beer and fishin', it's a wonderful life for me

So I returned from my many missions triumphant. I was tired, but I was triumphant. Many breweries were seen, many industry folks talked to, many beers consumed, many flies cast. Because I'm going to write up the Michigan beer trip for Indianabeer.com, i'm not going to post much here about it. But when it's up on the site, I'll post a link.

As for trout fishing in central PA, it was awesome. I absolutely love central PA. I went to college there. The landscape is unlike any where else in the world. Parts of Virginia and West Virginia approximate it, but they're not the same. The ridge and valley province may not have the biggest, most striking mountains, but it is beautiful...and it has some of the best trout fishing on the east coast. In fact, central PA's trout waters are literally world famous. This is due mainly to the karst topography (limestone). Most of the creeks in central PA are limestone spring fed. Keeps the water chemistry just right for trout and the temperatures low.

We stayed at 'Rough and Rustic', a little camp/school/environmental center run by Frank Angelo. He is a character. He is an incredible fisherman. He is apparently pretty famous in the fly fishing industry and quite well connected. He is 1/4 American Indian and talks about it constantly. He is also a christian and kept saying things like 'that's just how god made them' or 'god's beautiful creation' etc. It pissed me off. But it's not like he was ramming it down our throats or anything. Regardless, great fisherman. If you're ever at the Harrisburg Outdoor Show, he's the one casting flies into that little cup from 50 feet away. It's impressive. He also has about 200 beautiful acres in western Synder County. He has as casting pond with lots of bluegill and bass (we all caught a bass out of it!) and middle creek runs through his property. He also has as cabin circa 1790s that he lives in and we stayed in. It was pretty cool.

Here is a pic of some Jack-in-the-Pulpits we saw on his property.



Anyway, the first day we fished Middle Creek, a smallish river in western Snyder county. We hooked up with several fish and we all 'landed' one trout. My brother got a 10-12 inch brown, I got a 12-14 inch rainbow and my dad got a 10-12 inch trout of some sort. I can't tell by the picture. There was a nice mayfly hatch, small cream midges, about size 16, and the fish were really rising for them.

Here's a pic of my father fishing on Middle Creek with Frank. It's nice fishing with a guide because they tell you where to catch fish AND they give you flies and TIE THEM ON!



Here's my brother Adam's first fish:



And my rainbow:



Here's another pic of my dad fishing Middle Creek.



And here's Frank with dad's ONLY trout of the trip!



And here's a good shot on Middle Creek with a very pretty sky:



Here's a pic of the beautiful central PA sky:



Here we are back at Frank's place. He had 3 snow geese that were incredibly loud and obnoxious. He also had two canadian geese that had babies just a couple days ago.



So then on Thursday we went to fish THE Penn's Creek. Probably the most famous trout river in PA if not the east coast. They are most famous for their green drake hatch (a mayfly) that we missed by only about a week. Penn's Creek is really pretty. It's very rural. The best fishing is at the end of Penn's valley from Poe Paddy state park to about 10 miles downstream.

Here is a good 'River Runs Through It' picture of my brother Adam on Penn's creek.



And another of Adam on Penn's:



And another nice shot of the one cloud we saw all day:



And from left to right, my brother, my dad, and myself.



Now my brother caught a 10 inch rainbow and I caught a 15 inch brown on Penn's, but we didn't get any pictures. I know know, but really, we did. There was a really nice light cahill and olive caddis hatch happening and the fish were rising, but not very aggresively. They are notoriously picky on Penn's Creek. You really have to match size and color closely. I had a #14 caddis on and was getting nothing, I moved to a #16 and BAMB!, big hit, broke my line!

And get this...I was all sad because Indiana isn't exactly world class trout fishing, but then I found out the southernmost trout stocked stream in the state is only 20 minutes away!! I'm going today.