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Home › Waters › Pennsylvania › Fishing Creek
Spring creek · Central Pennsylvania, Clinton County, the Nittany Valley limestone country between Lamar and Mill Hall · Pennsylvania

Fishing Creek Fishing Guides

Big Fishing Creek, the Clinton County limestoner that holds Fisherman's Paradise and some of the most technical wild brown trout water in Pennsylvania.

Still water and rock ledges on a forested Appalachian river
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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About the Fishing Creek

Fishing Creek in Clinton County, known locally as Big Fishing Creek to distinguish it from the several other Pennsylvania streams of the same name, is one of the state’s genuine limestone streams. It rises in the Sugar Valley, gathers substantial spring input as it crosses the limestone belt, and runs northeast past Lamar and Mill Hall to the Bald Eagle Creek. The gauge near Lamar drains about fifty-six square miles and sits at the head of the best known water.

The spring input is what gives the creek its character. Temperatures stay moderate through both summer heat and winter cold, the water is alkaline and productive, and the insect life is dense and predictable in a way freestone streams cannot match. Sulphurs, blue-winged olives, tricos and a heavy green drake emergence in late spring carry the season, and the creek fishes for most of the calendar rather than for a few good weeks.

The trout are the draw and the difficulty. Wild brown trout dominate, holding tight to weed beds, undercuts and the seams beside the limestone ledges, and they see enough anglers that they are as selective as any fish in the state. Long leaders, fine tippet and a low profile are standard equipment. Rainbows and a few brook trout are present, particularly in the upper reaches and the colder tributaries.

The creek’s most famous reach is Fisherman’s Paradise, a heritage stretch near Bellefonte managed under restrictive tackle rules for over ninety years and among the oldest special-regulation water in the country. Several other sections carry catch and release or delayed harvest designations, and the rules change from reach to reach, so checking the current regulations against the posted boundaries before stringing a rod is not optional here.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Fishing Creek.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Lamar - the gauge reach, with the fish culture station and public access nearby.
Fisherman's Paradise - the historic heritage water, with parking and a marked boundary.
Mill Hall - the lower creek near the Bald Eagle confluence, with road access.
Sugar Valley - the upper creek, smaller water reached from valley township roads.
Tylersville - a spring-fed upper reach near the state fish hatchery.
Cedar Run - a cold tributary joining the middle creek with walk-in access.
Bald Eagle Creek confluence - the downstream end below Mill Hall.

Seasons

Spring: the strongest season, with sulphurs, olives and the green drake emergence in late May.
Summer: spring input keeps water temperatures workable, with tricos and terrestrials the mainstay.
Fall: blue-winged olives on grey days and brown trout coloring up before the spawn.
Winter: fishable throughout thanks to the spring flow, with midges and small nymphs.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Fishing Creek?

As of Sep 17, 6:30 am, the USGS gauge Fishing Creek near Lamar, PA reads 89 cfs, with water temperature 55.6 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Fishing Creek?

Anglers target Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout on the Fishing Creek in Pennsylvania.

Where can you access the Fishing Creek?

Lamar - the gauge reach, with the fish culture station and public access nearby. Fisherman's Paradise - the historic heritage water, with parking and a marked boundary. Mill Hall - the lower creek near the Bald Eagle confluence, with road access. Sugar Valley - the upper creek, smaller water reached from valley township roads. Tylersville - a spring-fed upper reach near the state fish hatchery. Cedar Run - a cold tributary joining the middle creek with walk-in access. Bald Eagle Creek confluence - the downstream end below Mill Hall.

When is the best time to fish the Fishing Creek?

Spring: the strongest season, with sulphurs, olives and the green drake emergence in late May. Summer: spring input keeps water temperatures workable, with tricos and terrestrials the mainstay. Fall: blue-winged olives on grey days and brown trout coloring up before the spawn. Winter: fishable throughout thanks to the spring flow, with midges and small nymphs.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Fishing Creek?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Pennsylvania agency site: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/fishandboat/fishing/regulations