May PA Fishing Trip

I was invited by Bill K to come over to central PA for a fishing trip.  We rented a nice cabin at Canoe Creek State Park.  That would give us access to the Little J, Spruce Creek, and Yellow Creek.

Bill was marinating the meat for the gumbo.  He is a great cook.  He made a roux and prepared this for one of our meals.

This is certainly looking great. 

Bill's yard has lots of flowers and the grass is green.  PA is a little ahead of MI in the growing department.

You can see the old fish hatchery in the back.  Bill has it stocked with huge trout.  More later on the fishing here.  We pack up and head for central PA for some fishin!

Here is our cabin at Canoe Creek Campground.  No camping but they have nice cabins and facilities.

The cabins have a bath with shower,  an electric range, sink, refrigerator and microwave.  There are two bedrooms with a double bed and two sets of bunk beds.  You have to bring kitchen utensils and bedding.



After unpacking we headed out to fish the Little Juniata.  The stream was high and colored because of the recent rain.  Managed to catch two trout on a black head white streamer.

The wading was tough because of the limestone ridges and dark water.   The water conditions were not good but we came to fish.

These are the large limestone kilns that were used to fire up the limestone into lime.  It is in the park.  We hiked up for a look after fishing.

This is the stocked lake in the park.  People were fishing for trout and panfish.  I saw a lot of power bait.

This is a group of guys fishing below the dam in the spillway.  We saw them catching panfish.

Next we hit the Bald Eagle creek near Pt. Matilda.  It was small and had dark water.  We then hit Spruce Creek in a light drizzle.

The next day we headed for Piney Creek at the lower end.  We ended up on the George Harvery stretch of Spruce Creek.  I managed to get a few on a tan bead head streamer size 8.



The fishing was tough and we kept at it.  It was just nice to be out and hike up and down the streams.  We did find a caddis hatch right near an old railroad bridge.



Out in the middle a size 14 caddis hatch was on.  We hooked up and started casting.  It was sporadic at best but Dick managed to get one on just as his cell phone rang.  Our friend had to return home for an emergency but he had a nice day of fishing.

Walking along the creek, Bill pointed out some flowers.

I think these are pink and white trillium.

A friend from Elwood City, Dave, showed up the next day and we fished the Delayed Harvest section of the Little J.  I managed to catch a nice 16' brown on a size 14 Hares Ear nymph.

It is hard to get the camera out when you have a fish on.  The guys were fishing away from where I was fishing and I tried to get an action shot.

The next day we decided to hike up the canyon area of the Little J.  It takes about 30 minutes to walk up to get to good water.  I found a nice area just below a riffle and cast out my tan bead bead minnow.  I let it dread drift down and swing across the current.  It wasn't low and I was into a nice fish.

This was a healthy 18+" rainbow.  What a nice day.  No rain and hungry trout.



We decided to fish Yellow Creek on our way home.  Dave drove over to meet us and we fished a delayed harvest area.  The stream wasn't large but the water was running pretty fast.  I hiked up stream and found that the Yellow Creek trout hadn't been warned about my lucky bead head tan streamer fly.  I was just dead drifting the fly and ended up catching one 18", one 16" and a 12" trout.

What a great way to end the trip.  That bead head tan streamer is so easy to tie.  I just pinch the barb down on a size 8 streamer hook and slip a 5/32" gold bead up to the eye of the hook.  Then I wrap the thread from the bead down the hook to the bend.  There I tie in a short tail of tan/gold maribou feather and a piece of gold ribbing wire.  Then I twist the maribou feather and wrap the body up to the bead.  Then I palmar wrapped  the wire up the body and tie off behind the bead head.  Simple fly, almost like a wolly bugger without the hackle.

Some nice memories of a good fishing trip in lousy weather.  This is Molly's favorite shot on her trips.

This was the railroad spikes I picked up for my son the blacksmith, Ryan.  He will make knife blades out of them.

We made the trip back to Grove City, PA and I had to fish Bill's small lake.  I took his kayak out and got 6 crappie, 5 bluegills and 3 trout on a small white tube jig.  I cleaned the fish and took them over to Ryan's house.

This is my grandson, Roan, and the cat next to Ryan's old fashion, heirloom garden.  I got a nasty case of poison ivy when I helped pull weeds for Leslie's herb garden.

Ryan used his old Ferguson tractor to turn over the soil and he put 25#s of sprouted potatoes and then just put mulch on top.  It was an easy way to plant the potatoes.
 
 
 
 

Back at Bill's, the ducks had been moved out to the field.  Bill just received 10 day old peeps so the ducks moved out and the peeps moved in.

 

 

 



The ten peeps arrived safe and were penned in the garage until they could be moved to the chicken coop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ducks were put into the chicken coop while the peeps were growing.  Bill inspected the chicken coop and was inside when the wind blew the door shut.  It latched!  Annie had just left and didn't take her cell phone.  Bill got to explore the inside of the coop for 1 1/2 hours until help arrived!  The ducks were just released into Bill's lake.  I wonder how many will survive?  Nature can be cruel.  There are turtles, fox, hawks, owls, and other animals that live near by.  I will check with Bill to see how they are doing.

 

 

 

 

 

This was another adventure we had at Bill's.  We went out mushroom hunting and found two sacks of Morels!  They were soaked in salt water and then fried in butter.  We also had fresh asparagus from Bill's garden.




It was a fun trip to PA.  Fishing was good, food was great, saw family and friends, and taught a couple of people how to make glass beads.




Now I am back in Northern Michigan and ready to fish again.  Come on up and fish, the weather is fine.