After doing so well lately on my local waters with everything from Slate Drakes to Sulphurs I was looking to fish somewhere different. I had hoped to get out to Lamar to enjoy the limestone Fishing Creek and maybe have the same luck with the Slate Drakes out there. Well I got a late start so I stopped short on 80 West (Bloomsburg/ Lightstreet exit) and headed up 487 North to Benton, Pa to fish the freestone Fishing Creek. For anyone interested, this is the home waters of Barry and Cathy Beck.
I had read that this was a good trout stream in its own right and offered a good deal of public access. I got on the water at 10AM, water temp was 57 degrees. The water was low and gin clear and the trout were very spooky. In the first couple hours I missed one lightning-fast strike on my elkhair caddis. I broke for lunch at 1PM and then took a drive upstream to explore a bit. I hooked and lost several small wild trout in the Camp Levigne section while watching two spinner anglers have a good time with some bigger stocked trout that only inspected my offerings! I headed back downstream into town and finally landed a decent stocked brown behind the school.
Around 5PM I drove further downstream back towards 80 and stopped at the Columbia County TU sponsored access in Orangeville. I nailed a good, very pretty-looking rainbow with white-tipped fins on my #10 Slate Drake. I also took the water temp down here and it was 72, oops, glad I got the fish in and released back into the swift run quickly. I decided to wait until things cooled off a bit more and see what the evening hatch might bring. Things got going by 6:30PM and for the next 2 hours I had a blast catching more than a dozen gorgeously-colored wild brookies, a few wild browns, and a couple more pretty stocked rainbows. All from the same long riffle! These little guys were lightning quick on the strike and I easily missed as many as I caught. Most were 5-7" brookies but a few were in the 10" class. Almost every fish took the sulphur emerger I trailed behind a big #14 sulphur dry.
Indeed there are several kiosks (all with maps to stocking locations and other nearby access points) and well-marked access points that you can see as you drive along this rural state highway. I had never been here before and it was really easy to find many, many spots to legally enter the water and fish, the groups involved in this effort have done a really good job for visiting anglers. It's a good stream and well-worth a visit. Only about 1 hr from the Stroudsburg/East Stroudsburg area. I'll for sure be back.
I had read that this was a good trout stream in its own right and offered a good deal of public access. I got on the water at 10AM, water temp was 57 degrees. The water was low and gin clear and the trout were very spooky. In the first couple hours I missed one lightning-fast strike on my elkhair caddis. I broke for lunch at 1PM and then took a drive upstream to explore a bit. I hooked and lost several small wild trout in the Camp Levigne section while watching two spinner anglers have a good time with some bigger stocked trout that only inspected my offerings! I headed back downstream into town and finally landed a decent stocked brown behind the school.
Around 5PM I drove further downstream back towards 80 and stopped at the Columbia County TU sponsored access in Orangeville. I nailed a good, very pretty-looking rainbow with white-tipped fins on my #10 Slate Drake. I also took the water temp down here and it was 72, oops, glad I got the fish in and released back into the swift run quickly. I decided to wait until things cooled off a bit more and see what the evening hatch might bring. Things got going by 6:30PM and for the next 2 hours I had a blast catching more than a dozen gorgeously-colored wild brookies, a few wild browns, and a couple more pretty stocked rainbows. All from the same long riffle! These little guys were lightning quick on the strike and I easily missed as many as I caught. Most were 5-7" brookies but a few were in the 10" class. Almost every fish took the sulphur emerger I trailed behind a big #14 sulphur dry.
Indeed there are several kiosks (all with maps to stocking locations and other nearby access points) and well-marked access points that you can see as you drive along this rural state highway. I had never been here before and it was really easy to find many, many spots to legally enter the water and fish, the groups involved in this effort have done a really good job for visiting anglers. It's a good stream and well-worth a visit. Only about 1 hr from the Stroudsburg/East Stroudsburg area. I'll for sure be back.
