It has been a tough summer for fishing. The entire month of July has been a daily routine of hot sun and high humidity, followed by heavy thunderstorms. Earlier this week parts of eastern Pennsylvania received over 4” of rain in one hour. Each week the rivers and streams go up and just as they are coming back down, here comes another storm. That’s just how some summers go. But on the positive side, I’m looking forward to plenty of water come September and October as salmon and steelhead start making their way towards the tributaries off of the eastern shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie. Although no one can predict it, I’d be willing to bet there will be some good runs of fish this autumn.
Read moreCreeped Out And July Trout On East Branch Codorus Creek
On Saturday I had a short window of time to fish so I decided to stay close to home. I used the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission’s iPhone app to look at their list of the best-stocked trout fishing waters in the southeastern part of the state. I found a small creek located in York County called the East Branch Codorus Creek. I’d heard of this creek’s parent body of water, the Codorus Creek located just below Codorus State Park, but I was not aware that there were other branches. I did some research on Google Maps and was able to determine an access point at the start of the state stocked portion of the creek. This access point was located in the Spring Valley County Park off of Potosi Road. As I was searching Google I found that Spring Valley Park was previously known as Rehmeyer Hollow. This was the site of the infamous Hex Murder from the late 1920’s. After reading the back story it kind of creeped me out to think about fishing here alone. The “Hex House,” which was the site of the cult murder of Nelson Rehmeyer, still stands today and if you decide to fly fish the East Branch Codorus Creek, you’ll drive right by it.
Read moreQuality Not Quantity On Harveys Creek
This was the first week this year that it felt like summer. Last weekend I was on my annual fly fishing trip to Pine Creek with college friends and the air temperatures hit 95 degrees on Sunday afternoon. That heat continued throughout the first few days of this week and the water temperatures in Pennsylvania continue to steadily rise. It wont’ be long before I’ll start venturing out to warm water locations with my 9’-7wt looking for smallmouth bass on streamers. However, today I continued my quest for trout on Keystone Select stream. I headed north to fish Harveys Creek.
Read moreDonegal Creek, Adventure Right In My Backyard
I like adventure. I like fly fishing. I like to explore new bodies of water, small towns, states I’ve never visited. I like driving in the middle of the night to some destination I’ve never been to. Ironically, with all the exciting experiences I’ve pursued, there are still places close to home I know little about. One of these places is the Donegal Creek in western Lancaster County. I grew up in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, and the Donegal Creek was just a short drive from my home. Friends and I would frequently fishing the all tackle water off of Rt. 772 during the spring trout season, dunking worms or PowerBait® on spin rods. We would often walk down to the boundary where the fly fishing only section of the stream started and that’s where we’d end our day. For years I’ve known there was a fly fishing only section on the Donegal Creek. I’d met many fishermen who’d tell me about it, I had friends that would fish it regularly, but I never visited. That is until May 29th, 2017 on Memorial Day.
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