Time: 8:00AM – 9:30AM

Location:.5 mile downstream from the Coburn humped parking lot.

Penns Creek 06/02/2016 Photo Album

Wednesday’s fishing adventure ended with a flurry, as I landed four nice brown trout during a dense blue winged olive spinner fall. Unfortunately I endured a significant amount of dead time during the daytime hours despite beginning our quest for fish at 8AM. Jeff and I were hopeful that Thursday would be a different story.

Since we slept at the Schafer Cottages in Millheim, we were conveniently positioned near the upper section of Penns Creek below Coburn, Pa., so we made that our starting point. We were encouraged by the cool 65 degree temperature and cloudy skies, as we parked in a gravel lot below Coburn, and then we crossed a narrow bridge and hiked a worn path on the north side of the stream for .5 mile. After moving away from the creek, the path eventually returned, and we took the first decent worn trail to the edge of the water.

Penns Creek in this area consisted of long smooth pools with short faster glides and long pockets in between. I elected to test my dry/dropper technique, and I began my day with a yellow pool toy, emerald caddis pupa, and prince nymph. In 2003 Jeff and I visited this same segment of Penns Creek on a Saturday morning of Bucknell reunion weekend, and I enjoyed a bit of success on the emerald caddis pupa. I attempted to repeat my success, and added the prince nymph to cover the possibility of active isonychia nymphs in the area.

Jeff and I enthusiastically covered the attractive water for 1.5 hours, but once again the central Pennsylvania limestone creek did not reward us for our efforts. I did manage a momentary connection with a medium sized brown trout, but that was the extent of our action. Our best catch was a bundle of five interlocking tippet spools that Jeff spotted on the bank as we moved downstream near the end of our morning venture. I inherited the windfall since Jeff favors brown tinted Maxima tippet for his leader sections.

The temperature rose into the upper seventies, and neither of us were satisfied with our fishing prospects, so we decided to once again shift our focus to another central Pennsylvania stream at 9:30. Could we tolerate another fishless day with no reward for our persistent efforts? I was beginning to have doubts.

Fish Landed: 0