Minister Creek: A Synopsis of a Brief Fishing Excursion on Summer Solstice Weekend

Minister Creek is a no-kill stream. Only artificial lures or flies can be used.

I haven’t made it out to do any Brook Trout fishing for awhile. However, one of the streams that I did manage to hit this summer was Minister Creek. Ellen and I were camping with some friends over the Summer Solstice weekend and I headed out early in the morning to fish the lower portion of Minister. We were camping close to the confluence of Minister and Tionesta. We had perfect weather for the whole weekend.

I headed upstream crossing Rt.666 and entering into the additional camping sites on the other side. I didn’t want to start fishing next to tents and sleeping campers, so I continued upstream until a came to a open area with an old pump house standing in the middle of a clearing. Just north of the clearing I began to fish. Previously and with success, I had fished the upper portion of Minister, by where the North Country Trail intersects. This was the first time I had tried fishing the down-stream portion.

One of many nice pools just upstream from the clearing with the pump house

Minister has some great looking holes, large boulders, log jams, and undercut banks. The creek is guarded on the east and west by a steep ravine. Large hemlocks and beech trees protect the waters from direct sunlight. I started with a Royal Wulff. I fished a couple of eddies around some large boulders and was able to hook up a couple of times. Some of the pools were fairly deep and as I continued to work upstream I switch my fly over to a small bead-headed wet fly that I tied. After doing this, I seemed to hook up with fish more frequently.

The first and probably the nicest sized Brookie of the day

By mid-morning I made my way back to camp. Everyone had already left to go hike the Minister Trail. I ate a quick breakfast and then fished a little more right around the campsite, which wasn’t but a couple of yards from the confluence of the Tionesta Creek. Close to the bigger creek there still seemed to be a good number of smaller Brookies. Nothing of substantial size was caught that day. Perhaps the largest was the first Brookie taken on a Royal Wulff.

Looking south at camp. The Tionesta creek lies behind the green tent by several yards.

It was a rather quick fishing session, but of course it was still great to feel the tenacity of even the smallest Brook Trout, take a fly like it was a Tiger Shark.

A small Brookie that took my bead-headed wet fly