The other Fishing Creek
Check the county before you load the car. This guide covers the Fishing Creek in Columbia County, a freestone tributary of the Susquehanna that DIY Fly Fishing takes care to separate from the limestone Fishing Creek in Clinton County with its Narrows and hatchery water. The Columbia County creek starts at the confluence of its East and West branches in Sugarloaf Township and runs 29.98 miles to the Susquehanna near Rupert and Bloomsburg, draining 385 square miles.
Its reputation is local. The Columbia County chapter of Trout Unlimited calls it their home water and says that from Central down to Bloomsburg the creek is easy to reach and comfortable to wade, with springs and seeps moderating the temperature enough to fish it all year. DIY lists Coles Creek, Little Fishing Creek, Hemlock Creek, Green Creek and Huntington Creek among the tributaries, some of them Class A wild trout water.
Sugarloaf Township and the Benton tracts
The top of the creek is fragile water. The Wikipedia summary of the watershed studies behind it says the East and West branches typically go dry for 105 days in a drought summer and for five days even in a wet year, and that acid rain on bedrock with no limestone drives episodic acidification: East Branch Fishing Creek can fall to a pH of 4.9. West Creek and Coles Creek are the least acidic tributaries, wild brook trout are most common in the West Branch, and West Creek is the only place in the upper watershed with wild browns. Algae are a problem too, covering 80 percent of the bed for three miles below Grassmere Park.
Two public tracts give walk-in water here. The Power Dam tract, 2 miles above Benton, covers 19 acres and 2,900 feet of creek around the remains of a concrete dam. The Benton Overlook, a mile into Benton, adds 2,600 feet. PFBC stocks two short sections nearby: Camp Lavigne Road to the upstream Kriebel property line, and 180 yards above the Benton Borough line to the Benton and Fishing Creek Township line.
Stillwater, Zaners and Forks along Route 487
Below Benton the creek swings south beside Pennsylvania Route 487, and DIY says most of the good water north of Interstate 80 is reached from that road. Access points are marked and kept up by the Fishing Creek Sportsmen's Association, the Columbia County TU chapter, PennDOT and landowners who allow it. The Sportsmen's Association also stocks, which is why DIY describes the creek as stocked by both the state and a local club.
Raven Creek comes in at Stillwater and Huntington Creek about 3.5 miles farther down, near Forks. The Zaners Bridge tract, 2.5 miles below Stillwater, has 31 acres and about 1,000 feet of creek along an abandoned railroad grade. PFBC's third stocked section runs from 1.00 kilometer upstream of SR 1022 to the Orange and Fishing Creek Township line, and Huntington Creek itself is stocked from Forks Farm to Twin Bridges Park. The biggest trout on record from the creek, per the same Wikipedia summary, weighed 8 pounds and measured 28 inches.
Orangeville, Kocher Park and the rail trail
Green Creek joins at Orangeville, and about a mile below town is the USGS gauge, running since 1938. From there the creek bends through Orange and Mount Pleasant townships past Kocher Park, a little over 7 acres near Lightstreet, used for fishing and canoeing, before it turns west toward Interstate 80. DiscoverNEPA points out that the lower creek runs beside the Bloomsburg Rail Trail, which makes for easy walk-in water close to town.
The fourth PFBC stocked section is here: 0.60 kilometer upstream of the SR 0487 bridge down to the Back Branch Road bridge. Stocked fish on this lower water, DIY says, rarely refuse a Hare's Ear or Pheasant Tail, and a Woolly Bugger covers the sculpin and baitfish.
Four stocked sections and the April closure
All four stretches above are PFBC stocked trout water, so the statewide calendar governs them. They close on February 16 and reopen at 8 a.m. on opening day, which was April 4 this year. The regular season runs through September 7 with five trout at a 7-inch minimum, and the extended season allows three a day from September 8 through December 31 and January 1 through February 15. A trout permit is required on top of the license for anyone 16 or older.
The Class A tributaries follow different rules: they can be fished all year, but no trout may be kept from the day after Labor Day to the next opening day. Little Fishing Creek is stocked from Talmar Road to the SR 42 bridge, and West Branch Fishing Creek from Hemlock Run to the Sullivan and Columbia county line.
Numbers off the Orangeville gauge
USGS 01539000, named Fishing Creek near Bloomsburg but sited below Orangeville, drains 274 square miles. No shop publishes a wading range, so the 200 to 400 cfs on this page brackets the long-term daily medians from June (about 204 cfs) to May (about 407 cfs). April medians run near 630, and August and September fall under 100. Recent USGS readings put 2.5 feet on the gauge at 237 to 270 cfs.
Hatches, per DIY: Little Brown and Early Brown stoneflies in early March, olives late in the month, Blue Quills and Quill Gordons in April, Hendricksons and Grannoms in mid-April, Cinnamon and Green caddis in early fall, with Slate Drakes and Eastern Drakes in between. Terrestrials take over in summer.