Early Spring in the Karoondinha Gorge

The stream that flows at the bottom of the Karoondinha Gorge needs no introduction to Keystone State fly fishermen. The name Karoondinha however is not quite as well known, but it's the name originally given to Penns Creek by the native American Indians. Specifically, they were refering to the section of Penns that cuts through the dark and foreboding water gaps of the Seven Mountains Wilderness region. Back then these steep mountains were covered with glorious stands of virgin white pine and hemlock and travel was difficult at best, even by indian standards. In fact, it was only as recent as 1860 that European settlers first entered the heavily forested gorge. We know that in 1865, Daniel Musser built the first small, water powered sawmill in the wilderness at the junction of Big and Little Poe Creeks. And what a wilderness it must have been! The likes of which we will never see again. Around 1875 the Lewisburg-Tyrone railroad had built a line up the gorge and sent a siding up Poe Creek to Musser's Mill. Serious exploitation of the Seven Mountain timber could now begin. By 1882 the population of Poe Mills was larger than that of nearby State College.

Today the sounds of the axe, crosscut saw and the sawmill are silent. The woodhicks are gone and the old railroad bed has been converted into a hiking/biking path. What one sees today are people in rubber clothing wading up to their hips in Penns Creek. These are flyfisher persons, and a typical one will be standing motionless for long periods of time while holding a long thin fishing rod in one hand, and a coil of thickish fishing line of unreal colors in the other -all the while peering intently into the water. Occasionally, you will see the angler wave the rod back and forth before making a graceful and sinuous cast. If we wait even longer, we may see a splash out past the end of his line signaling the disturbance created by a wild brown trout taking his artifice. In the lower end of the gorge lies a tract of 430 acres that are now protected in perpetuity as the Ralph W Abele Memorial Glen. Ralph was a former Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Fish Commission who was far sighted enough to work hard to protect this area for future generations.

Fast water in early spring and, as any Penns Creek regular will tell you, it's Grannom time in the Glen. This past season's hatch was the baddest, bad assed batch of Brachycentrus numerosi I've ever seen emerge on the creek. The numbers of fish rising to emergers as well as freshly hatched and oviposting adults had to be seen to be believed. Not only the pools, but every side channel, back eddy, beaver dam or slough was alive with rising trout from 10am till sunset. I've been fishing Penns Creek for close to 30 years now and I've been lucky enough to fish some pretty good Grannom hatches but I'd never seen anything like this.

If the Penns Creek Regulars had any fears of a brown trout population crash from the previous summers low water and thermal stresses, they were soon put to rest (as they always are, but that's another story) when they saw the numbers of feeding fish on the Broadwater Pool. There were so many rising fish it looked like it was raining. Just another testament to the vivacity of wild trout genes. They inherently know how to find those valuable cold water refuges.


At this time of the year (early April) the famous hatches of sulphers and drakes, as well as their attendant crowds, are still a little over a month away so it's still possible to find long stetches of undisturbed water. With the trout's metabolism just starting to kick into high gear after a long winter, this might just very well be my favorite time of the year on Penns Creek.


Here the narrow flood plain around the Cherry Run bottom lands is just starting to open up before it breaks out into the western end of the Buffalo Valley. Around the same time the Grannoms emerge, fly fishers can also expect to see a moderate hatch of Hendrickson mayflies, along with an even better concentrated fall of their spinners on the waters of the lower gorge.


Not to mention some world class stonefly nymph fishing in the pocket water. This is where the creek runs hard against the base of White Mountain and it's about as far away from any access points as you can get. White Mountain is the big, long mountain with numerous talus slopes that you can see from the PFBC parking lot at Cherry Run. This section has some of the best pocketwater, and largest fish, on the entire creek.


Camping in the gorge at Poe Paddy State Park. The name is derived from the parks fortuitous location at the junction of Poe and Paddy Mountains. It also sits right on the site of the former town of Poe Mills. Ghost towns don't last very long in the East because of the relatively humid and wet weather conditions so all that remains of Poe Mills today are a few building foundations and abandoned railroad grades, and even they're not easy to find.


One of the very best things about fishing the American Grannom hatch (aka shadfly, dark grannom or Penns Creek caddisfly) is that it can be an all day affair. Starting in the morning with larva/pupae imitations dead drifted on the bottom, once the emergence starts around 10am, you can switch to soft hackled wet flies, emergers and dry flies through early afternoon. Just to stay with the program, hang around till late afternoon or early evening and continue to fish dry flies to returning oviposting adults. It's all good!


Marsh Marigolds, a wetland wildflower and a harbinger of spring along the fishermans path. They can be found in swampy areas or along stream banks and they disappear as quickly as they arrive. They come up about the same time as the ubiquitous skunk cabbage and can be found in many of the same locations.

