Fly and Gear ordering and delivery: We can get flies to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Please see the bottom of this column for ordering options.
We also have custom Perfect Fly selections in 3 different price ranges for this stream that come with or without fly boxes. They make excellent gifts. Click Here To Order or Call us at 800 594 4726 or email us at sales@perfectflystore.com.
Stream Flow Data:
Real Time USGS Data
Seasons:
Thanks to the stable temperature of the spring water, fly fishing Penns Creek is great throughout the season.
Spring:
Spring is certainly the most popular season to fish Penns Creek because of its numerous hatches. Summer:
Summer time can slow down the action unless you fish early and late.
Fall:
Fall season is a great time to catch the large brown trout and is overlooked by many anglers.
Winter:
Trout can be taken on all but the coldest days of winter on imitations of midge larvae, pupae and sometimes, the adults.
Recommended Tackle & Gear
Fly Line:
5 or 6 weight
Leaders:
Dry fly: 9 & 12 ft., 5 or 6X, Nymphing:
71/2 ft., 3 or 4X, Streamers 0-2X
Tippets:
Dry fly: 5 or 6X, Nymphing: 3 or 4X,
Streamer 0-2X
Best Fly Rods:
Perfect Fly Superb Five or Ultimate Six
Fly Reels:
For 5/6 fly line
Fly Floatants and Misc Items:
Floatants, KISS Strike Indicators
Tools & Accessories:
Nippers, forceps, retractors, etc.
Fly and Gear ordering and delivery:
Email us at (sales@perfectflystore.com) with the dates you will be fishing and we will send you a list of our fly recommendations. We can get flies and gear to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Your can also call us at 800-594-4726 and we will help you decide what flies and gear to use. All orders are shipped free in the U.S. If under a $100 order requiring Priority mail is a charge of only $8.10. Orders over a $100 are shipped free via Priority Mail.
Copyright 2013 James Marsh
Penns Creek, Pennsylvania – Fishing Report – April 21, 2024
The stream is flowing near a normal level and mostly clear. Good hatches are taking place.
Stream Conditions:
Rate: 771 cfs
Level: 3.14 ft
Afternoon Water Temperature: 49 (upper part and below elk)
Clarity: clear
Stream Flow Data: Real Time USGS Data
Recommended Trout Flies:
Brown Sculpin and White Belly Sculpin and Articulated streamers, size 6/4
Black Matuka and Olive Matuka Sculpin, size 4/6
Blue-winged Olives: size 16, nymphs, emergers, duns, spinners
Quill Gordons: 12/14, nymphs, emerging duns, duns, spinners
Blue Quills: 18nymphs, emergers, duns, spinners
Little Black Caddis: 18, pupa, adults
Little Brown Stoneflies: 12, nymphs, adults
Green Sedge Caddis, size 16/14, larva, pupa and adults
Hendricksons/Red Quills: 12/14, nymphs, emergers, duns and spinners
Fly Fishing On Penns Creek In Pennsylvania
Penns Creek is one of Pennsylvania’s top trout streams. It starts at the mouth of Penns Cave, where it is a small spring creek. It flows through beautiful Bush and Penn’s Valley, adding water from several small springs down to the little town of Coburn where it receives more cold spring water from Elk and Pine Creeks. This upper section, approximately thirteen miles long is rated a “B” class water by the state and receives stocked trout.
The section from Colburn downstream for the next fifteen miles through the forest of the Seven Mountains. This is the prime waters of Penns Creek and is rated Class “A” by the state. Fly fishing Penns Creek in this section is for all wild trout.
Penns Creek flows out of these hills into Buffalo Valley where it slows down and warms some. It is again rated as Class “B” water and stocked trout supplement the wild ones for the next few miles.
Those fly fishing the creek will find it’s a aquatic insect heaven. It has as many different species and as large of quantities of insects as any stream we know of or have taken samples from. It is known for its huge Green Drake hatch in late May and early June, but that is only one of many huge hatches that takes place on this fine stream.
Even though the creek is a pure spring creek, it does receive runoff that adds to the flow along the way and in many places, small spring inlets. Until you closely examine the water, especially in the prime, class “A” section of the stream, you may think it was a freestone stream. It has a freestone appearance many places. The rocks and boulders create pocket water, runs, riffles and pools and makes it easier to fish than many, smooth flowing spring creeks.
The trout can be very selective but fly fishing Penns Creek isn’t that difficult as long as you fish an imitation of what they are eating. To say the least, doing that isn’t very easy. Most of the time there are multiple hatches occurring. Knowing what to fish and when to fish it frustrates many anglers to the point they lose patients with what is one of the better spring creeks in existence.
