The Yellow Breeches
Author: Thomas Baltz
Yellow Breeches Creek drains most of the southern edge of Cumberland County in south-central Pennsylvania. Its watershed encompasses some 300 square miles of South Mountain and the Cumberland Valley. Arguably, its origin is two tiny mountain brooks flowing from South Mountain which join in the vicinity Big Pond, south of the village of Lees Cross Roads. Its intermittently flowing stream bed ultimately gains normally dependable flow about two miles west of the village of Huntsdale. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s largest hatchery facility is located at Huntsdale and discharges into the Yellow Breeches. From Huntsdale, the Breeches courses along west to east to the vicinity of Williams Grove. East of the Grove, its winding course serves as the boundary between Cumberland and York counties and empties into the Susquehanna River at New Cumberland, PA.
Many of the tributaries flowing from South Mountain into the Breeches sink into the Valley floor and do not have year-round connectivity with the main stream. Their collective water re-emerges in the Vally floor, feeding many of the springs that keep the Breeches a cool and productive trout stream. Most tributaries host small delicate populations of tiny brook trout. Some, notably Mountain Creek, also hold wild brown trout. Mountain Creek is regularly stocked by PAFBC. Other tributaries, particularly those flowing from the north side of the creek, are small springs the largest of which is the collective outflow of Boiling Springs Lake, (aka Childrens’ Lake) enters the Breeches at Boiling Springs, cooling a very popular one-mile section of Catch & Release, Artificials Only water. Several other tributaries east of Williams Grove serve as nursery areas for young trout, mostly browns. Of all the tributary streams only two, Mountain Creek and the Run at Boiling Springs offer realistic fishing opportunities. Formerly famous Cedar Run is presently unfishable, swallowed by sinkholes and development. Most of the others are either just too small to offer a satisfying fishing experience, their little wild trout only reaching a few inches in length, or they are on inaccessible properties, or both.
Yellow Breeches Creek itself holds both stocked and wild trout throughout its some50 to 55-mile length. Almost all wild trout are browns with the occasional stream-bred rainbow or rare wild brook trout rounding out the population. The Breeches is stocked with rainbow trout from just upstream of Huntsdale to its junction with the Susquehanna. The Commission also stocks brown trout from somewhere east of PA Rt. 34, downstream. Several co-op nurseries, notably the Yellow Breeches Anglers and Conservation Association also stock the stream. Brown trout are not stocked upstream of Rt. 34.
A low gradient stream of gentle riffles and long flat pools, good water quality and varied habitat enables the Breeches to host a broad spectrum of hatches over a virtually year-round season. Notable hatches include early black stoneflies, Hendrickson mayflies, Grannom Caddis, sulphurs, grey fox, assorted blue wing olives, and of course the famous White Fly in August. Other mayflies from tricos to Hexagenia create fishing opportunities in addition to excellent midge and terrestrial action.
CVTU has been very active in stream habitat and stream channel restoration along the Yellow Breeches. The Chapter managed grant dollars for the removal of two large dams on the Breeches at Spangler’s Mill and Green Lane Farms and participated in riparian plantings there. A major stream channel restoration and riparian planting project was completed in the reach upstream of the now removed dam above Boiling Springs and more recently a major stream bank reconstruction and riparian planting at Barnitz Church. At this writing, several other significant dam removal/channel restoration projects are in the planning stages.
