I’m not much of a fly-fisherman, but some of my friends are, including Brad Isles and Brett Peterson. They took two other neophytes — Todd Puleo and Gary Peterson — and me along on a trout venture last weekend to Oil Creek in Venango County.
Oil Creek is quite different from the tiny headwaters streams I usually fish in for native brookies, and it’s ideal for fly-fishing for three reasons. First, it’s just chock full of trout: rainbows and browns from recent stockings, holdover hatchery fish that have grown large and wild over time, and even some wild brook trout that have meandered in from the tributaries.
Second, Oil Creek’s a big stream, often 50 to 100 feet across, in contrast to the 10-foot-wide streams I’m used to. In most sections it’s shallow enough that a fisherman in waders can walk all the way out to the middle, where there’s plenty of room for overhead fly-casting without worrying about back-casting into branches or sidearm flinging under evergreen boughs.
And third, it’s a beautiful place to fish. Quite different from the little mountain streams that feature dense overhanging hemlocks, sandstone boulders, and pools and waterfalls, Oil Creek’s currents are more constant and the fish are spread out in rocky-bottom havens from shore to shore in the heavily-wooded, wild and beautiful, 7,000-acre Oil Creek State Park.
The five of us parked our two vehicles in a small lot near a stretch of the 10-mile paved bicycle path that provides access to the stream and walked a half-mile downstream to Brett’s favorite spot, a stretch of riffles and runs that flow above, below, and under the bicycle bridge. We passed witch hazel thickets and blooming apple trees from old untended orchards along the trail, and we all gazed up at the green-shouldered hillsides above, with their white dogwood petals sprinkled against the lime green of hardwood foliage and the darker green of the pines.
We scattered out over the wide stream near the bridge and began casting and casting under the gray clouds in the cool spring breezes. Brett and Brad looked skilled and picturesque with their overhead casting and their efficient stripping and mending of fly line, while the rest of us flung our lines awkwardly and muddled through.
Brett caught a brown trout on a bead-head nymph right away and later hooked three rainbows with a black Woolly Bugger. I lucked into a feisty rainbow trout myself, a 13-incher so broad and heavy that Brett and I first thought I was fighting a smallmouth bass downriver in the swift current. Gary, who had just recently committed to fly-fishing, caught his first-ever wet-fly trout, a nice brown taken on a Copper John nymph, and later scored his first dry-fly fish, a rainbow fooled by a tiny #20 elk-hair caddis imitation. We carefully released all our fish that morning and hiked back to our vehicles at noon, trout-poor but rich in the memory of the day’s experiences.
Trail Notes: Glenn Clark of Greenville recently celebrated his 50th year as a hunter safety instructor, including one “trial run” year before the Game Commission’s Hunter-Trapper Education program officially began. Glenn is 82 years old, but he claims he’s 32 and a half: that is, 32 years plus a half-century. He received two awards during the annual instructor training class held last month at the local Western Reserve Sportsman’s Club. He was named “Outstanding Instructor for Northern Mercer County” and “Instructor of the Year for the Northwest PA Region.”
“This is something I have a passion for,” Glenn told me over the phone last week. “I don’t know exactly how many people I’ve taught over the years, but I’ve averaged three classes a year with 35-50 students in them for 50 years. That’s a lot of students I’ve worked with.” Glenn also wrote an article about his experiences titled “A Half-Century of Hunter Safety.” It will appear in the Pennsylvania Game News next year.
Good luck out there. And have a great week outdoors.
Don Feigert is the outdoors writer for THE HERALD and the ALLIED NEWS. He can be contacted at 317-985-2870 or dfeigert@verizon.net. Visit his Website at www.donfeigert.com.
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Oil Creek is ideal for fly-fishing
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