Although Penns Creek is best known for its Green Drake mayfly hatch, that only last two or three weeks at best, and is only one of several great hatches this fine stream has. Many hatches last much longer and provide far more opportunities to catch trout than the large Green Drakes. I don’t want to take anything away from the great Green Drake hatch. I just want to emphasize the other fine fishing Penns Creek has to offer. One thing I have noticed is that often during the middle of the Green Drake hatch the trout seem to be more selective on other mayflies especially at certain times of the day. Just before dark, for example, I have seen them feed heavily on Light Cahill spinners. It is best to not let the Green Drake excitement completely take over your thinking. You should remain flexible and be prepared to fish a number of different flies.
Many anglers want to fish the stocked sections differently from the wild trout section. It is easier to catch newly stocked trout much easier than the wild trout but don’t forget about the large holdover trout. The stream usually stays cool enough in the class B sections to support trout year-round and this is especially true of the brown trout which can tolerate slightly warmer water than rainbows. These sections of the stream have some very large brown trout that are just as wise as any wild trout. Unless your happy just to catch the newly stocked trout, your much better off to match the most available and plentiful aquatic insects and other trout foods at the particular time you are fishing.
This doesn’t mean just matching the hatch. It also mean matching what’s about to hatch. It is just as important to match the larvae and nymphs with specific imitations of the most plentiful and available ones at the time your fishing. The trout can see them better than the dry flies on the surface. We have Perfect Fly imitations of all the aquatic insects in Penns Creek and in every stage of life that’s applicable to trout fishing.
Fly Fishing Guide for Penns Creek:
Penns Creek is one stream where you better play close attention to what the trout are eating. The large, wild browns are not easily fooled with generic or attractor type flies. The upper part of Penns Creek, in the area above Coburn, the stream is stocked by the state. There are a lot of larger holdover that in that area also. The newly stocked trout can be caught on a number of different attractor and generic fly patterns and without a great deal of skill on the part of the angler at times. The larger holdover trout aren’t so easy to catch. You need to concentrate on the most available food the trout have to eat to catch them. That isn’t easy. As you can see from our hatches section, there are numerous aquatic insects as well as other food available for the trout.
Below Coburn, in the wild trout section of the stream, you have to pay close attention to what the trout are most likely feeding on throughout the season. Multiple hatches are often more common than single hatches. It pays to keep a close check on the hatch chart and try a different variety of flies for the multiple hatches that occur. Again, the key is flexibility. Don’t become set in any one way of fishing Penns Creek or you will soon find yourself having a difficult time to finding any action.
The stream is a wide stream. It varies from fifty feet to up to a hundred yards wide in places. There are usually numerous places for the wild brown trout to be hiding.
You will have a difficult time deciding which of the holding areas are best because the entire creek is full of likely areas. It also has a wide variety of water types.
Even though it’s a spring creek, it acts more like a freestone stream in terms of flows. There are long runs, deep short and long pools, riffles of all types, smooth, slick sections of water and fast, rough sections of pocket water, depending on where you are fishing. You have to choose a method for each type of water.
Although Penns Creek is considered a very good dry fly stream, and rightly so I may add, it still will produce far more brown trout from subsurface fishing methods than from the dry fly. Large brown trout are far more prone to feed below the surface than on top. In fact, there are few aquatic insects that will bring the large ones to the surface and that usually happens during very low light situations or during the evening. If I stick with nymphs, wet flies and streamers. Unless there is a major hatch taking place, you are going to get far better results from fishing the deeper water hiding places with nymphs.
Penns Creek Hatches and Trout Flies:
Our information on aquatic insects is based on our stream samples of larvae and nymphs, not guess work. We base fly suggestions on imitating the most plentiful and most available insects and other foods at the particular time you are fishing. Unlike the generic fly shop trout flies, we have specific imitations of all the insects in the Penns Creek and in all stages of life that are applicable to fishing. If you want to fish better, more realistic trout flies, have a much higher degree of success, give us a call. We not only will help you with selections, you will learn why, after trying Perfect Flies, 92% of the thousands of our customers will use nothing else. 1-800-594-4726
When the Shad Flies (as the locals call them) or Green Drakes start hatching on Penns Creek, you may think you are seeing flocks of hummingbirds rather than mayflies. It is a sight to behold. They come up on the surface and ride the water for a lengthy time, provided they are lucky enough not to be eaten by a trout. The hatch goes on in the afternoon and later on, when the sun is setting and darkness is approaching, the sky is filled with clouds of spinners. Below them, waiting patiently are plenty of large, wild brown trout ready for a meal. If you are lucky, you will be one of the many anglers watching with a fly rod in your hand. Some anglers stay on the water to midnight, sometimes during overcast conditions when the moon is hidden, casting towards the noise of trout feeding on the spinners.