Another wild brown trout taken on a caddis fly from John Penn's Creek.

Springtime in Penns Woods. Combine it with some camping and a little trout fishing in the mountains and what you have is a natural elixir for a healthy and happy life.




Parting Shot: "I've got my baby, got my wife. But it's only half a life without a dog... " -Tommy Thompson & The Red Clay Ramblers.

Rebirth of Big Spring Creek

Big Spring Creek

Big Spring Creek is perhaps the most stikingly classic looking of all the Pennsylvania spring creeks. It originates from a large limestone spring 1 mile north of Stoughstown, Cumberland County and flows 5 miles on a northeasterly course to it's confluence with the Conodoguient Creek near the borough of Newville, Pa. Once regarded as the finest brook trout stream in North America, it has suffered greatly at the hands of man. Most notably during the last 3 decades of the twentieth century when it's waters were severly depleted of disolved oxygen by the effluent of a large fish hatchery owned and operated by the Pennsylvania Fish Commission just above the headwater spring. Prior to it's degradation by the agency entrusted with it's care it was possible to drive along Big Spring Road on any day of the year, at any time of the day, and see free rising brook trout in the meanders of the stream right from the window of your car. After the mega-hatchery opened in 1972 the brook trout population along with the clean water macroinvertebrates crashed.

The good news is that the hatchery was closed in November, 2001 and with the continued oversight of the Big Spring Watershed Association, the stream is well on it way to making a comeback. Brook trout and rainbow trout are now present in enough numbers to classify the upper reaches of the stream as Class A wild trout water and pollution intollerant mayflies and caddisflies are recolonizing stretches of the stream where formerly only cressbugs could be found. Thanks to the foresight of a few dedicated individuals, the future does indeed look bright again for Big Spring Creek.

The Barrel Factory For years, anglers visiting the upper end of the stream have noticed this picturesque limestone building, known as the Barrel Factory, sitting just below the dam at the lower end of the Headwaters section. Built around 1850, it was part of the former McCracken Grist Mill and may have also served as a stillhouse in what was then the growing village of Springfield. The dam at the site was used to provide power to the mill via the old millpond that was backed up behind it. This is where Don Martin caught his legendary 31 inch, 15 1/2 lb. brown trout back in 1946. In fact, many of today's anglers who still fish the former "Ditch" section, or Headwaters, don't realize that they are actually walking and fishing in what used to be the bottom of the old McCracken Mill Pond. The first public road in Cumberland County was constructed in 1735 and ran from present day Harrisburg to the Potomac. That road crossed Big Spring at this very spot. Today the Big Springs Watershed Association (BSWA) leases this historic barrel factory from the state and hopes to turn it into a museum.

This is the site of the old fish barrier that was put in place by the Pa. Fish Commisson after the hatchery opened. Their intent was to keep the browns and rainbows that, at that time, still populated the lower reaches of the creek from encroaching on the native indigenous Big Spring strain of brook trout that were still hanging on in the upstream sections. Hatchery effluent soon made the fish barrier a moot point and today it is widely accepted that the original strain of brookies are extinct so the barrier has been removed.


Wild rainbows are now making a comeback in the middle sections of the creek that were formerly barren and their colors have to be seen to be believed. There are many large specimens to provide terrific sport for the angler, but bring your "A" game with you as these fish are very wary and spooky. They do not suffer sloppy wading or bad presentations lightly.


The substrate on the upper end of the creek is now sparkling clean and no longer has that rotten egg smell to it that one associates with a stream impaired by hatchery effluent and it high biological oxygen demand. Good numbers of freshwater shrimp are returning along with the Glossoma caddisflies. Baetis mayfly populations are increasing in their numbers. Ephemerella and Heptagenia nymphs have repatriated their favorite parts of the stream. All of these mayflies and caddisflies are now present in enough numbers to bring about a nice rise of trout to the dry fly in their respective seasons.


The upper end of the stream has some nice riffles and areas of broken water that you can't quite call pocket water, and it's these sections that are the favorite haunts of the wild rainbows. There's no doubt that these rainbows, while providing terrific sport right now, will be competition for the brook trout recovery in the upper reaches. There are also a few extremely large browns hanging around in the deeper holes. Just like Johnny or Edgar Winter though, they only come out at night or when spooked.


This is my fishing buddy John with a nice respectable wild rainbow trout taken from a section of the creek that was void of trout 5 years ago. About 13-14 inches long, this one jumped and cartwheeled 5 or 6 times and raced all around the pool before it was released to fight another day.


Cohicks Bridge: Instream structure like this along with deep watercress filled holes provide excellant habitat for the larger denziens that prowl the middle section of the stream. Here's where you'll want to break out the sculpin patterns or Shenk's White Minnow when no rising trout are in evidence.


