South Sandy Creek, Venango Co Drainage?

steveo27

steveo27

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My buddy and I are headed to Youngstown Saturday to visit friends. Were coming from the Monroeville area. My old lady gave us the go head to show up late (shes going out in the morning), giving us the whole day to fish Saturday.

Ive been doing some research on a place to fish that puts us semi close to Youngstown or atleast close to I80 to get us there fairly easily.

Ive fished a few streams in that area (not gonna name drop, but they are fairly popular wild trout stream in Venango Co) with some success. Im looking for a new stream to visit this weekend.

South Sandy Creek is in SGL 39, so there is public access. The main stem and a few tributaries pop up on the Natural Reproduction list. It seems like a decent sized stream. All the research Ive done doesnt really show much other than it has suffered from AMD in the past and there has been plans to remedy said AMD.

The main branch of Sandy Creek is stocked with 'bows and browns, so Im hoping to find some wild browns in South Sandy Creek but the AMD I keep reading about kinda makes me think they arent there.

I know the easiest thing to do is to just fish it and see what happens but Id really hate to drive the whole way there and find a creek that is orange and completely dead. I have a few days to come up with a back up plan/find another stream in the area if South Sandy Creek isnt fishable.

Has anyone explored this area and can shed any light on this watershed?

Thanks
 
steveo27 wrote:
Has anyone explored this area and can shed any light on this watershed?
Click to expand...

I sent you a PM about all the wild taimen in south sandy creek and how the place is infested with grizz.

 
Too bad about the wild Taimen and bears. Sounds like they'd decimate the gemmie population.

Thanks for the PM, responded
 
Steve027 - I sent you a PM.
 
It's been 6 or 7 years since I did some exploration of this area and I had some limited success.

Does anyone know if there has been any water quality improvement from the remediation work that was proposed in 2008?
 
I ended up fishing it from Slatertown Rd upstream. Saw signs of AMD all over the place - stained rocks, seeps, ect.

Spooked 2 very large beavers while walking. Saw 1 fish, not sure what it was though. We eventually found 1 very small UNT with a handful of brookies in it.
 
steveo27 wrote:
My buddy and I are headed to Youngstown Saturday to visit friends. Were coming from the Monroeville area. My old lady gave us the go head to show up late (shes going out in the morning), giving us the whole day to fish Saturday.

Ive been doing some research on a place to fish that puts us semi close to Youngstown or atleast close to I80 to get us there fairly easily.

Ive fished a few streams in that area (not gonna name drop, but they are fairly popular wild trout stream in Venango Co) with some success. Im looking for a new stream to visit this weekend.

South Sandy Creek is in SGL 39, so there is public access. The main stem and a few tributaries pop up on the Natural Reproduction list. It seems like a decent sized stream. All the research Ive done doesnt really show much other than it has suffered from AMD in the past and there has been plans to remedy said AMD.

The main branch of Sandy Creek is stocked with 'bows and browns, so Im hoping to find some wild browns in South Sandy Creek but the AMD I keep reading about kinda makes me think they arent there.

I know the easiest thing to do is to just fish it and see what happens but Id really hate to drive the whole way there and find a creek that is orange and completely dead. I have a few days to come up with a back up plan/find another stream in the area if South Sandy Creek isnt fishable.

Has anyone explored this area and can shed any light on this watershed?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Sorry, I just saw this or I would have told you to not bother. There are a couple feeders that do have fish(you probably fished them) but nothing to write home about. The area has potential but it's too far gone IMO. I've hiked a lot through there and seeing all the orange makes my stomach turn.
 
It's a shame about those creeks, I've fished most of the tribs that have trout, it's a very long walk for a handful of fish, which is fine with me, but I would have liked to fish those streams 100 years ago! It's a beautiful area, and I think it's around 10,000 acres, all kinds of critters live in there. Williams run is the trib that had reclamation work done on it, and I believe brookies are starting to return, but it will take years for it to become what it once was.
 
Hey!