From the end of March through the middle of May, hatches of different species of Blue-winged Olives hatch. These hatch again from about the last week or two of August until mid October.
Chocolate Duns hatch during the month of May for about the entire month. March Browns will also be found hatching in the fast water areas from the first of May throughout the month. By the way, this is the same mayfly as the Gray Fox. Eastern Pale Evening Duns, called Sulfurs by many start hatching by the middle of May and continue on through June. Sulphurs start about the first of June and hatch through most of July.
Little Winter stoneflies hatch during February and March. From about the last week of March through the first three weeks of April, you will find Quill Gordon mayflies hatches in the fast water areas of the stream. At almost the same time, hatches of Blue Quills will be coming off. It can last until the first week or two of May. The Hendrickson mayflies start about the second or third week of April and last about a month.
Little Black Caddis, called Grannoms by many, hatch from about the first or second week of April for about a month. Green Sedges hatch from the middle of April through the middle of June.
The Green Sedge larvae are called Green Rock Worms. Imitations of them will work year-round. Cinnamon Sedges, net spinning caddis of several species will hatch from about the first of June through August. This is the most common caddis on Penns Creek.
Great Autumn Brown Sedges hatch in September. There are other species of caddisflies but these are the most important ones. From about the last week of May, through the first two or three weeks of June, the famous Eastern Green Drakes hatch. This is the big event on Penns Creek. LIght Cahills hatch during the month of June. You will find them mostly where there is faster water. You will find some hatches of Yellow Drakes during the month of July. Slate Drakes hatch from about the first of August all the way through the month of October. Mahogany Duns, called Blue Quills by many locals, hatch from about the middle of July through September. There is more than one species of these little mayflies. Tricos, or the little White Winged Curses, hatch from about the first of July through September.
Don’t overlook midges. If you fish Penns Creek during the early or late season when the water is cold, imitations of their larvae and pupae will produce for you. Sometimes the adult patterns work.
Streamers are very important flies on this creek because the large brown trout eat small baitfish, sculpin and even small crayfish. Make sure you have a good selection.
Craneflies hatch in huge quantities at times. Imitations of their larvae work anytime. Starting about the middle of June through September, imitations of terrestrial insects work on Penns Creek. Imitations of grass hoppers, ants and beetles are popular flies.
One of the main parts of the diet of the trout are scuds and sowbugs. The creek has a good population of these crustaceans, especially in the areas spring water makes up most of the flow. Make sure you have imitations of both.
We recommend our Perfect Flies for Penns Creek. They have been tested and proven effective on this stream many times. Our imitations of the Green Drake nymph, dun and spinners are the most realistic and effective flies you can purchase. If you haven’t tried them already, please do so. You will be very glad you did.
The creek is flowing at the normal level and in good shape. We still suggest avoiding the lowest section of the stream. It is a little warm. All other sections are turning out good numbers of trout.
Fly Fishing Gear, Tackle and Trout Flies for Penns Creek Pennsylvania
Brown trout grow to a very large size in Penns Creek and there are plenty of them. Make sure you are not using too light of tackle or you may end up regretting it. A poor drag and a fine tippet is a bad combination, so use good tackle.
Fly Line:
We recommend a 5 weight, floating fly line for most all of the fly-fishing. We recommend a 6 weight, floating fly line for nymph fishing and streamers.
Fly Rod:
The five or six weight rods should be nine feet in length. A medium fast to fast action is the best in our opinion.
Fly Reel:
The reel for either of these two rods should have a good drag. You don’t want to hang a
large trout and loose it because of a lousy drag. Disc drags would be preferred.
Leaders:
You should be using at least a 71/2 foot leader anywhere on Penns Creek. A twelve foot
length may be the right choice in some situations. You should have them in sizes ranging
from 0X for streamers, up to 6X for small dry flies. I wouldn’t go any lighter on this stream.
Tippet:
Carry extra tippet material in sizes ranging from 0X to 6X.
Waders:
We suggest you wear waders anytime you fish Penns Creek. We prefer the breathable type
but the neoprene ones can help keep you warm if you fish during the cold season.
Wading Boots:
Felt soles would be our first choice. The new rubber soles may also work well. We have not tested them there. Penns Creek is a very slick stream.
Flies:
We recommend “Perfect Fly” Trout Flies. We have specific imitations of everything that exist in Penns Creek that the trout eat. The flies are not only as realistic as you will find on the commercial market, they are the most effective at catching trout. Many have been tested on Penns Creek. Our imitations of the Green Drake nymph, emerger, duns and spinners are very effective on the stream. If you haven’t done so already, please give them a try.