Rip rap, watercress and sulpher mayflies all provide for a pastoral setting in a delicate valley that is still dominated by agriculture and Mennonite farms.


John with a 19 inch wild Big Spring rainbow trout taken from the lower end of the special regulations stretch in April, 2006. As little as 5 years ago this scene would have been just a pipe dream on this formerly barren water.


More terrific fish habitat on the middle section of the stream as the photos from the latest PFBC Survey will attest. This stretch of water has everything a trout needs; depth, overhead cover, riffles, plenty of food and a steady supply of cold limestone water.



Parting Shot: Fountain Square in Newville, Pa. Newville was, at one time in it's past, a true Trout Town in it's own right. The Henryville of southcentral Pennsylvania. Having all the right ingredients such as a railroad, hotel and a blue ribbon wild trout stream, it drew ardent fly fishermen from as far away as Philadephia. Fishermen would be taken up to the head of the stream and dropped off, then they would fish their brace of wet flies on the way back downstream to town for the evening. Hopefully the rejuvenation of Big Spring Creek will revitalize the town and regain it's rightful place in the cradle of fly fishing in America. Big Spring is back, and with the help of the BSWA it will only get better over the next few years. If only we could accomplish the same success with Green Spring Creek.

An Elk Creek Manifesto

In the Ridge and Valley Province of central Pa. lies a geologic formation refered to as the Nittany Arch. Extending in an arc from Williamsport to Bedford this area is blessed with many fine spring fed trout streams. Few of them are as well endowed with all the basic requirements to support a healthy population of wild trout as is Elk Creek, the most important of the many tributaries of Penn's Creek. The health of Elk Creek is vital in maintaining Penn's reputation as a world class fishery. The adjacent view, taken from atop of Sand Mountain and looking out over upper Penns and Brush Valleys is a familiar one in the fall when any valley that has a major stream or river running through it fills up entirely with fog during particular climatic temperature inversions. Not until 10:00 or 11:00 am will the suns rays penetrate and burn away the fog.


Once we drop below the ceiling of fog what we find are beautifully productive, well kept Amish farms working a land once tread by indians and roamed by buffalo. The indians and the buffalo are long gone and today farms like this one in the small Amish hamlet of Spring Bank provide a measure of protection by keeping the land out of development since they are generally handed down through the family.

Although Elk Creek rises out of a cave on the floor of Brush Valley, the water that you see here originated from small freestone streams that work their way down the nearby sandstone mountains. Once they hit the valley floor most of them disappear into various sinkholes in the Karst topography only to be reborn a few miles later as full fledged spring creeks after traveling through underground limestone conduits. They're just filthy lousy with wild brook and brown trout.




A butter bellied Elk Creek wild brown trout that inhaled a size 20 cutwing baetis dun on a crisp late October day. That's a vintage Pflueger (circa 1935) fly reel mounted on a Dream Catcher bamboo fly rod which was exsquisitely handcrafted by Wyatt Dietrich of Chambersburg, Pa. The 7' 9"Jim Kelly Special model/taper.


In addition to it's source at a cave on the valley floor, Elk Creek is augmented by additional limestone springs in the hamlet of Spring Bank (naturally) just before it turns south and cuts a path through a gap in Brush and Shriner Mountains. As you can see, that's a nice push of frigid limestone water for early September.


Locally known as the Millheim Narrows, this gap through the mountains provides some terrific limestone pocketwater for the nymph fisherman.
While today the upper end of the Narrows is posted by a small private fishing club, the lower end is still open to the public. Scattered stretches of public and posted water exist all the way downstream from there to it's confluence with Penns Creek. A distance of about 4 miles.


I like to camp and fish and there are few better places in Pee-Aye to combine the two then Poe Paddy State Park. The only caveat is to properly store your food at night because this whole area is thick with grizzly bears. Every year we lose a few unfortunate fisherman who get seriously mauled back here. Just keeeeeeeeeeding!


Here we have another Elk Creek wild brown trout that was fooled by a size 12 stonefly nymph in the pocketwater of the Millheim Narrows. This time it's a Marryat fly reel mounted on a Dream Catcher bamboo fly rod (7' Willow Beetle model).


Parting Shot: Elk Creek cuts a side channel under some hemlocks as it courses through the gap in Brush and Shriner Mountains. Over 20 years ago, on a sparkling, sunny, bluebird type spring day, I was playing a small 7-8 inch brook trout down by the big horseshoe bend just upstream from Millheim when a leviathan of a brown trout rose up out of the depths and tried to eat the trout on the end of my line. Upon seeing me he then retreated back to the icy green depths of the Horseshoe Pool. That was my introduction to Elk Creek.