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Yellow Creek
Although it's more than an hour's drive from Cumberland Valley, Yellow Creek is a hatch-matcher's paradise featuring wild and stocked trout. This spring creek is west of Cumberland Valley and over the mountains in Bedford County.

Depending on where you are on Yellow Creek, you might wonder if it's a limestone stream or a freestoner. In its lower reaches near its confluence with the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River, Yellow Creek resembles a classic freestone stream with rocky riffles and runs interspersed with deep pools. But farther upstream, the water's milky-yellow color reveals its spring-creek origins. Three main springs combine to form Yellow Creek: Potter Creek, Three Springs Run, and Beaver Creek.

The hatch activity begins in late April and early May with Blue Quills, Quill Gordons, and Hendricksons, as well as stoneflies and caddis. In May the action really heats up with March Browns and Blue Quills in the morning, Gray Fox in the afternoon, and Sulphurs and Light Cahills in the evening. Yellow Creek had a good Green Drake hatch until the 1950s, and in recent years this hatch has made a resurgence. Locals say it is nowhere near what it was, but it gets better every year.

In July, there's a decent Trico hatch that usually continues through September. White Flies hatch on August evenings for about as long as on the Yellow Breeches, although the hatch is not as intense. Terrestrials work throughout the summer.

Yellow Creek has 1.25 miles of delayed-harvest, fly-fishing-only, special-regulation water below the town of Loysburg. This section is from the mouth of Maple Run (Jacks Run) upstream to the cable near Red Bank Hill. To reach the special-regulation section, take Route 26 north out of Everett, at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Bedford exit (#11). Turn left onto Route 36, which follows the stream for several miles.