Spring Creek Surprise

[Dr.J 1952]

I've been fishing Spring Creek several times a year for twenty years. Would like to fish it more but it's a long drive from Pittsburgh. Have always caught browns but around 2006(according to my logs) I did catch some rainbows. I was told this was because there was a flood at the hatchery and some fish got out. This Saturday we were there again. Water was low and clear with some insect activity. I was fishing about fifty yards downstream of the hatchery. I caught a fat 12" brown on a George Daniel's Grannom pupa. Switched my fly to a #14 Bead Head Pheasant Tail. A nice fish hit it hard on my second or third cast. Much to my surprise, it was beautiful 18-inch rainbow. I've read there are some stream bred rainbows below Bellefonte but haven't really heard of anywhere else. So, I don't know if this was a hatchery escapee or a native. Anyways, it was a pleasant surprise and made my day.

 

[jifigz]

I've been fishing Spring Creek several times a year for twenty years. Would like to fish it more but it's a long drive from Pittsburgh. Have always caught browns but around 2006(according to my logs) I did catch some rainbows. I was told this was because there was a flood at the hatchery and some fish got out. This Saturday we were there again. Water was low and clear with some insect activity. I was fishing about fifty yards downstream of the hatchery. I caught a fat 12" brown on a George Daniel's Grannom pupa. Switched my fly to a #14 Bead Head Pheasant Tail. A nice fish hit it hard on my second or third cast. Much to my surprise, it was beautiful 18-inch rainbow. I've read there are some stream bred rainbows below Bellefonte but haven't really heard of anywhere else. So, I don't know if this was a hatchery escapee or a native. Anyways, it was a pleasant surprise and made my day.

There are wild bows in Spring and has been for years. I catch them often up near TCO. Or I should say I used to. I rarely ever fish Spring these days.

 

[krayfish2]

When I saw the thread title, I was immediately concerned that you had caught an invasive brook trout which could threaten the brown trout fishery.
Glad to hear you got a bow and wish we had more wild bow fisheries in the state.

 

[troutbert]

I've been fishing Spring Creek several times a year for twenty years. Would like to fish it more but it's a long drive from Pittsburgh. Have always caught browns but around 2006(according to my logs) I did catch some rainbows. I was told this was because there was a flood at the hatchery and some fish got out. This Saturday we were there again. Water was low and clear with some insect activity. I was fishing about fifty yards downstream of the hatchery. I caught a fat 12" brown on a George Daniel's Grannom pupa. Switched my fly to a #14 Bead Head Pheasant Tail. A nice fish hit it hard on my second or third cast. Much to my surprise, it was beautiful 18-inch rainbow. I've read there are some stream bred rainbows below Bellefonte but haven't really heard of anywhere else. So, I don't know if this was a hatchery escapee or a native. Anyways, it was a pleasant surprise and made my day.

Which hatchery were you fishing below?

I've caught numerous small wild rainbows downstream from Houserville, but not in any other parts of Spring Creek.

The local explanation, which I think is probably true, is that these rainbows came from private party stockings at a property downstream a way from Houserville, and upstream a way from the Benner Spring hatchery and Rock Road.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

jifigz is right. Spring is practically in my backyard and I fish it often. There are pockets of wild bows throughout the system. From my experience, certain sections definitely hold more bows than others. Here's a better one from the middle section of Spring. The second pic is the typical wild bow in upper Spring (above Houserville)

 

[jifigz]

I enjoy it when I run into wild bows. They exist in a lot more drainages than people realize.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

I enjoy it when I run into wild bows. They exist in a lot more drainages than people realize.

Same here. They are always a welcome surprise for me.

 

[wildtrout2]

jifigz is right. Spring is practically in my backyard and I fish it often.

You're a lucky man!

 

[shakey]

Just a couple of years ago, they dumped tons of bows in bald eagle, right on top of breeding browns (surprise!).
Bald eagle connects to spring .

 

[troutbert]

Back around the late 1980s or so, there were very few rainbow trout populations in PA. Despite millions of rainbows stocked by the PFBC over about a century.

And people knew the history of where those rainbow populations originated, and they were from private party stocking, and from federal hatcheries.

In more modern times (about the 1990s til now) since the growth in "pay to play" fly fishing operations, wild rainbow populations have started popping up in streams where they weren't before. And in the same streams where "pay to play" operations existed.

Coincidence? Nope. That's where these wild rainbow populations came from. So far these populations seem to be in limestone streams, not freestone streams.

