors and size to match any hatch. The usual list of materials is Antron tail/shuck, turkey biot abdomen, sparkle-type dubbing for thorax - but with a hen/soft hackle collar. Usually two hackles - sometimes tied skater-style (one facing forward and one facing back). Since it's Penns, I like the orange thread.
I fish it dry (Frog's Fanny helps) and if it sinks the fish don't seem to mind.
 

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discomidge said:
I'm sure. Dude has a tattoo of Penns Creek on his arm.
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Penns. So inkable right now.

In all seriousness, how can you tell it’s Penns? I mean, I can tell the Broadwaters, and Claybank, and Rainbow Riffle, etc from pictures and know where they are on a map, but on a dude’s arm, I wouldn’t be able to tell it from the Letort.

Or does he have the words tattooed?
 
Always understood and heard that a bit of orange on flies for Penns was a good color for a 'hot spot' - I particularly like it on Sulphurs (head and thorax).
 
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