Spruce Creek Pennsylvania Fly Fishing Report Headlines: 04/28/24 Conditions are good. The stream level is down to near a normal level and the water is clear. Our pre-rigged tandem larva and pupa midge patterns have been working good. Good Midge, Blue Quills, Little Black Caddis, Green Sedge caddis, Hendricksons/Red Quills and Blue-winged olive hatches are taking place.
Email us at (sales@perfectflystore.com) with the dates you will be fishing and we will send you a list of our fly recommendations. We can get flies and gear to you within two to three business days from the time you place your order via Priority Mail. If you provide a budget for flies, we will select them to match the budget and get them to you on time for your trip. Your can also call us at 800-594-4726 and we will help you decide what flies and gear to use. All orders are shipped free in the U.S. If under a $100 order requiring Priority mail is a charge of only $8.10. Orders over a $100 are shipped free via Priority Mail.
We also have custom Perfect Fly selections in 3 different price ranges for this stream that come with or without fly boxes. They make excellent gifts. Click Here To Order or Call us at 800 594 4726 or email us at sales@perfectflystore.com.
Type of Stream
Limestone Spring Creek
Species
Brown Trout (Wild)
Size
Small
Location
Central Pennsylvania
Nearest Towns
Spruce Creek Pennsylvania
State College Pennsylvania
Season
Year – round
Access:
Easy but very limited
Special Regulations
Catch and Release Section
Weather
National Weather Service Link
Seasons:
The water coming out of the spring on its upper end stays a constant temperature but of course changes the farther downstream it goes.
Winter:
You can fish the stream during the winter and using midge imitations, usually catch trout.
Spring:
The best time for fly fishing Spruce Creek is during the spring. It has a tremendous number of hatches and the fishing can be great.
Summer:
With the cool spring water and the canopy of trees and bushes along the way, the water stays fairly cool all summer long. It can become low during low water years when there is little snow and rain.
Fall:
some of the larger brown trout move out of the Little Juniata up into Spruce Creek to spawn.
Recommended Tackle & Gear
Fly Line:
4, 5 or 6 weight
Leaders:
Dry fly: 9 to 12 ft., 5 or 6X Nymphing:
71/2 ft., 3 or 4X, Streamers 0-2X
Tippets:
Dry fly: 5 or 6X, Nymphing: 3 or 4X,
Streamer 0-2X
Best Fly Rods:
Perfect Fly Supreme Four, Superb Five
or Ultimate Six
Fly Reels:
For 4/5/6 fly line
Fly Floatants and Misc Items:
Floatants, KISS Strike Indicators
Tools & Accessories:
Nippers, forceps, retractors, etc.
Copyright 2016 James Marsh
Fly Fishing on Spruce Creek Pennsylvania
Spruce Creek is a wonderful little brown trout limestone spring creek. The only problem it has is the very limited access the public has to fish the stream. Most of the creek is on property owned by clubs or private individuals. Fly fishing Spruce in the public access areas is usually very good though.
Most of the public access for the public is a section owned by Penn State University. They use it for a study of the brown trout. It is located above the little town of Spruce Creek. It is about a half-mile long section of the stream that is strictly “catch and release” with artificial lures and flies only.
The stream is an excellent limestone spring creek with cool water flowing through it year-round. There are plenty of wild brown trout and some that are stocked by the local clubs. It has very good aquatic insect hatches. Fly fishing Spruce Creek can range from easy to difficult depending on how well you can match its hatches.
Spruce Ceek is a tributary of the Little Juniata. State highway #45 borders the stream fairly closely its entire length.
This stream is located in a very scenic valley in beautiful Central Pennsylvania. It is a perfect little limestone spring creek capable of growing large brown trout , with numerous aquatic insects and great fishing. Its only problem is the lack of access.
Unless you fish in the public section owned by Penn State, you are going to pay to fish. Of the thirteen mile long stream, this is the only public area you can fish. In addition, there are currently three sections you can fish for a fee.
When you are fishing Spruce Creek you know exactly what your target species is because there are only one species of trout in Spruce Creek – the brown trout. This should help you in many ways because knowing the habitats of the browns helps you pinpoint their location.
The larger brown trout tend to stay hidden during the day and only come out to feed during low light conditions such as rainy day when there is heavy cloud cover. Early mornings and late afternoons and early evening are always best. That is not to say that it is impossible to catch a large brown during the middle of the day on a dry fly, but the odds of doing so are not very good for sure. By far the best time to catch the trout during the day out in the sun so to speak is during a hatch. The food causes the trout to lose a lot of their normal caution.