If they get into the freestone streams, they could be a great threat to native brook trout, just as in other places, such as the Smoky Mountains.

 

[jifigz]

Back around the late 1980s or so, there were very few rainbow trout populations in PA. Despite millions of rainbows stocked by the PFBC over about a century.

And people knew the history of where those rainbow populations originated, and they were from private party stocking, and from federal hatcheries.

In more modern times (about the 1990s til now) since the growth in "pay to play" fly fishing operations, wild rainbow populations have started popping up in streams where they weren't before. And in the same streams where "pay to play" operations existed.

Coincidence? Nope. That's where these wild rainbow populations came from. So far these populations seem to be in limestone streams, not freestone streams.

If they get into the freestone streams, they could be a great threat to native brook trout, just as in other places, such as the Smoky Mountains.

I am not disagreeing with what you are saying, but every wild rainbow population I know of is not in or connected to a "pay to play" area and I now know of at least one freestone stream in central PA with bows.....before I discovered that one it was always in Limestone streams.

 

[Dr.J 1952]

I caught the rainbow below the Benner Springs hatchery. I also caught a 20" rainbow on the Little J a few years back about five hundred yards upstream from Spruce Creek. Now that one, probably came from a stocking in Spruce Creek. Again, it's a surprise when you are expecting a brown and get a rainbow.

 

[jifigz]

I caught the rainbow below the Benner Springs hatchery. I also caught a 20" rainbow on the Little J a few years back about five hundred yards upstream from Spruce Creek. Now that one, probably came from a stocking in Spruce Creek. Again, it's a surprise when you are expecting a brown and get a rainbow.

The 20" bow was, with all likelihood, a trout from the Homewaters Club stocking.

Are they still stocking the Little J?

 

[troutbert]

I caught the rainbow below the Benner Springs hatchery. I also caught a 20" rainbow on the Little J a few years back about five hundred yards upstream from Spruce Creek. Now that one, probably came from a stocking in Spruce Creek. Again, it's a surprise when you are expecting a brown and get a rainbow.

In the past it was very common to catch hatchery trout in Spring Creek below the Benner Spring hatchery and the hatchery at Fishermans Paradise.

The installation of micro-filters for effluent treatment really changed that. But it may not have dropped escapism down to zero.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

I might have misread something, but didn't the PFBC resort to using RT eggs, fry, etc. from North Carolina in the last few years? If so, it's possible that the NC strain RT find PA streams more hospitable for successful reproduction and that could be a reason why we're seeing more and more wild bows in places where we hadn't seen them before. I know of some freestoners here in NCPA that have wild bows in addition to some other limestoners (some you already know and some you probably do not save for a few people on here).

 

[Joe_P]

Just a couple of years ago, they dumped tons of bows in bald eagle, right on top of breeding browns (surprise!).
Bald eagle connects to spring .

That is where one of the books said the reproducing rainbows come from. As someone else stated i have caught what i assumed were hatchery escapees years ago upriver, but who knows.

 

[Roofin' Trouter]

I am not disagreeing with what you are saying, but every wild rainbow population I know of is not in or connected to a "pay to play" area and I now know of at least one freestone stream in central PA with bows.....before I discovered that one it was always in Limestone streams.

Trout tournaments, kid derbies in the watersheds?

 

[tomgamber]

I might have misread something, but didn't the PFBC resort to using RT eggs, fry, etc. from North Carolina in the last few years? If so, it's possible that the NC strain RT find PA streams more hospitable for successful reproduction and that could be a reason why we're seeing more and more wild bows in places where we hadn't seen them before. I know of some freestoners here in NCPA that have wild bows in addition to some other limestoners (some you already know and some you probably do not save for a few people on here).

We had those NC trout in the local lake. They were great. Took dries,jumped like crazy, much prettier. I was told the hatchery they're raised in is actually moving water. Like the runways are a creek side channel.

 

[PennKev]

Just a couple of years ago, they dumped tons of bows in bald eagle, right on top of breeding browns (surprise!).
Bald eagle connects to spring .

Those particular bows can't get above the dam at Talleyrand Park in Bellefonte.

 

[troutbert]

Just a couple of years ago, they dumped tons of bows in bald eagle, right on top of breeding browns (surprise!).
Bald eagle connects to spring .

Bald Eagle Creek has been stocked with rainbow trout for probably at least a century, and right up to the present.

Spring Creek was also stocked with rainbow trout for a very long time. That ended only ended in modern times due to pollution (around the 1980s I think). Before that 19,000 trout per year were stocked, many of them rainbows.