Kettle Creek Stream Report
About
Kettle Creek is a 43-mile tributary of the Susquehanna River. It has a long history of great fishing, and although it has gone through a long period of hard years — mostly due to low water and warm temperatures — it’s still darn good. In truth, these factors have plagued all northcentral PA streams in recent years. Wild trout populations have suffered as a result, and they’re much more localized around coldwater springs than they used to be, especially come middle of June. In its lower sections, Kettle is all but barren of trout come summer, but it does become a pretty good smallmouth bass fishery.
Kettle Creek has a Catch and Release Fly Fishing Only section that begins at a sign located 500 feet downstream of the SR 0144 Bridge to a sign located upstream 1.7 miles. This section along SR 0144 is well marked with lots of access points.
HATCH INFORMATION:
With an overall pH of around 7.3 (7 is neutral), Kettle Creek is home to prolific mayfly hatches. All of the major hatches can be found here, and they’re often heavy.
March-April
Blue-Winged Olives, Blue Quill, Quill Gordon, Hendricksons, Grannoms.
May-early June
Tan Caddis, Gray Fox, March Browns, Sulphurs, Green Drakes, Blue-Winged Olives, Light Cahills, Lime Sallies, Chocolate Dun.
Summer
Yellow Drake, Slate Drake, Chocolate Dun, Trico.
Need a place to stay while fishing Kettle Creek?
Blog Posts About Kettle Creek
Check out this post on Fly Fisherman about fishing many of Kettle Creek most productive tributaries: “Fly Fishing Kettle Creek’s Class A Tributaries.“