Last year while I was fishing Penns Creek I had the good fortune of meeting Bruce Fisher of Penns Creek Angler in Millmont, PA. I have been watching his posts on the forum regarding the great fishing and conditions on Penns the past couple of weeks and an email and phone call later, I was on my way to fish the stream with Bruce.

Myself and Bruce Fisher of Penns Creek Angler Fly Shop

Bruce donated his only day off to take me fishing and I really appreciate it.  It was a beautiful day with temps of 82 degrees and a lot of sunshine.  I arrived at Bruce’s fly shop at 1:00 pm where he and his friend Ken from Landisville, PA were ready to go.  Bruce had tied some special flies and leaders for me and we were off to go fishing.

If you read my journal from last year you could see that Penns wasn’t kind to me, but I had the fishing of my life on Penns 5 years ago, so I know what she has to offer!  Needless to say, I was very excited to get on the stream.

First Fish of the Day

The best part about fishing with guys like Bruce is learning new and different techniques, not to mention he knows the stream like the back of his hand.  We would start out the day swinging flies and this is a technique that I have seen, but never done before.  After a few practice rounds Bruce felt I was ready to go and it wasn’t long before I tied into my first Penns brown.  I really enjoyed this technique, I guess mainly because I caught so many fish, but it was rewarding to learn a new style.

Bruce picked up this nice brookie in the afternoon

Nice little brown (I know, Nice Glasses)

I will admit, I am far from an expert at swinging flies, if I would have caught all the fish I missed because I didn’t have my rod tip up, I would have caught over 30 fish that day.  All in all, I picked up about 8 or nine throughout the afternoon and missed countless others.  I was really looking forward to the evening and hopefully some dry fly fishing you hear so much about on Penns.

Picked up a nice brown in the fast water swinging wets

The one thing that I always tend to forget about Penns Creek is the treacherous conditions.  You should always come to this stream with a wading staff.  As you can see from the photo above, some of the biggest fish in the stream lay in the fastest current and all it takes is one misstep on the rocky bottom of this stream and you are going for a swim.  Fortunately I didn’t fall, but I came real close of several occasions.

My first dry fly brown of the evening

Evening rolled around and we drove to a spot that Bruce felt would be good that night.  We sat on the shore for a while and just watched and sure enough, by about 7:30 pm we started to see some rises.  We watched one fish come up 3 times and Bruce and Ken said go get him.  They didn’t have to twist my arm.  I carefully approached, or as carefully as a clumsy 6′6″ giant can, and made a couple of casts and on the third cast I had my first dry fly brown of the day.  There is just something about catching fish on dry flies that  I can’t describe.  While I like catching fish with all different kinds of techniques, dry fly fishing is by far my favorite.

Bruce, myself and Ken at the end of the day!

We continued to fish until dark and each of us picked up several more before we had to pack it in.  All in all I ended up with about 12 or 13 fish for the day and had a blast.  I know Bruce was disappointed that we didn’t tie into that giant, but I wasn’t.  I had a blast on a beautiful stream, made some new friends and learned a new technique.  Doesn’t get much better than that.  If you are looking for a great guide to show you some of Penns Creek’s secrets, Bruce Fisher of Penns Creek Angler knows this stream inside and out and I can guarantee he is going to go out of his way to make sure you have a great time!  Thanks again Ken and Bruce for a great day.