Southcentral Pennsylvania is famous for its limestone spring creeks, and the Falling Spring Branch, which meanders through the farms and yards of Chambersburg, is the crown jewel. It was there in 1935 that a Trico hatch caught the attention of angling sage George Harvey, and it was there several years ago that a diverse group of anglers, residents, landowners, and businessmen formed the Falling Spring Greenway Project to enhance and preserve the river and its heritage.

Winter
Falling Spring idles through charming countryside, open meadows, working farms, beautiful estates, and under quaint stone arch bridges. Along its course anglers encounter a surprising diversity of water types and habitat for a limestone spring creek: classic weed-choked flats, undercut banks, deep runs broken by limestone bottom, rolling plunges, and low falls that dig deep pools. This diverse habitat, coupled with a productive food chain, enables a sustainable year-round wild brown and rainbow trout fishery. Although the stream is small, its trout are prolific and grow to trophy size. They are healthy and robust fish, thanks to the stream's rich food base.

Early in the year, the landscape may appear desolate, but beneath the water's surface the stream's major trout food base, the freshwater shrimp, or scud, and the American sowbug, or cressbug, are active. These abundant crustaceans live in all areas of the stream, and nymph fishing with a scud or cressbug imitation can produce fish under almost any weather conditions. Midges offer another constant food source for the trout, and drifting midge larvae and pupae imitations can be effective when no hatch activity is obvious. On warmer winter days, midge hatches can provide short-lived but memorable fishing, especially in the slow-water stretches.

The most enjoyable winter dry-fly fishing starts in February with the emergence of the Baetis mayflies. These Blue-winged Olives appear between 11 A.M. and 4 P.M. on the warmer days, and #16 to #20 flies with coloration ranging from slate gray to a dark olive are most common. Look for the emergence in both slow water and moderate riffles, and be prepared with nymphs, low-floating emergers, and adult dry flies. The hatch comes on heaviest during March and can last into April. Winter blues are dispelled when 20-inch trout take carefully drifted olive dry flies.

A few winter anglers hunt for trophy trout with streamers, and Ed Shenk's Black Sculpin, large, dark Woolly Buggers, and Marabou Muddlers are good bets to tempt large trout. Approaching the large trout can be difficult in winter, due to the lack of streamside vegetation. You must move slowly and with stealth to get into position for the cast of a lifetime.