I found this old map of Bechtelsville. It definitely shows Swamp creek being dammed up in two different locations. It looks like the upper dam was used for a grist mill and the lower for a flour mill. I always thought that a grist mill was a flour mill but what do I know?
When I walked down the side of the spillway to take this picture, a nice brown saw me and quickly swam downstream to get away. I didn’t even have my fishing rod with me.
I finally caught a decent smallmouth in Swamp Creek. The funny thing is, when I used to fish it back in the day, I would catch them all of the time. When I was very young I used to fish Swamp Creek with a stick with some string tied to it and a bobby-pin for a hook. My friend Joe and I would use a piece of screen and some bread to catch our minnows for bait and we would catch quite a few nice smallies.
From what I understand it’s PA’s fault. After years of stocking brown trout, the fish started to naturally reproduce and took over. Let’s face it, if there were brook trout already living in a stream and you introduce browns, they just look at the brook trout as lunch. A brown is a much more aggressive fish. It would pretty much look at anything in the stream that way. In the past I’ve caught large browns on all kinds of live bait including frogs.
Like I said from the get go, I’m glad they’re here or my fishing excursions around the house would still be mostly creek chubs, sunfish, rock bass and whatever else I could find.
I was looking for some wild browns on my lunch break but they must have stocked Monocacy Creek recently. All rainbows.
If you’ve ever traveled on Hoffmansville rd through the town of Sassamansville you have crossed over Schlegel run. Growing up I used to fish this stream at a small bridge just down Sassamansville road from the post office. The large pool at the bridge was full of big carp and largemouth bass. Definitely no trout here.
On one trip to this spot with my big sis, I hooked into a 4 pound bass that proceeded to go under the bridge and get wrapped around a tree under the water. I couldn’t let it get away so I went under the bridge and got it. I don’t think I would do that now at my age, but then again !!!
When I moved back to the area, Schlegel run was top on my list to go check out. I drove over to the bridge and when I looked into the hole the only thing I saw was a large crayfish on the bottom. Not one carp, sunfish or bass. Not even a minnow.
What had happened to this stream? It used to be teaming with all types of fish. Now nothing. I’m still trying to figure this out. I’ve gone back a few times and until recently there wasn’t any fish. Two weeks ago I stopped by and there were actually some small sunfish swimming around.
I plan to explore more of Schlegel run and see if there are any fish in other areas. This is an ongoing mystery and I’ll update this post if I figure anything out.
I moved to northern Delaware in the 80’s and for over 30 years the only trout I caught were stocked fish that weren’t supposed to make it all year round because the water would get too warm. When I moved back to the area in 2021, I began working in Bethlehem. I discovered that I was right in the middle of three sandstone spring creeks. The Monocacy, the Little Lehigh and the Saucon. I started exploring and reading about these streams. They are still stocked by the state but also have healthy populations of wild brown trout.
After fishing in these streams and having good success, I started wondering about the streams right around my house and decided to explore those as well. I stopped a few times on my way home at the west branch of the Perkiomen. I was shocked to see wild browns jumping all around the hole I was at. They were on the small side but they were there. I had honestly never seen that many trout in one hole. I also stopped by Swamp creek in Bechtelsville and looked around . I saw a few sunfish and caught a creek chub but no trout. I read that from the dam in Bechtelsville north to the headwaters of Swamp creek it was designated a Class A Wild Trout Stream. I fished upstream a little but still nothing. I also noticed a small tributary of Swamp creek that looked interesting.
I made up my mind that I would check it out in April on the first day of trout season. While I was waiting around for the first day, I looked for as much information as I could find on local streams. I also noticed that where I was fishing the west branch of the Perkiomen was actually below where the state had designated it as Class A Wild Trout. That gave me some ideas about Swamp creek that I would check out when I had some time.
The first day of trout season was finally here. I headed to the little tributary stream and cast a small spinner across the hole I was at. After three additional casts I was getting discouraged. I cast up the middle of the hole and I got a hit from a small brown. I didn’t catch it but that verified that there were indeed wild browns in Swamp creek.
After a few more casts I decided to head over to the west branch of the Perkiomen. I started at the bridge at rte 100 and headed downstream. By the time I went about a quarter mile I had caught 10 browns, each one bigger than the previous one. I started thinking how strange it was that it was the first day of trout season and I was the only one around. My theory is that because it’s a catch and release only area people just aren’t interested.
A few weeks later I stopped on my way home further north on the west branch near Bally rocks. My first cast I caught a beautiful large Brook trout. Now that was totally unexpected. I had never seen a brook trout around here before and haven’t seen any since.
When I finally made it back to the dam in Bechtelsville, I decided to go downstream and all of the sudden I caught a decent brown. There’s definitely not as many of them in Swamp creek but they are there. I caught a few decent sized ones since then and all of them below the dam.
I’m going to post a bunch of pictures of browns and the lone brook trout that have all been caught within 5 minutes of my house. I love living so close to this kind of fishery although I do miss the rock bass once in a while.
