Update on Schlegel run

 

Well I stopped by the bridge at Schlegel run, cast a small Rooster tail and caught a tiny sunfish. My next cast I had a decent sized fish that I assume was a big creek chub or a bass attack my spinner but I missed it. Then I cast on the other side of the bridge and caught this rock bass. Now I normally don’t make a big deal about rock bass but I’ve never seen a rock bass in this creek, ever. Back in the day I caught some nice largemouth here but not rock bass. I’m definitely going to investigate this creek on my upcoming vacation to see what else I can find. Hopefully it will cool down a bit by then.

Found one

 I went back to the bridge on Henry road and fished downstream for about two hours. After going about a mile and only catching some small shiners, I decided to head back to the car and drive up to Forgedale road. I started fishing right by the road at a small hole and caught this brown. This is the same area that I caught my only brook trout ever on the West Branch of the Perkiomen. I think I’ll stick to fishing for Smallmouth in Swamp creek until next month when the temperature cools back down.

1800’s map of Bechtelsville

 

   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?

Cold stream on a hot day

   Every day of my vacation the temperature has been in the nineties. I decided to get up early and go fishing. What better way to stay cool then  wading in the West Branch of the Perkiomen. I saw a nice looking hole just past the new bridge on Henry road off of Miller road. My first cast found a 14” brown trout. I waded about a quarter mile up stream from there and had two smaller browns on but they both came off. 

Dam in Bechtelsville

   Here’s a picture of the dam on Swamp Creek in Bechtelsville. I’ve tried to find out some information about it with little success. From what I understand, there used to be a mill where the fire company is now located. I’m thinking they must have put the dam there to make a mill pond. If anyone has ever driven by this area, you have undoubtedly noticed that Swamp Creek didn’t agree with this idea and filled in behind the dam. It’s now overgrown with brush and trees and Swamp Creek is running through it.

   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.

Swamp Creek smallmouth

    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.

Where did all of these browns come from?

 

   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.