Spring Creeks below the radar

[bobm]

In my travels the past month I've noticed streams frozen solid and streams without any ice at all, indicating they are spring fed. These are not the well known limestoners, but small cricks that probably don't get much pressure. Any advice on how to fish them?

 

[Fishidiot]

I suppose the way to fish them in terms of tackle and technique would be essentially the same as you would on a better known stream of the same size and conditions. A bigger concern would probably be access. Although you may not see anyone fishing it, do some research - you might be surprised that the stream may be listed as Class A. I'd also be careful to get permission to fish. Some of these little creeks never see any fishermen and the sight of one might concern a landowner. I do a lot of prospecting for bass and sunfish on small creeks in the summer. Many of these small warmwater creeks are virtually never fished so I am careful. I usually park near a bridge and never enter posted land without permission. A parked car where landowners aren't accustomed to seeing one can lead to a call to the police, esp during hunting season. There is a book about limestone creeks in PA. The author and title escapes me tonight but I'm sure another board member can chime in with it. This author explored dozens of little spring creeks like you're seeing and found many had few or no trout.

 

[Padraic]

Fishidiot wrote:
There is a book about limestone creeks in PA. The author and title escapes me tonight but I'm sure another board member can chime in with it. This author explored dozens of little spring creeks like you're seeing and found many had few or no trout.

I found it on Amazon Trout Unlimited's Guide to Pennsylvania Limestones Streams The author is A Joseph Armstrong.

I never read it, but I've heard somethings about it. It could be a good read.

 

[flyman]

Padraic wrote:

Fishidiot wrote:
There is a book about limestone creeks in PA. The author and title escapes me tonight but I'm sure another board member can chime in with it. This author explored dozens of little spring creeks like you're seeing and found many had few or no trout.

I found it on Amazon Trout Unlimited's Guide to Pennsylvania Limestones Streams The author is A Joseph Armstrong.

I never read it, but I've heard somethings about it. It could be a good read.

I bought it hoping to find good streams to fish in central Pa. that I didn't already know about. Instead it provided me with info on streams not to bother with.
I had to chuckle, one stream (Mill Creek, York Co.) flows behind my departed Grandmothers house. I fished that creek every summer when I was a kid hopeing for a trout. Great sucker creek, didn't know it was a limestoner.
Buy a used copy from Amazon, you probably won't pick it up again.
Flyman 🙂

 

[lestrout]

JoeA is a founder of our Valley Forge TU chapter, and a real leader for getting the attention of Rouse, WalMart, PA Dept of Trans, Penn RR and others so that they help rather than hurt with Valley Creek and others.

Joe's a real bushwhacker and explorer, and I remember when he told us of this project to find and ffish all of PA's many limestoners. He is an MIT chemical engineer like me, so I knew he would see this project through to fruition, and his book is a great work.

It's not a kiss'n tell - you still have to do the work to find out which springers are worth ffishing, but there are a lot of gems in there.

tl
les

 

[flyman]

lestrout wrote:
JoeA is a founder of our Valley Forge TU chapter, and a real leader for getting the attention of Rouse, WalMart, PA Dept of Trans, Penn RR and others so that they help rather than hurt with Valley Creek and others.

Joe's a real bushwhacker and explorer, and I remember when he told us of this project to find and ffish all of PA's many limestoners. He is an MIT chemical engineer like me, so I knew he would see this project through to fruition, and his book is a great work.

It's not a kiss'n tell - you still have to do the work to find out which springers are worth ffishing, but there are a lot of gems in there.

tl
les

Sorry , I didn't mean to put down his work. Actually he has saved me alot of time.
Flyman :-?

 

[PaJ]

I recently finished Joe's book. It's an easy, great, valuable read!!! He is dead on with most of his assessments. And his tongue in cheek humor keep you flipping through it. ( i.e. his reference to a size 54 caddis). Even though it's only about stoners....I'd recommend it.

 

[troutbert]

For checking out spring creeks below the radar, you should get that book. That's pretty much the topic of the book.

If you see a stream like that and want to find out if there are trout in there, here are 2 approaches. One, go to the PFBC website and find their "reproduction list" which lists the streams in which they have found trout reproduction. The list includes an enormous number of streams. But there are some streams not shown on there. Which brings us to the second method.

Take a lightweight spinning outfit there with 4 lb test. Throw a Mepps spinner upstream, crank the handle. Repeat. If there are wild trout in there, you'll soon find out.

 

[ryguyfi]

tried to kill two birds with one stone over the weekend. Wanted to catch my first fish on a fly that i tied, and also catch my first wild fish. Knew the stream i wanted to go to, and walked about half a mile down a dirt path to find a rifle range and it all being fenced off past it. Probably try to catch the stream farther down from a different location. But same situation, not a limestone, but every lake and stream in the area is frozen over except a few including this one. Never fished it and want to see if there's anything in there.

 

[troutbert]

If you are fishing near your home turf of Monaca, the stream is probably not a wild trout spring creek, unless it's one that is WAY below the radar.

It really is worth looking at the PFBC Reproduction list to see where wild trout actually live. The list is not absolutely complete, but it is pretty thorough.

In some of areas of PA MOST streams have wild trout in them.

In some other areas of the state, wild trout are quite rare. You can see this on the Reproduction List.

There are a few counties with no wild trout verified at all. And a lot more counties with very few wild trout, almost a token presence, often low populations in very tiny creeks.

In these areas you can go around fishing random streams for years and not catch wild trout. Because they aren't there. You might catch a lot of other interesting fish, though!

 

[ryguyfi]

Heard rumors many years ago that this stream had wild trout in it. I know there's probably a 99% chance there isn't any in there, but on that 1% chance there is, I've got my own little gem. I've looked at the class a list online and there is hardly any in my general area so i figured i'd give it a go. No harm in it and might have fun and learn a thing or two in the process. Not going to be a consistant thing to do unless i do find a trout population, but its February and I've got the fever!!!! lol

 

[troutbert]

ryguyfi,

Besides the Class A list, there is also the PFBC's "Listing of Stream Sections Supporting Natural Reproduction of Trout" which is huge, many times larger than the Class A list. It's pretty comprehensive.