Poe Paddy
It had been two years since I fly fished Happy Valley for trout and five years since I was able to fish the green drake hatch. Either way you look at it, that is way too long to avoid some of Pennsylvania's best fishing...and crowds. As I made my way northwest over mountains, ridges, and endless farmland, the smell of manure wafted into my open windows as I listened to country music. I had a shitty grin on my face the whole time. I arrived at the tunnel of Penns Creek around 7:30 and hiked downstream to find an opening. At nightfall and on cue, a smorgasboard of insect life began its nightly routine led by the fluttering of the drakes. A few fish came to hand and I stayed an hour into the night attempting to coax those gorging trout into taking an artificial when they have thousands of naturals to choose from. Satisfied, I hiked out and headed to Walmart in State College for some shuteye.
The next two days, I made the rounds fly fishing the Little J, Spring, Spruce, and Penns. The days were hot and sunny, making tough conditions but I still had some success exclusively fishing dries. On a particular slow afternoon on Penns, I ended up spending five hours stalking two small pods of carp. I finally was able to coax a 15 lber into taking a green drake nymph. With the current, a 5 wt, and 4x the fight was on. He promptly sheered my tippet in half on a rock downstream. Worth it. No matter where I ended up during the day, I returned to Penns each night for the drakes. I was hoping to catch a slab of a brown trout, but each time I came up empty handed. I caught fish though, and the experience of seeing such biomass in the air is worth it everytime.
On my final day, my buddy Eric made the drive to fish Spring Creek and to experience the drakes for his first time. We had some great success nymphing and sight fishing on Spring before we headed to Penns and experienced the peak of the hatch. The drakes were so thick, that you would hit dozens of them with your rod on each casting stroke. You could feel the vibrations in your rod hand as they hit the blank and line in the air. It was crazy.
You can probably find lesser crowds and better drake fishing elsewhere in the area, but the drake hatch on Penns is worth experiencing at least once. If you time it right, it will be something that you'll always remember.
Donny B.
Low-Holed by this crew numerous times...
Stealthily stalking some Spring Creek trout...
A visitor...
