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3. Part #4 of Spencer's Trip: Penn's Creek

I will only say a few things here, other than I know I'm out of order with my posts here...#3 will be Yellow Breeches and the final one,#5 A Day on the Letort.

Eric and I snuck up to Penn's and had a day on the Henny's that turned us in to 12 year old boys fishing in a Bluegill Pond...except the fish were in the 16-18" range. We were out of or minds...Giddy, silly, slap-happy fishing.

We made it back to the car just in time for a serious storm to hit. Horizontal rain and hail, wind, and lightening...We jumped in to the car in waders and vests...Luckily we happened to jump in to the truck which held the beers. :)

The area reminds me of Michigan's UP...Very wild. The storm brought down trees and we barely made it out of there. At one point I had to stand in the road holding a pine tree against the edge of the road while Eric moved the trucks through. There was a very large tree across the road and was leaning up against trees on the other side. We didn't know that at any moment this tree might not come all the way down and we would of had to sleep in the car...Eric had the taller truck and it just cleared the tree with maybe an inch and a half clearence.

The road had sections that were closed and without Eric's knowledge of the place we never would of made it...He got us back to town to a cool little brew pub and we ate dinner and listened to Lucinda Williams...Eric, for a younger fella, has an impressive knowledge of music...Even knows of Tom Waits...

We stayed in the B&B section of the fly shop I'm standing in front of...Eric and I had the place to ourselves and sat up until 1:30 drinking beer, tying flies, and arguing fly tying theory...Hell! Why not?! We were feeling giddy that we had made it through the storm.

Thanks Eric for a killer afternoon...Eventhough we put some miles on the vehicles...

Spence

I forgot the "Look Away Cast"...As you can see in the pics above I was planted in the middle of the stream and Eric was along the side...He would call out rising fish to me, "Hog at 9:00 o'clock along bank near tan rock", "another one rose at 11:00 o'clock near that dead shrub"...etc, etc.

He fished and walked around the same section of river for an hour or so and I waded over to him to rest my legs...I cast to a fish and turned to say something to him and smack, a large fish took my fly...Eric started yelling, "I saw that Spence, you weren't even looking and you caught that fish!" This fish was only a foot or two out from where Eric had been camped out...Go figure?!

I explained that my fishing mentor would say that the fish didn't count if he hit when I was looking away...You all know I have a hard time keeping quiet.:) I explained to Eric that it is a tactic for fishing to wary trout...You pretend not to be looking or fishing and the trout relaxes and takes your fly...It could happen! ;) Prove me wrong...

Spence

It's the company you keep, Brookyman...

Do you know the characters in this play? I visited PA and was shown around by Tony...Gutcutter here on Troutnut, Eric...Crepuscular here on Troutnut, Bruce...Lastchance here on Troutnut (he has other monikers here as well...he needs them to cover all his personalities ;), Louis...Martinlf here on Troutnut, and Shawn...Shawnny3 here on Troutnut...

JohnW was also going to be there but he got hung up and Matt was on vacation with his wife.

This is the gang that made this epic..."Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me-That ever with a frolic welcome took the thunder and the sunshine,"...and yes we caught fish...:)

I cannot, for it is true , my good friend.;)

Awesome report! What's better than big trout looking up?

I like this one:





What rock? I don't know nothin' about no rock, except that I caught a fish or two (or 6) from a certain 5 square foot area that is located directly above the center of the earth.

This picture is pure, unadulterated joy! A good one indeed. The fish looks to be a good one as well.

I'll tell you what's better, me looking down at it!
Bruce

LOL! Right you are, sir.

Kyle...This was just before we morphed in to 12 year-old boys playing hookie and no longer afraid that we might get caught...:) I'm still living on the after-glo. Two buddies happy for each others success...Basically play. The world outside that bend in the river didn't exist for us at that moment...Even with an awesome storm bearing down on us.

Bruce...The only thing that would of made it any better would have been your smiling face in these pics!

Spence

Eric...You and I know the "rock" thing was magical, but not anyone would of caught all those fish from that spot...I'm not sure I'll ever see something like that again...Imagine catching a nice fish in a spot only to have another opportunist trout move in to nearly the same spot and then catching that one as well...Over and over again! How about the few misses? That spot must be primo to a trout. We never moved!

Eric was fishing upstream.

I wasn't going to say anything, we both have wives, but Eric and I bought the house on that bend...Don't tell anyone. Especially the girls! ;)

Kyle...The opening in that net, long ways, is 15"...That fish was reluctant to get in that small opening...:)

Penns Creek Hendrickson. I was so happy to see this fly! So were the fish :)

Wow. Just wonderful.


You found my rock!!!

Spence - A darn nice fish indeed. Judging by the write up and pictures, it was a day full of them.

I will be happy to see Hendrickson's show up on my favorite river. I have been told it gets a very nice hatch. I hope it is as good as this!

Paul...I knew that they were either yours or Eric's pet fish...That explains alot. ;)

That photo could be in an ad campaign, Eric. Very nice.

Spence,
I don't know if Eric explained Penn's much to you but the day you describe is beyond any adjective or descriptor I or the entire english language is capable of. That river is well known to be a as fickle, capricious and mean spirited as they come. I am certainly glad that she chose that day to smile on the two of you.
JW

A new batch of Hennies will do that to trout as well as anglers. Ahhhhh... feels good to hear that all is well in the world back East.

Wow Spence, that looks like fun! I'm totally jealous now...Hendricksons too? You can't beat that...still waiting around here. Our snow at least has melted today. Milder weather out there? Those are some really nice looking fishies there too. What time of day were the Hennies coming off? Any other hatches, caddis or stoneflies?

Also, what rods were you using?

Jonathon

An add for Sage or Hennies? :)

Jonathon I can't remember what weight rod Eric was using...I think it was a 4, I was also using a Sage, but the old LL (Light Line Series) and mine was a 5wt.

I also took my Winston BIIIx 9' for 4, another Sage, 8' for 4 RPL, and my Scott 7' for 3wt...I never fished the 3wt but the other three made it to a PA stream.

On Penn's we had a couple, what I thought were egg laying stones, the early black stone and the early brown though I wouldn't swear to it...I was glad to see that Eric was still watching the bugs a bit, because I forgot about them completely until we spotted Henny spinners overhead...Not sure that they came down...May have taken cover before the storm hit...

JohnW...I forgot to mention...Penn's was completely blown out the next day after the storm...It was running high and looked like creamed coffee...We headed back down to the Cumberland valley...It seems to run a tad warmer down that way as you know. Eric and I had dinner that night with Eric's wife and daughter...I remember it being pleasant and all but not sure Eric or I can remember any of the dinner conversation...We both were still humming. :) I think I remember that his daughter was talking with me about college and the culinary arts...They served Molson there...This could of compounded things. ;)