I fished the Delayed Harvest Section of Pine Creek with my brother Jim from 9:00 a.m. to about 5:00 p.m. Altogether we landed seven trout, 1 smallmouth bass, and 1 sucker. The stream gage was at 4.69 feet and the water temperature was 40 F at 9:00 am. The water was clear in the shallows and it had a good green color when over knee deep. We started at the Gamma Building Flats where we a saw few small trout surface feeding along the far bank. They have been doing that for a few weeks now. We were already rigged up to fish on the bottom for some bigger fish so we did that but had no luck. Not even a bite. There were hundreds of small gray midges in the air and one of them actually landed on my hand so I got a good look at it. It had a gray body, lighter gray wings and was about a size 22.
Then as we fished up toward the Old Railroad Bridge I noticed even more midges in the air along the way. So I tied about twelve inches of 5x fluorocarbon tippet to the bend of my #14 Copper John Nymph and added a #22 Gray Zebra Midge as a dropper fly. It only took two or three casts to catch a nice fish on the midge. It still amazes me when trout take something that small. The pattern I used calls for a # 22 TMC 2487 emerger hook but I used a #22 Orvis Big Eye dry fly hook because it’s a lot easier to get it tied on.
Other flies that worked for us were a #14 White Mop Fly, a #16 Pink Mini Mop, a #14 Copper John, and a #16 Bead Head Cream Caddis Larva. We met Rich Simmen upstream at the Honey Hole and he told us about having good luck with a #8 Olive Matuka Streamer.
Weather Underground Data for Glenshaw, PA
9:00 am - Temperature: 41 F, Wind: W @ 7mph, Pressure: 28.54 in., Condition: Cloudy.
4:00 pm - Temperature: 44 F, Wind: W @ 12mph, Pressure: 28.55 in., Condition: Cloudy.
There were periods of drizzle and light rain at 11:00 am, noon, and 1:30 pm.
Pine Creek Delayed Harvest Section Fishing Holes
