A day of fishing
Before getting into the fishing trip, I want to give you a history of the Enlow Creek watershed. Years ago, when trout seemed to be plentiful, each county was asked to evaluate what streams may have the potential to handle trout. The first stream that I worked on was the watershed below Ryerson Station State Park. At that time I was in college working in the area of aquatic biology. I was asked to evaluate the quality of the stream called the North Dunkard Fork of Wheeling Creek. Blake Werick was the fish commission biologist and was very helpful in developing all trout streams in the county. After some collections of aquatic species, Werick added on the stream and gave us 400 trout. After the North Dunkard Fork was added, I was talking to a local resident (Ron Parry) and he suggested that we look at the Enlow Fork of Wheeling Creek. This fork is sometimes called Ackley Creek by the locals. Werick, Gary Deiger (Waterways Conservation Officer), and I went to the area of Enlow that Parry and I visited the previous week. As we did our preliminary test, it was decided that there was no need for a complete survey. The stream passed with flying colors, and was placed on the stocking list. Since then, the area has been taken over by the Pennsylvania Game Commission and has become one of our better trout streams.
This now leads me into my fishing trip. I called a friend of mine (Al Churney) and asked him if he wanted to do a little trout fishing. Al answered with a yes and we planned the trip. Since we are both retired, we decided to leave at about 9 a.m. When we arrived at Enlow there were no cars in the parking lot. Al had told me that on Monday he had fished an area and had good success.
We went to that spot and began fishing. Al began catching trout right off the bat. We fished there for a while and caught several fish. Most of the fish were returned. We only kept three between us – they were hooked deep and we did not want to waste the fish. We then started fishing downstream.
Since I like to fish with spinners, I put on one that I designed years ago. It was not too long before I began catching and missing and losing several trout.
I left Al and headed downstream, fishing the spinner. To my surprise, I began catching a lot of fish. It was the 14th of May and like most fishermen, I thought most of the fish would be caught out.
On my way downstream, I came to a long, deep pool. Several fish followed my spinner but hit short. Switching to bait, I caught three trout in a hurry. I had kept three fish by then. Retying the spinner on, I once again started downstream. To my surprise, a big, dark shadow inhaled my spinner. With a 2 lb. test line, the fight was on. After a few leaps from the water and several runs through the pool, the fish was landed. The rainbow trout was a little over 20 inches. This size trout is considered a nice fish any time of the year, especially this late in May. With this catch, my tally was four.
Shortly after, Al appeared behind me and asked if I had caught any fish. To this I replied “yes.” He then asked what size. I showed him the big trout. “It is a pretty nice fish,” he commented with a wry smile and a glint in his eye. I knew something was up, and I was right. Al had caught a 24-inch brown trout. The trout was the nicest brown that I have ever seen in Greene County. I had just arrived home from fishing Steelheads in Michigan and Al’s brown was as nice as the Steelheads. We had caught several 10-pound Steelheads, but no browns over 16 inches.
After talking a spell, Al stated, “Catch your last one and let us go.” In a few casts, a 14-inch rainbow decided that she wanted the spinner and a limit of five was reached.
It was a great day of fishing and the company was great. As we walked back to the car, we both reflected on the beauty of the area and how lucky we were to have a place like this to fish. It really gave me a special feeling knowing the history of the stream, and that many years later I could enjoy such a place.