For anyone looking to fish South Sandy Creek, I fished it earlier this year. I fished a section from Lyons run mouth to Slatertown road for about 3-4 hours walking upstream. I would estimate this section is 1.25 miles or maybe 1.5 miles. I found 2 brown trout, one was 15+ inches and the other was about 12 inches. I was not able to catch these fish. But both fish came out to hit my fly (Size 12 Dark Red San Juan Worm); but turned at the last second. The creek is clean and pretty, but I am not sure why there were so few trout. The stream had plenty of baitfish and bugs. The 15+ inch brown was under the roots of an overturned tree, this fish darted out to take the worm but decided not to. I waited 4-5 minutes and then cast again for the fish. I tried changing presentations and almost all the flies in my box for this fish. Nothing worked so, I moved on. The second brown about 12 inches did the same thing as the first trout but was under a pine tree that fell across the stream. Watch out for snakes near the creek.

During this trip had one brook trout hit a grasshopper fly I had on. A lot of creek chubs and other baitfish were hitting my flies. The stream is clean and has baitfish in it, but I was unable to locate many trout. A restoration program took place in the late 90s into the 2000s I believe. I have attached the link to the pdf of this program. Pages 141-146 talk about brown trout and other fish from the results of electrofishing South Sandy Creek.

Lyons run is a good alternative option and is packed full of brook trout. If you want to chase wild browns another option is Hells Run in Lawrence County.

Overall, South Sandy Creek is pretty and is clean enough for fish to survive in it. I spent a fair amount of time fishing the stream, but I had little luck catching any trout. That's fishing, though.

 
I once fished Bouillon run, a trib of Scrubgrass Creek that is in the same vicinity.
And had similar results: Caught a couple nice Browns in the 12 inch range - and nothing else.
Which seemed very odd.
The water was cold and looked beautiful.
Kept thinking to myself that there should be more fish there......
 
Blue Lining Grinding said:
Lyons run is a good alternative option and is packed full of brook trout. If you want to chase wild browns another option is Hells Run in Lawrence County.
Click to expand...

Okayyyyyyyyyyyy.

Hold up a second.

If you want to chase wild browns, there are a ton of options a stones throw away from Lyons Run / South Sandy in Venango. You don't have to drive an hour south of there for decent wild trout fishing. I live right by Hell Run and regularly drive to Venango county to chase wild trout. Hell Run gets fished way too much for a stream of it's size and to put it simply, if someone gets there before you, it's a wasted trip.

In regard to South Sandy, I think the biggest issue is physical holding water. There are a lot of shallow areas with poor bottom structure and no cover. You noticed those two browns holding in relation to woody cover. My experience has been the same. Unfortunately, that sort of cover is scant on long stretches of SSC. Other area streams have much more of this sort of structure, along with more deep pools and S bends.
 
Just back from vacation so a little late to the discussion but a few years back in the spring I walked through SGL 39 from Adams road and fished all the way down past Bear Run using streamers since there is not a lot of bugs on the stream. I was really surprised by the lack of fish, only had two fish chase my streamer, not sure if they were Brown or Brook Trout. There were some really nice deep holes and runs but were void of trout, a lot of sand so I am guessing the stream gradient is not the best for trout spawning.

Bear Run was full of Brook Trout but the stretch of stream to fish was really short, definitely a lot of walking that day. The previous fall I fished from Slatertown Road down stream and caught one really nice Brook Trout.

If you are looking for a nice secluded nature hike it's a good stream to considered but if you want to catch fish it's not for you. I was hoping this stream would be a hidden gem.
 
PennKev said:
I sent you a PM about all the wild taimen in south sandy creek and how the place is infested with grizz.
Click to expand...
What is wild taimen? I just started fly fishing not too long ago and for a while I been wanting to take a walk up to that Bear Run. Every time I am on the cutoff, I look over in that direction past the ponds.
 
jayxman said:
What is wild taimen? I just started fly fishing not too long ago and for a while I been wanting to take a walk up to that Bear Run. Every time I am on the cutoff, I look over in that direction past the ponds.
Click to expand...
Google is your friend. Also, sometimes, these threads are full of sarcastic nonsense.
 
PennKev said:
Google is your friend. Also, sometimes, these threads are full of sarcastic nonsense.
Click to expand...
Google is my enemy and last resort. That post left me confused because i never heard of grizzly bears in the area and no one ever mentioned taimen around here. The sarcasm explains it 🤣🤣
 
jayxman said:
Google is my enemy and last resort. That post left me confused because i never heard of grizzly bears in the area and no one ever mentioned taimen around here. The sarcasm explains it 🤣🤣
Click to expand...
Right... The native mountain lions and brookies killed off the invasive griz and taimen many years ago.
 
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