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Spring Creek Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

The benchmark Pennsylvania limestoner: wild browns every fifty feet through Happy Valley, catch-and-release for over forty years.

2/5
Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.
Flow
71 cfs
Air / High
59 / 60 F
Wind
NE 6 mph

Sources: USGS gauge 01546500, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

2/5Slow. Work for them.Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Spring Creek is in its winter mode: slow, deep and deliberate. The river is running 71 cfs, dropping and clearing. Today brings clear skies, wind NE around 6 mph, rising pressure near 1027 hPa and a high of 60. Water sits around 47 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:45 AM-11:45 AM and 10:14 PM-12:14 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

Rainbow troutExcellent

In cold water rainbows use the deepest pools in rivers (Vermont), so slow, deep drifts there are the usual approach; Michigan DNR notes lake rainbows are also taken with bait or by jigging through the ice.

Brown troutExcellent

Below 50°F, fish slowly through the deeper pools; in early spring on the Great Lakes, Michigan DNR notes browns are often caught inshore before other species start biting.

Tomorrow: Similar at 57 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made →

Before you go

Pennsylvania requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $27.97 for residents. What a Pennsylvania licence costs and where to buy it →

Chasing rainbow trout here? Check the size and bag limits with PFBC before you keep anything. The season dates for Pennsylvania, read off the agency, are on the Pennsylvania seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings from Spring Creek near Axemann.

Flow, last 30 days

USGS gauge 01546500.

9814719671 cfs09/2310/0310/1310/23

Today’s flow against 86 years of October 23

At 71 cfs, the flow at USGS gauge 01546500 (Spring Creek near Axemann) is at the 77th percentile for the date: above normal. In half of the 86 years of approved record the daily mean on October 23 was below 49 cfs; the highest was 326 cfs and the lowest 25 cfs.

p10 35median 49p90 132

Percentiles of the daily mean flow for this date, from the USGS Water Data Statistics API for gauge 01546500; today’s reading is the latest instantaneous value. Classes follow the ones the USGS used on its WaterWatch maps (retired at the end of 2025): below 10th, much below normal; 10th–24th, below; 25th–75th, normal; 76th–90th, above; over 90th, much above.

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp59 F
High / Low60 / 41 F
WindNE 6-7 mph
Pressure1026.6 hPa, rising
Sky / Rain0% cloud, 0%
Sunrise / Sunset07:31 / 18:18
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~47 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunset

Which day to fish Spring Creek this week

The best day on Spring Creek this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 3 out of 5, against 2 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 — fair at 3/5, steady pressure, neither help nor hindrance.

Today, Oct 23 — Tough

Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Solunar majors
9:45 AM-11:45 AM and 10:14 PM-12:14 AM
Minor period
4:07 AM-5:07 AM
Sun
07:31 to 18:18
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Overcast, 9 mph
Rain chance
0%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Spring Creek: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Rainbow trout illustration

Rainbow trout

Spring and fall in most lakes; rivers fish year-round while the water stays cool

A cold-water trout native to Pacific drainages from Alaska to Baja California, now stocked in most states and fished in rivers, tailwaters and lakes. In cold water rainbows use the deepest pools in rivers (Vermont), so slow, deep drifts there are the usual approach; Michigan DNR notes lake rainbows are also taken with bait or by jigging through the ice.

Brown trout illustration

Brown trout

Spring along Great Lakes shorelines; low light and overcast days in rivers; fall spawning runs

A European trout first stocked in the US in 1883 and now fished in rivers and lakes nationwide; it tolerates warmer water than other trout, and mature stream fish feed mostly at night. Below 50°F, fish slowly through the deeper pools; in early spring on the Great Lakes, Michigan DNR notes browns are often caught inshore before other species start biting.

When to come: the Spring Creek calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Rainbow trout
Brown trout
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 47 F (estimated, not a reading).

30405060JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~47 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Spring Creek today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 65 F, wind to 9 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 64 F, wind to 5 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

2/5 Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 67 F, wind to 11 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Pennsylvania requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Catch-and-release, all tackle, open year-round for the entire creek. Pennsylvania license plus trout permit required.

Access

Fisherman’s Paradise off Spring Creek Road, Benner Spring, Rock, Oak Hall and Lemont accesses: all public, all walk-in.

About this water

A limestone spring creek through Centre County, Pennsylvania: Class A wild brown trout water its entire length, catch-and-release since the 1980s.

Fishing Spring Creek: the full guide

Fisherman’s Paradise and beyond

Spring Creek rises from the limestone under State College and runs twenty-some miles to Bald Eagle Creek at Milesburg, and it may hold more wild brown trout per mile than any stream in the East: several thousand fish per mile in the best reaches. The whole creek is catch-and-release and it shows: browns of every year class stack in water that runs cold and constant off the great springs, right through town, past the hatchery at the storied Fisherman’s Paradise reach.

Fishing a crowded classroom

These fish are looked at constantly and behave accordingly: 6X tippets, size 18-22 flies and downstream presentations separate the catching from the casting. Sulphurs (mid-May into June) are the great hatch; midges and olives carry the winter, tricos the summer dawns, and a black cricket or beetle along the grass banks is the underrated summer play. Nymphing the limestone riffles with zebra midges and pheasant tails produces year-round.

Water that never quits

Spring influence keeps the creek between roughly 48 and 62 degrees all year: it fishes twelve months, with February midging as legitimate as June sulphurs. The Axemann gauge runs 60-200 cfs most of the year: storms spike it briefly but the limestone settles it fast. When everything else in Pennsylvania is frozen or flooded, Spring Creek is usually fishable: which is why you will rarely be alone.

The valley tour

Public water runs nearly creek-long: Fisherman’s Paradise (the historic no-harvest showcase), Benner Spring, the Rock Road reach, Oak Hall and Lemont near State College. Parking areas dot Spring Creek Road. It is a walking-and-stalking creek: pick a reach, move slowly, and count rising fish before casting. Penn State’s campus and town sit ten minutes away: this is the most accessible great trout water in America.

Common questions

Why is Spring Creek so famous?

Density: surveys find thousands of wild browns per mile. Add year-round cold water, total public access and history (Fisherman’s Paradise opened in 1934), and it is the East’s reference limestoner.

Is winter fishing worthwhile?

Some of the year’s best: midge hatches on sunny afternoons bring steady risers while the county sleeps. Dress for the wind, not the water.

How technical is it really?

The fish forgive nothing sloppy, but they eat every day. Fine tippet, small flies, careful wading: do those three things and you will catch trout.

Is fishing good at Spring Creek right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Slow. Work for them. Conditions favor short windows and patient fishing.

Nearby waters

Little Juniata River24 miPenns Creek25 miRaystown Lake37 miJuniata River43 miWest Branch Susquehanna River48 miPine Creek50 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

River and reservoir readings
USGS 01546500 — Spring Creek near Axemann
Read from the USGS Water Data API (api.waterdata.usgs.gov). Latest value timestamped 2026-10-23 at 19:45 UTC.
Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 40.8500, -77.7900 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.