Rain. Rain. Rain. For the past few weeks Jin and I had planned to fish in Pennsylvania with Tom and of course, the weather was absolutely gorgeous until the last three days—record rainfall throughout the Northeast corridor. However we decided to go through with our plan and met Tom for breakfast in Boiling Springs to discuss our possibilities.
It didn’t look good. A light rain was still falling and a lot of the places we had planned to fish were not going to be good choices as far as water clarity and levels. Tom suggested we try Big Spring, so we piled into our vehicles and headed out.
During our drive we noticed a lot of people were out fishing. Everywhere we passed, vehicles filled the parking lots and fly anglers were rigging up. Some of the water looked awful, but I guess they were going to give it a try anyway.
There were a couple of cars already in the parking lot at Big Spring but we saw no anglers in the water during our drive. Tom assumed (correctly) that they had gone way upstream to fish, while we were planning to go downstream.
We rigged up, spread out, and began to fish. The water was running a bit high and colored, but it was fishable. We hooked and landed a couple of smallish fish around the parking lot area before following the road downstream to fish back up.
The action was good, but the fishing was slow. Nearly all of the grassy borders near the stream were flooded by three days of rain and it was difficult to get firm footing in some places.
We fished for several hours before calling ti a day and heading home.
EQUIPMENT: We used 2 to 4 weight rods, floating lines and very long leaders with tippets between 6 to 7X.
DIRECTIONS: Big Spring Creek originates at a large limestone spring one mile north of Stoughstown in Cumberland County and flows 5 miles until it meets Conodoguient Creek near Newville. From Newville take West Big Spring Avenue and stay to the left and it will turn into Big Spring Road. This road runs next to the creek, which will appear on your right. Or follow I-81 and take exit 37. Go north on 233 for one mile then go left at the traffic light onto Route 11(Ritner Highway). Drive three miles then turn right onto Big Spring Road (State Route 3007) and follow it until you arrive at ‘The Ditch.’