Penns Creek Angler
Bruce Fisher
Article Dec 2007
Here we are at the end of November and beautifully colored leaves are still on the trees. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this before or it’s been so many years I don’t remember it.
In my last article I was very concerned about the low water in Penn’s Creek and the Brown Trout that are so special. It’s been months since I’ve seen a good hatch of insects or the trout that feed on them. It seemed like there were two Herons in every pool and several Ospreys patrolling the their usual territory. The kingfishers were defending their spots and disputes broke out almost by the minute. I know this is nature’s way but the birds sure had the best fishing this year. On many occasions I’ve seen Osprey hit the water with a loud crash and come up with a fish, it’s a wonder they can get air born again with the size of the fish they catch. Some of the fish they caught were suckers and some were trout it’s an amazing sight.
Since the beginning of November I’ve had a few opportunities to fish and walk the creek and I noticed the smaller trout had come back in good numbers. Around the first week of November I fished a large pool and stumbled on a good Blue Winged Olive hatch and caught a few fish on dry flies. I didn’t get any large fish but I did get some in the 10-14 inch range. It was wonderful to see they had made it through the long dry summer of 2007.
At the middle of the month I saw more and more fish in their normal holding water. Now my only concern was where are these fish going to spawn? I know there are many spots in the main creek that the trout spawn but they are few and far between. To make matters worse the feeder creeks are getting closed in with large rocks from the floods over the past few years and the fish will have a terrible time getting up to their traditional spawning areas to deposit eggs. But again this is nature’s way of letting the strongest fish survive.
Fishing in the last week of November I caught several fish that had spawned somewhere and were now rising to small beetles and ants. I know that when the hatches end in late fall a beetle will usually take a fish or two and if that doesn’t work a streamer will usually grab their attention. I hope in early December I’ll wake up to a nice warm day and get the rod out and go for a walk. The spawn will be over and I might just use a yellow stonefly nymph to attract a hungry brown.
I hope the story I tell next month will speak of bigger fish and plenty of them. Until that time I’ll still be concerned about the larger fish because they seem to take the low hot water harder than the smaller fish. I know my best prospects for finding larger fish will arrive in December and January when the creeks are devoid of fishermen and the water is higher. So all I can do is hope and pray the big fish are ok and doing just fine.
To close this article I can hear and feel the wind out of the west and the air is cooling considerably. This is good for the trout and the possibility of rain or snow but my poor fingers will be cold. It’s hard to tie on flies when your fingers are frozen.
I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas; my next article will reach you in the year 2008. How time flies… ;>
“Catch you later”
Bruce Fisher
© 2008