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Home › Waters › Pennsylvania › Big Spring Run
Spring creek · Southeastern Pennsylvania, Lancaster County, a limestone spring run in the Mill Creek watershed south of Lancaster · Pennsylvania

Big Spring Run Fishing Guides

A tiny Lancaster County limestone spring run, best known as a stream-restoration study site, with cold steady flow and wild brown trout in a mile of water.

A mountain stream running over mossy rock through eastern hardwoods
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Big Spring Run

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About the Big Spring Run

Big Spring Run is a very small limestone stream in the farm country south of Lancaster, and its significance is out of all proportion to its size. It drains less than two square miles, which puts it firmly in the category of water you can step across, but it is spring-fed from the Lancaster valley limestone and therefore runs cold and remarkably steady while the rain-fed streams around it are either flooding or drying up. The gauge here records temperature alongside discharge and stage, which is unusual for a stream this small and reflects the research interest in it.

That research interest is the other thing worth knowing. Big Spring Run has been the site of one of the most closely studied stream-restoration projects in the eastern United States, where legacy sediment from historical milldams was removed to re-expose a buried wetland and let the stream find its original form. Anglers who visit will see a channel that looks unusually broad and marshy for its flow, and that is by design rather than neglect.

The trout fishery is small-stream fishing in the truest sense. Wild brown trout are the main fish, holding in undercuts, against grass banks and in whatever depth the stream can muster. Brook trout are present in places and stocked rainbows turn up. Everything here is measured in inches rather than pounds, and the reward is the technical challenge of a spring creek in miniature: clear water, wary fish, and no room for a bad cast.

Access is limited and largely across private farmland, so permission matters and the Fish and Boat Commission access listings are the place to start. Lancaster is a short drive away and the county holds far larger limestoners nearby.

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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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Posting to Big Spring Run.

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.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Big Spring Run cfs

Now: 1.3 cfs, read 6:00 pm CDT, Sun Oct 18, 2026 (USGS 015765195, Big Spring Run near Mylin Corners, PA).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Lancaster - the city north of the run, with lodging, fuel, food and fly shops.
Mylin Corners - the crossroads at the gauge, the local reference point.
Mill Creek - the larger stream Big Spring Run feeds, fishable downstream.
Willow Street - the nearest village with basic services.
Pequea Creek - a larger Lancaster County stream south of here with public access.
Conestoga River - the main county river, a warmwater fishery with ramps.
Donegal Creek - another Lancaster County limestoner with managed trout water.

Seasons

Spring: cold steady spring flow keeps the run fishable while nearby streams run high and dirty.
Summer: the spring source holds temperatures down, making this a rare warm-weather trout option.
Fall: wild brown trout spawn and are best left alone on the redds late in the season.
Winter: flow and temperature stay remarkably constant, and the run fishes on mild days.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Big Spring Run?

As of Oct 18, 6:00 pm, the USGS gauge Big Spring Run near Mylin Corners, PA reads 1 cfs, with water temperature 54.7 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Big Spring Run?

Anglers target Blacknose Dace, Brook Trout, Brown Trout, Creek Chub, Fallfish, Rainbow Trout, White Sucker on the Big Spring Run in Pennsylvania.

Where can you access the Big Spring Run?

Lancaster - the city north of the run, with lodging, fuel, food and fly shops. Mylin Corners - the crossroads at the gauge, the local reference point. Mill Creek - the larger stream Big Spring Run feeds, fishable downstream. Willow Street - the nearest village with basic services. Pequea Creek - a larger Lancaster County stream south of here with public access. Conestoga River - the main county river, a warmwater fishery with ramps. Donegal Creek - another Lancaster County limestoner with managed trout water.

When is the best time to fish the Big Spring Run?

Spring: cold steady spring flow keeps the run fishable while nearby streams run high and dirty. Summer: the spring source holds temperatures down, making this a rare warm-weather trout option. Fall: wild brown trout spawn and are best left alone on the redds late in the season. Winter: flow and temperature stay remarkably constant, and the run fishes on mild days.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Big Spring Run?

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