Another good time to catch the larger brown trout is during pre-spawn conditions. The brown trout become more exposed during the day prior to building redds and spawning. They also become far more aggressive. They don’t feed as such but rather don’t let any intruders get near their areas.
We do not condone fishing for spawning trout but catching those not holding on redds is not only fair play, it’s often done accidentally. If your fishing in areas during the legal season when the trout are spawning, you don’t have much of a choice other than refusing to fish.
When you are fishing for wild trout, and the brown trout in Spruce are all wild trout, one of the most important things you can do is to match the most plentiful and available food the trout are focused on at the time. That can vary the locations of feeding trout within the stream.
This doesn’t mean you need to “match the hatch” anymore than you need to “match what is going to hatch”. Matching the insect nymphs and larvae is just as important as matching the adult insects – mayfly duns, caddisfly, midge and stonefly adults. Using Simi-realistic imitation of crustaceans, sculpin and baitfish, such as our Perfect Flies, will also prove to be an advantage.
Fly Fishing Guide to Spruce Creek
Spruce Creek is a small, narrow spring creek with heavy tree cover and bushes along its banks. There are basically two approaches to use fishing Spruce Creek. One is to fish the hatches as mentioned above. This also includes fishing the pre-hatch stages. By that I mean if a certain mayfly is hatching, you should fish the nymphs in the areas the
mayfly hatches during the morning or up until the hatch starts and then change to an emerger or dun pattern. You should also fish the spinner fall.
When nothing is hatching, the brown trout and especially the larger ones, stay hidden. To catch them you are going to have to put your fly where they are likely hiding. Undercut banks, under the heavy tree cover near the banks, under any deadfalls or other things in the water that provide cover for the brown trout. Undercut banks, areas in the dark shaded areas under the heavy tree cover near the banks, under any deadfalls or other things in the water that provide cover for the brown trout.
This is normally done using a nymph or caddis larva imitation such as a Green Rock Worm. Streamers also work okay for this provided you can get the fly where you need to get it without constantly hanging up.
Catching trout in Spruce Creek isn’t always easy. You earn what you catch but they are certainly not impossible to catch. It challenges your skills like any good trout stream should. It takes good presentations, carefully planned strategies, and often a close match of your fly to the most available insects, or those that are hatching at the time. Mistakes will cost you. This isn’t a stream you should expect to catch twenty or thirty trout a day on even though that is very possible. Big brown trout have been called “wise”, “smart” and many other names they probably didn’t rightly deserve in a technical sense. However, it is very easy to understand how those names came about.
Flies:
Our information on aquatic insects is based on our stream samples of larvae and nymphs, not guess work. We base fly suggestions on imitating the most plentiful and most available insects and other foods at the particular time you are fishing. Unlike the generic fly shop trout flies, we have specific imitations of all the insects in the Spruce Creek and in all stages of life that are applicable to fishing. If you want to fish better, more realistic trout flies, have a much higher degree of success, give us a call. We not only will help you with selections, you will learn why, after trying Perfect Flies, 92% of the thousands of our customers will use nothing else. 1-800-594-4726
This little limestone stream has a huge aquatic insect population. When major hatches occur, the brown trout almost feed exclusively or selectively on the particular insect that is hatching. That can be both good and bad. If you match it correctly, you can usually catch some nice brown trout. If not, you can do a lot of casting and spook a
lot of trout.
During the winter, midges are about the only game but imitations of them will catch fish most any day of the winter. In the early Spring, the Blue-winged Olives start hatching around the first of April and last past the middle of May. They will hatch a second time starting in September and last until about the middle of October. They are one of the most important hatches on the stream due to the length of time they hatch.
Other than the BWOs, the Blue Quills and Hendricksons are the first of the mayflies to hatch. They both start around the first of April. Usually the Blue Quills are the first to hatch. Both hatches last less than a month depending where you are fishing the stream.
Just prior to the start of these mayfly hatches you will find the Little Black Caddis or American Grannom caddisflies hatching. The hatch last less than a month. The Green Sedges start about the same time but last through the month of June. The Cinnamon Caddis hatch for about two months starting around the first of June. There are several other minor caddisfly hatches that occur.
Spruce Creek Fishing Reports: 04/24/21 The creek is flowing a little below level and clear. There are hatches of BWOs, Little Black Caddis, Little Brown stoneflies, Blue Quills, Hendricksons and Red Quill and Little Black Caddis.
05/12/21 The creek is flowing at a normal level. In addition to the above insects, Eastern Pale Evening duns, called Sulphurs by many, are hatching. Green Sedge caddis are hatching.