klingy
Active member
- Joined
- Jul 31, 2010
- Messages
- 591
I’ve been taking an annual fishing trip with my dad, and sometimes friends, to various locations for one week each June. We’ve covered some ground up and down the east coast, from the lakes and ponds of Maine, to the streams and rivers in the Smokies. Everywhere we fish, I can’t help but to compare it to back to PA. Maybe it’s because of all of my fond memories formed in the Pennsylvania woods, or just because it’s familiar territory, but our excursions in our home state seem to be the most satisfying to me.
This year, we spent the week in the big woods of North Central PA. It’s hard for me to plan a trip to this part of the state. There are so many options to choose from. It’s easy to get distracted, as pretty much every bit of flowing (or non-flowing) water has fish in it.
We decided to split our week-long journey into three parts.
Part I – Camp off of a state forest road on the high plateau along route 144 between Snow Shoe and Renovo. We would then fish the small streams that flow off either side of the plateau into the West Branch of the Susquehanna, or into Beech Creek on the other side.
Part II – Camp at Hyner Run State Park and take day trips on Tuesday and Wednesday to some streams in eastern Sproul and western Tiadghton State Forests.
Part III – Hike into a remote area for three days of backbacking, bushwacking, and small stream fishing nirvana from Thursday to Saturday.
Below is a brief synopsis of how it went…
Part I – The High Plateau
We set up camp off of Jews Run Road, as it was a nice central location to reach many of the streams we wanted to fish. There are probably 15 or so streams that make their way down either side of the divide in the immediate area, and we were going to fish as many as we could in a few days.
After choosing our site, and flushing both woodcock and grouse while setting up camp, my dad had an encounter with this guy as he was gathering firewood.
When camp set-up was finished, it was time to hit our first stream. When we got there, it actually reminded me a lot of the small spring creeks I am used to fishing in the Cumberland Valley. Not what I was expecting up the mountains. It averaged only around 5-7 feet wide, and could easily be jumped across in a lot of places, but had a depth of 2-5 feet in most spots.
After hooking up with a few brookies, I spotted a 12-13 inch fish in a hole. I thought that it was either a trophy brookie, or more likely, this tiny stream held browns as well. Just maybe there were some nice fish holding under the rocks and log jams along the banks. I tied on a black bugger to just see if I could tempt one of those little browns to take.
My second cast with the bugger landed about two feet in front of a boulder on the left bank. After one twitch, a dark fish slid out, opened up, and inhaled the fly. This wasn’t the 12 incher I had seen in the earlier hole. This thing was a beast. It took me all around the hole, into and out of the vegetation, made a couple lunges to try and get back to his hideout. After a few last runs, I landed one of the most beautiful browns I’ve ever caught.
After a few minutes of sitting there realizing I just caught THAT fish out of THIS stream, I was excited to continue. I caught a few more small browns and brookies and then we came upon a series of beaver ponds, which entertained us for the rest of the evening with rising brookies. It was the kind of start to a trip that you couldn’t plan better if you tried.
We spent the next few days hiking up and down steep valleys, deep into vast wild areas, and in and out of beaver meadows chasing brookies and browns. Each stream had it’s own unique character, and it was a cool experience to get to sample so many different streams in such a small area.
Part II – Hyner Run State Park
Tuesday morning we packed up and moved camp to Hyner Run State Park. We were the only campers there besides the campground host and one other camper for both nights we were there.
We decided to slow down the pace a little and spend the rest of Tuesday at Slate Run. With all of the recent rains, Slate was at a great level to fish. We fished three different sections of the stream, and had it all to ourselves in each spot. There were hatches coming off sporadically all day, and many fish were caught on my indicator caddis. Even though the fish populations seem lighter than before, I will never turn down an opportunity to fish Slate Run. It has everything a mountain trout stream should have – great scenery, incredible habitat, and yes, still trout.
We took a little drive Wednesday to visit some of the Upper Pine tribs. We fished four streams, and caught mostly browns in all of them. Again, the water levels helped a great deal.
Part III – Backpacking, Bushwacking, and Trout
This is one of my favorite places in the world to be. Maybe there are other streams with better scenery. Maybe there are other streams with more fish. Maybe there are more remote areas that see less pressure. But for some reason, this particular stream always draws me back.
