PA Opening Day of Trout

jjsjigs

Banned
Joined
Nov 25, 2010
Messages
384
Location
North Central Pennsylvania
I attempted to fish on Opening Day of PA trout (Northern Tier of PA opener on 4/16). Every single ditch trickle, creek, or run was raging from 3" of rain!!! I kept driving southwards (almost 186 miles one way) looking for anything fishable. After 3 hours of searching, swearing, and kicking myself for even trying to fish....

I ended up at Spring Creek at Benner Springs between Bellfonte, PA and State College, PA). I've never seen Spring Creek at 223cfs before.... or have ever attempted to fish it over 190cfs. Normally Spring Creek is at 40cfs... yeah, 40!!! At 223cfs, It was rolling, muddy, and high (very high for Spring that usually has stable flows year round)

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Nature decided to transplant a new strike indicator on my line.

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I spied this Golden rainbow trout (sometimes referred as a "Palomino" but it is not a true Palomino trout. It is a cross-breed between the original 1954 isolated strain of a West Virginia Palomino Trout and a McCloud River - California Rainbow Trout) in the Benner Springs hatchery outflow. It must have escaped. It was living rather nicely here.... raising to tiny flies. (very defiantly I must say... now... how do I hop this fence?) It looks like a small goldfish, right? Nope that is at least a 14 incher sitting in that run.

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Fishing with "The Godfather" the defacto ruler of the Dirtbag Flyfishing Posse.
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The Godfather got 3 hits in a bunny leech fly. We saw an osprey with a trout.... I sadly, just got cold and wet. I deferred to my Godfather after 2 hours of playing in the mud. We opted to have a light lunch at McDonald's and ended up BS'ing for 75 minutes. So... 190 mile drive one way for a fish o' fliet and a cup of coffee. LOL!
 

AtticaFish

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Staff member
Joined
Mar 22, 2010
Messages
5,445
Location
Attica, OH
Sounds like a tough day - hopefully this weather turns around soon. If i would have looked at the pic and not read... i would have guessed that fish was a Koi! Pretty cool to see a trout like that but looks like easy picking for those Osprey.

Hate to say it but there is probably some more precip heading your way... poured here last part of the day and filled all the creeks in a hurry.

BTW - perfect indicator for those extra spooky fish! haha!
 

hhawkins

New member
Joined
Aug 8, 2010
Messages
653
Location
Harrison, Arkansas
Beautiful setting! First time I've see a golden trout is when we first opened our Bass Pro Store in Branson, Missouri. We had a male and female in the tank with other rainbows and browns. The golden stuck out like a diamond in a goats a$$. Very pretty was always asked by customers, what was that kind of trout.
 
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