Mysteries And The Wild Brown Trout Of The Codorus Creek

After spending a lot of time indoors over the Thanksgiving holiday, I was itching to get out and wet a line on some local trout water in southeastern Pennsylvania. I knew I’d have most of the day Saturday to fly fish, so rather than make a long trek out of town, I decided to fish a stream that had been on my list of waters to revisit. The Codorus Creek is a freestone tailwater of Lake Marburg in York County, Pennsylvania. The state classifies this body of water as a Class ‘A’ Wild Trout Stream. I first ran across the Codorus Creek back in July of this year when I was out fishing the East Branch of the Codorus Creek. I’d fished a majority of the accessible water on the East Branch and was looking for another creek. The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission online app mentioned the stream so with limited time I decided to stop by and take a look. When I first laid eyes on the creek, I was struck by how good the water depth was. I was equally surprised by how cool the water temperatures were in the middle of the summer. I fished the stream for maybe an hour that afternoon but never brought a fish to hand. The place intrigued me and I swore I’d be back and so Saturday was the day I’d go back.

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Creeped Out And July Trout On East Branch Codorus Creek

On Saturday I had a short window of time to fish so I decided to stay close to home. I used the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission’s iPhone app to look at their list of the best-stocked trout fishing waters in the southeastern part of the state. I found a small creek located in York County called the East Branch Codorus Creek. I’d heard of this creek’s parent body of water, the Codorus Creek located just below Codorus State Park, but I was not aware that there were other branches. I did some research on Google Maps and was able to determine an access point at the start of the state stocked portion of the creek. This access point was located in the Spring Valley County Park off of Potosi Road. As I was searching Google I found that Spring Valley Park was previously known as Rehmeyer Hollow. This was the site of the infamous Hex Murder from the late 1920’s. After reading the back story it kind of creeped me out to think about fishing here alone. The “Hex House,” which was the site of the cult murder of Nelson Rehmeyer, still stands today and if you decide to fly fish the East Branch Codorus Creek, you’ll drive right by it.

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