We fished here for three days, and camped farther and farther in each night. We saw no one else, except one set of campers on our hike out. After casting to pools of gemmies finning in gin-clear water, and watching countless splashy rises, subtle takes, and the always entertaining brookie leaping for your fly (we even had a double leap on one cast!), it was a satisfying end to a great week spent in the PA woods. I can’t wait to plan our next trip.
Until Next Time...
This year, we spent the week in the big woods of North Central PA. It’s hard for me to plan a trip to this part of the state. There are so many options to choose from. It’s easy to get distracted, as pretty much every bit of flowing (or non-flowing) water has fish in it.
We decided to split our week-long journey into three parts.
Part I – Camp off of a state forest road on the high plateau along route 144 between Snow Shoe and Renovo. We would then fish the small streams that flow off either side of the plateau into the West Branch of the Susquehanna, or into Beech Creek on the other side.
Part II – Camp at Hyner Run State Park and take day trips on Tuesday and Wednesday to some streams in eastern Sproul and western Tiadghton State Forests.
Part III – Hike into a remote area for three days of backbacking, bushwacking, and small stream fishing nirvana from Thursday to Saturday.
Below is a brief synopsis of how it went…
Part I – The High Plateau
We set up camp off of Jews Run Road, as it was a nice central location to reach many of the streams we wanted to fish. There are probably 15 or so streams that make their way down either side of the divide in the immediate area, and we were going to fish as many as we could in a few days.
After choosing our site, and flushing both woodcock and grouse while setting up camp, my dad had an encounter with this guy as he was gathering firewood.
When camp set-up was finished, it was time to hit our first stream. When we got there, it actually reminded me a lot of the small spring creeks I am used to fishing in the Cumberland Valley. Not what I was expecting up the mountains. It averaged only around 5-7 feet wide, and could easily be jumped across in a lot of places, but had a depth of 2-5 feet in most spots.
After hooking up with a few brookies, I spotted a 12-13 inch fish in a hole. I thought that it was either a trophy brookie, or more likely, this tiny stream held browns as well. Just maybe there were some nice fish holding under the rocks and log jams along the banks. I tied on a black bugger to just see if I could tempt one of those little browns to take.
My second cast with the bugger landed about two feet in front of a boulder on the left bank. After one twitch, a dark fish slid out, opened up, and inhaled the fly. This wasn’t the 12 incher I had seen in the earlier hole. This thing was a beast. It took me all around the hole, into and out of the vegetation, made a couple lunges to try and get back to his hideout. After a few last runs, I landed one of the most beautiful browns I’ve ever caught.
After a few minutes of sitting there realizing I just caught THAT fish out of THIS stream, I was excited to continue. I caught a few more small browns and brookies and then we came upon a series of beaver ponds, which entertained us for the rest of the evening with rising brookies. It was the kind of start to a trip that you couldn’t plan better if you tried.
We spent the next few days hiking up and down steep valleys, deep into vast wild areas, and in and out of beaver meadows chasing brookies and browns. Each stream had it’s own unique character, and it was a cool experience to get to sample so many different streams in such a small area.
Part II – Hyner Run State Park
Tuesday morning we packed up and moved camp to Hyner Run State Park. We were the only campers there besides the campground host and one other camper for both nights we were there.
We decided to slow down the pace a little and spend the rest of Tuesday at Slate Run. With all of the recent rains, Slate was at a great level to fish. We fished three different sections of the stream, and had it all to ourselves in each spot. There were hatches coming off sporadically all day, and many fish were caught on my indicator caddis. Even though the fish populations seem lighter than before, I will never turn down an opportunity to fish Slate Run. It has everything a mountain trout stream should have – great scenery, incredible habitat, and yes, still trout.
We took a little drive Wednesday to visit some of the Upper Pine tribs. We fished four streams, and caught mostly browns in all of them. Again, the water levels helped a great deal.
Part III – Backpacking, Bushwacking, and Trout
This is one of my favorite places in the world to be. Maybe there are other streams with better scenery. Maybe there are other streams with more fish. Maybe there are more remote areas that see less pressure. But for some reason, this particular stream always draws me back.
We fished here for three days, and camped farther and farther in each night. We saw no one else, except one set of campers on our hike out. After casting to pools of gemmies finning in gin-clear water, and watching countless splashy rises, subtle takes, and the always entertaining brookie leaping for your fly (we even had a double leap on one cast!), it was a satisfying end to a great week spent in the PA woods. I can’t wait to plan our next trip.
Until Next Time...
