spruce creek sux

    Well guys, heres something that doesnt happen every day. The owner of the company walked into my office at 11am yesterday and had me drop everything to take a client to fish spruce creek. Well, I never fished it other then the harvey section so I jumped on it. We got there, fished for awhile and caught some really small fish. We sweated our asses off. About 7pm the owner of the place we got to fish showed up and showed us the spruce creek "hatch"... dog food, yes dog food. Instantly fish of 25" inches started rising everywhere, we never even saw these fish till then. Then as quick as the dog food was gone, so were the fish and they wouldnt touch a fly. The client was not happy, the owner of the company was not happy and neither was I.

I took him to spring this morning to make up for it and he loved that. Just goes to show you, $90,000 + $5000 a year does not make for good fishing. No the owner is not a member, he knows someone who owns a small chunk. Ill be the first to tell you, donny started this bull**** but now everyone, I mean EVERYONE who lives on that stream is doing it. Pathetic, I would never fish it again.

Done Jon...


Good Afternoon,

I am writing today to express my concern over the actions I saw take place on spruce creek yesterday afternoon. I will not point fingers at specific people because I was invited as a guest to fish the stream. What I saw yesterday was down right pathetic and gave one angler from out of state a nasty dose of pa fishing, which I had to make up for with a second day of fishing. I had previously heard rumors about fish being fed on spruce but I was reluctant to believe it until I saw it first hand. There are some monster size fish in that stream that will eat NOTHING except DOG FOOD. I seriously watched not one property owner, but two bring these enormous fish to the surface with hand fulls of dog food. I fished these holes for hours and couldn't produce a strike. If you are inclined to believe its my technique, Ill fish with you anywhere of your choice to show otherwise. I caught fish on flies yesterday, but nothing of the size of the fish I saw once dog food hit the water. It is a horrible trend that has trickled down from word spreading of the trout club on that stream doing it. If you still don't believe it yourself, take a ride out on the stream sometime, where the hatchery/club house is by trout drive? about a mile after the spruce creek fly co is located stop at the bridge and chuck a hand full in, you wont believe the fish you will see. They arent growing that many fish that size on nymphs/minnows and other forage. I could see maybe finding fish of that size on a rare occasion, but 50 fish in one mile in of stream over 30" in size....thats not rocket science.

Please help stop that practice,
Jeremy Hoffman

This sort of $hite happens too often. Unfortunately, the state will not be interested in helping.

Perhaps Citizens for Pennsylvanias Future would help out....They helped out with the little J case. Actually, if I remember correctly, they were going to sue DEP for not doing thier job in that case. Watersheds seem to be a priority on their list.

rotf ... hahaha 
 
Sorry Dan. 

This is sad news. Now the locals are in on the act? I'm sure many would see this as an oppertunity. Make a dog food ball and chum all the while thumping chest with fist proclaiming they are gonna put one on the wall. This kind of thing has got to stop.

There should be a state wide ban on feeding and chumming in any PA waters. How would one start this process?

There were a few locals up on Pine Creek, which is a trib. of Penns, "luring" his fish out of his water with feed and keeping them.
 
That's pretty funny.  Made me smile.

I didnt see a feeder... they do it by hand, that way they control when the fish feed. You guys seriously wouldnt beleive the size of some of those fish. They are litterally as big, if not bigger then lake run browns, in a stream thats about 10 ft wide.

How has the dog food feeding affected the suckers?

Thats why I dont fish it.

ORIGINAL: SilverKype

I actually caught a sucker in spruce once.  It's was a beauty.

And so the truth comes out...LOL

I haven't fished since early June. This weekend I hope. I doubt I'll catch a sucker as I would be fishing dries, but a fall fish is a very good possability. My largest to date is 23". Was a great fish!
I plan on hitting an out of the way spot on the Yellow Breeches for the White fly and Brown Drake. Always a few Trout and plenty of Fall Fish around. LOL

I just talked to Wayne's son yesterday.  They own a good amount of water on Spruce but it never effected (to my knowledge) the fishing.  I don't know how often and in what quantities Harspter feeds fish.  Not many do.  It's not likely he does it like Beaver.  He's not falsely publicizing himself either, nor is he taking waters from others, nor in mutiple places up and down the stream.  The only Harpster section viewable from the road is Oliver farms, his mothers house.  I'm never seen anyone feeding there.  Although, I see many fishing.  I guess I can't get jacked about a problem that doesn't affect myself and others.  I've seen Beavers acts and its consequences countless times, first hand.  It's not so much what Beaver is doing that gets my blood pumping, it's HOW he's doing it.

ORIGINAL: SilverKype

I actually caught a sucker in spruce once.  It's was a beauty.

 
I think its only fair that you post a picture of it.

At the end of last September I fished the Little J for my first time, upstrean from Spruce Creek and downstream.
How has the Little J fished lately (this Summer?)  Any opinions about August/September?