caddis75
Well-known member
Hey all, I need to start taking pictures, I will next time, I promise.
Campsite: Spot 24 in the Bald Eagle State Forest. http://www.docs.dcnr.pa.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_20033619.pdf
It was a motorized primitive site, high on the mountain. That forest is FULL of wildlife and loud all night long. I need to bring earplugs next time. I couldn't sleep much on the second night.
Getting around: Realize that the Penn Creek corridor in the forest is off-limits to motorized vehicles. There are several nearby access points in Weikert, Cherry Creek, Inglesby, Poe Paddy, and Coburn. Many landowners below the park allow walk-in access for anglers. This is a great set up. Although I saw one instance of a truck parked on private property and the landowner had to walk a half mile to find them along the stream. They were rightly mad about it.
Cell service in the park: I had none no matter where I was from Weikert to Inglesby. My wife knew this was a possibility, but it still wasn't great.
Fishing: It was a bit slow on Friday, I caught one on a caddis pupae pattern. Saturday it picked up for 15 minutes at about 10:30 am when coffin flies had fish eating along the seams. The water was high and muddy, 1,000 cfs on Friday and 500cfs by the end of the day Saturday.
Good people: Bruce from Penns Creek Angler in Weikert and Jonas from Feathered Hook in Coburn are A+ gentlemen. They both have excellent shops. Bruce is running a raffle for a bamboo rod made by Joe Pacacha for his charity, Total Outdoors. Don't buy tickets as I already bought mine. Just kidding. Buy some if you can/want to. I met a few guys from a local trout and deer club who had a cookout at Inglesby.
Fly rod: My Reddington CT is starting to feel a little sluggish. It seems to hesitate to load, I'm not sure if that is the right language.
Food: I wanted to save money on this trip and bring my own food. I used this site as a template: Food list for a backpack hunt: Amounts, recipes, & planning tips The dinners were excellent. I can't wait to make them again.
Issues:
I fell again, up to my waders, the second time in two weeks. I luckily always bring a spare change of clothes. I am this close to buying a second pair of waders as back up. This time I had a wading staff. I use Korker studded Wraptors. My only defense is that the water was muddy and high.
I didn't have any coffin flies on me until after the hatch
No cell service made it tricky to pay attention to the weather. The mountains are so tight you can't see very far away. OnX maps were great though. I downloaded a 10 -mile map and used that to get around all weekend.
A long day on the water in high water is very tiring. I work out a lot, but man I was beaten up by the stream.
Saturday, everyone was waiting for the second coffin fly hatch that did not materialize up in Inglesby. I heard it was pretty solid towards Weikert.
All in all, it was a beautiful place, and since it is under 3 hours I plan on heading back up in 2 weeks. I may do some turkey/deer scouting also.
Take care
Campsite: Spot 24 in the Bald Eagle State Forest. http://www.docs.dcnr.pa.gov/cs/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_20033619.pdf
It was a motorized primitive site, high on the mountain. That forest is FULL of wildlife and loud all night long. I need to bring earplugs next time. I couldn't sleep much on the second night.
Getting around: Realize that the Penn Creek corridor in the forest is off-limits to motorized vehicles. There are several nearby access points in Weikert, Cherry Creek, Inglesby, Poe Paddy, and Coburn. Many landowners below the park allow walk-in access for anglers. This is a great set up. Although I saw one instance of a truck parked on private property and the landowner had to walk a half mile to find them along the stream. They were rightly mad about it.
Cell service in the park: I had none no matter where I was from Weikert to Inglesby. My wife knew this was a possibility, but it still wasn't great.
Fishing: It was a bit slow on Friday, I caught one on a caddis pupae pattern. Saturday it picked up for 15 minutes at about 10:30 am when coffin flies had fish eating along the seams. The water was high and muddy, 1,000 cfs on Friday and 500cfs by the end of the day Saturday.
Good people: Bruce from Penns Creek Angler in Weikert and Jonas from Feathered Hook in Coburn are A+ gentlemen. They both have excellent shops. Bruce is running a raffle for a bamboo rod made by Joe Pacacha for his charity, Total Outdoors. Don't buy tickets as I already bought mine. Just kidding. Buy some if you can/want to. I met a few guys from a local trout and deer club who had a cookout at Inglesby.
Fly rod: My Reddington CT is starting to feel a little sluggish. It seems to hesitate to load, I'm not sure if that is the right language.
Food: I wanted to save money on this trip and bring my own food. I used this site as a template: Food list for a backpack hunt: Amounts, recipes, & planning tips The dinners were excellent. I can't wait to make them again.
Issues:
I fell again, up to my waders, the second time in two weeks. I luckily always bring a spare change of clothes. I am this close to buying a second pair of waders as back up. This time I had a wading staff. I use Korker studded Wraptors. My only defense is that the water was muddy and high.
I didn't have any coffin flies on me until after the hatch
No cell service made it tricky to pay attention to the weather. The mountains are so tight you can't see very far away. OnX maps were great though. I downloaded a 10 -mile map and used that to get around all weekend.
A long day on the water in high water is very tiring. I work out a lot, but man I was beaten up by the stream.
Saturday, everyone was waiting for the second coffin fly hatch that did not materialize up in Inglesby. I heard it was pretty solid towards Weikert.
All in all, it was a beautiful place, and since it is under 3 hours I plan on heading back up in 2 weeks. I may do some turkey/deer scouting also.
Take care