What's the deal with Litte Sandy?

[PennKev]

Just wondering if I can get some other people's opinions about Little Sandy creek in Venango county. I finally fished it this past monday after years of hearing and reading about how it was a good stream that held fish year-round and even had a decent population of wild fish. I checked out most of the C&RFFO area and I was dissapointed. What I found was an incredibly shallow, structureless stream. I caught and saw trout only in the few areas where man made improvments created good habitat. However, I walked past probably 85-90% of the project water without making a cast. Though, I must add that I drove past some of the upstream areas where the stream is very small and wished I'd had tried those areas as they looked much better than the lower stretch of the stream. So what are some other opinions of this stream? Over-rated? Tough to fish? Quirky?

Kev

 

[dryflyguy]

My opinion of it is pretty much the same as yours
I've stopped there quite a few times over the years on my way to and from oil creek, and have never really seen a good hatch or rising fish. It apparently stays pretty cold all summer, and has some wild trout, but I don't know what the problem is.
There is one decent hole below the route 62 bridge just past polk where I have done pretty well a few times with terrestials in summer. But I rarely even bother to stop there anymore

By the way, I fished oil creek on monday - did very well .
Found lots of fish rising to a gray caddis there

 

[Gone4Day]

A couple years ago OCTU was concerned there was a problem with Little Sandy because they weren't catching many fish and requested a survey. The PFBC surveyed the stretch between the Polk cut-off and rt. 62 bridges and as I recall, they found about 100 wild fish, half were over 7" and the largest was 16". So the fish are there, they're just not easy to catch. The fact that its SR water, gets stocked and fished heavily have made the wild population particularly wary. Although they've done a lot of work on the lower end of the FFO section to improve habitat, there still is a mostly flat featureless section upstream of the rt. 62 bridge. However, the upper end of FFO section has some nice holding water and doesn't get pounded quite as hard. Almost in the exact middle of the FFO section there's a nice hole where a tree has fallen across the stream. There is always a big one under that log and I've hooked him several times but have never been able to land him. There are fish there, but other then the few holes were the stockers congregate, you'll have to work for them.

 

[OhioOutdoorsman]

I fish the FFO section quite frequently. I'd say I agree with the above. The first third and last third of the FFO section has the best holding water. I catch mostly stockers there. Caught an 18" brown last year by the Rt. 62 bridge end of the section.

I have caught a fair amount of smaller, wild fish, mainly in the flat featurless middle section, mainly near the banks and in faster riffles high sticking under rocks. The flat featureless section is the most accessable section.

It is heavily fished and the fish are spooky. You'd be surprised of how big of fish hang out in small pockets of water on that stream. They are just tough to catch.

The stream above the FFO is more trouty looking but I've had less sucess catching big fish and more success catching smaller wild browns there.

Now the hatches are very few and far between but I have had some succes get trout to rise on attractor patterns. A black ant in june-august has been good too.

I will say that there was signifigant flooding right after the stocking this year and the stream has looked more washed out and has been less productive this year than years past.

 

[muskylund1]

I must say that I concur with the last two posts. Little Sandy is small and is quite shallow in places, but I have had some very good days fishing there. It maintains good temperatures throughout the year. All of the bigger fish I have caught there were hatchery fish, but it does have decent numbers of wild browns. The wild fish tend to run small, but if there are bigger ones they are likely just hard to catch. I used to catch more hatchery fish here by about a 4:1 margin. One of my favorite times to fish there is in Early Winter (December) or Late Winter/Early Spring (March). I once hit a nice hatch of BWOs in March and had a ball fishing dries.

The fish on Little Sandy rise well to dries much of the time even when there is no hatch. I too have caught wild browns above the project water and would recommend it if you like small stream fishing.

If you are in the area looking for a stream to fish I would highly recommend Upper Two Mile Run. You will find much more good holding water and while this is also a stocked stream you will find a good population of wild trout including some nice sized fish. This stream also has pretty decent hatches and the fish rise well to dries even when there is no hatch. I used to catch more wild fish here than hatchery fish by about 3 or 4:1 margin.

Tom

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

not in my neck of the woods i just ask why arent they doing more work on the stream!? if it is lacking structure and good holding water make some! i mean we dont have enough C&R FFO streams and we dont have enough streams that stay cool enough to holdover trout. lets get the ones we do have in great shape!