Fishing History

Big Spring was one of the greatest limestone spring creeks in the world. It was known world wide for the sophisticated surface-rising brook trout. Legendary fly fishermen like Charlie Fox, Vince Marinaro, Ross Trimmer, and others haunted this magical stream. Big Spring together with the Letort, Yellow Breeches and Cedar Run were some of the major streams where fly fishing in America was born. Innovations in equipment, flies and technique are all part of this history. It was the first place that “selective trout” were actually discovered by fishermen. The late Charlie Fox stated on numerous occasions that there were so many brook trout in Big Spring that you couldn’t hurt the population. The stream was that productive and everyone kept the fish back then! Big Spring has a constant water temperature around 48-50 degrees F. The water is as clear as gin and the stream is much deeper than it actually looks in many places. The highly alkaline mineral rich water provides a great environment for the invertebrates and trout populations. With the great insect hatches that occurred like the Sulfurs (Ephemerella rotunda) and others it was a fly angler’s paradise till around the early 70’s when the PFBC hatchery went into operation.

Big Spring attracted the best fly anglers from all over the world with the likes of Ernest Schweibert, Lefty Kreh, Ed Koch, Ed Shenk, Gene Utech, Tommy Thomas and others who wished to test their skill against these sophisticated trout. The stream produced some very large brook trout. Eighteen to twenty inch fish were not uncommon! There is approximately 5 miles of spring creek flowing north through the town of Newville, Pennsylvania. In the old days as Charlie Fox and Ross Trimmer described it, fly anglers stayed at the local hotel. They came by train from Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Someone would take them upstream and drop them off, and then they would fish back to the hotel! The glorious days of fly fishing began here. As Charlie Fox put it, “you needed three things for great fly fishing back then. You needed a railroad near by, a hotel, and of course a great trout stream! And Big Spring had them all!”