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Big Cove Creek

Type
Freestone river, Pennsylvania (East)
Designation
Delayed Harvest · Keystone Select
USGS gauges
None on it; nearest shown
Guides
1 nearby
Shops
1 nearby

Today on the Big Cove Creek

Reading the gauge…

Regulations & access Guides & shops

Big Cove Creek is a freestone river in Pennsylvania, listed as Delayed Harvest by Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

More about the Big Cove Creek

The nearest USGS gauge on the same stream system is shown, labelled. 1 guide and 1 shop nearby are listed here.

Updated · Sources: Delayed Harvest Artificial Lures Only, USGS Water Data

Representative photograph of similar water; not a photograph of this place.
Representative photograph, not this water.
Where it is

Big Cove Creek is a freestone river in Pennsylvania.

Nearest gauge (not on this water)
Reading the gauges…

Check any river's flow

Follow Big Cove Creek for flow alerts

Pick one of its USGS gauges and hear from us when the flow moves into or out of its usual range for the date, or crosses a flow you set. We check the public USGS reading every 2 hours and email only when it crosses, at most once every 6 hours. Flow alone is not a fishing forecast or a safety call.

Follow this water

Signed in: one step. Otherwise we email a confirmation link first. Every alert has one-click links to stop it.

Where to fish

About this

Start from the agency's public access map. Nothing on this page grants or implies access: check the agency map, posted signs and landowner permission before you fish.

Nothing on this page grants or implies access.

Pennsylvania where to fish maps

Big Cove Creek on the map

About this

Gauges, shops and guides within 40 miles

Map of Big Cove Creek: gauges, shops and guides

RestroomsAccess map

Map of Big Cove Creek with 1 USGS gauge.

Map: © OpenStreetMap contributors · OpenFreeMap · © OpenMapTiles

Restrooms near Big Cove Creek

Restrooms near Big Cove Creek

Restrooms within 2 miles of Big Cove Creek in a straight line, nearest first, with what anglers found when they went. The map says a restroom is there, not whether it is clean or open today.

No restroom mapped within 2 mi yet — add one you know.

Campgrounds, fishing access sites and boat ramps often have one that isn't on the map yet.

Restroom locations and map details: © OpenStreetMap contributors, Open Database License, read Oct 24, 2026. Ratings, answers and photos are members' own; who shared them is never shown, and every photo is reviewed before it appears. Visits older than 18 months no longer count. Distances are straight-line miles, not driving. Nothing here grants access to private land. Community guidelines.

More water near Big Cove Creek

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    Photo credit

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    Falling Spring Branch

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    Brown & brook trout

  • Black-and-white view of the Little Juniata River flowing under a steel truss bridge between wooded banksSpecial-regulation trout waterRepresentative photo · not Raystown Branch Juniata River
    Photo credit

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    Raystown Branch Juniata River

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  • Aerial view of the town of Tyrone in a green valley between forested ridgesCatch and releaseRepresentative photo · not Yellow Creek
    Photo credit

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    Yellow Creek

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  • An angler wading Yellow Breeches Creek at Boiling Springs between green, shaded banksCatch and releaseRepresentative photo · not East Branch Antietam Creek
    Photo credit

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  • Sunrise through bare trees over a misty, still pool on Penns CreekCatch and releaseRepresentative photo · not Green Spring Creek
    Photo credit

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  • Spring Creek flowing through Talleyrand Park in Bellefonte, with willows and a stone wall on the bankCatch and releaseRepresentative photo · not Big Spring Creek
    Photo credit

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    Brown & brook trout

Regulations

About this

Seasons, limits, special regulations and closures for each reach are on the agency pages below. Read them before you go.

2 official designations

Each comes from the agency's own published list; where the list names a reach it is quoted. A designation applies to the listed reach, not necessarily the whole water. Listed in the finder under trout.

The water on the map

About this

Measured from the NHDPlus High Resolution (flowlines and waterbodies) (U.S. Geological Survey, read 2026-11-04) for this water’s own mapped feature. Rounded figures; they describe the channel, not today’s conditions.

Length
19.9 mi (18.5 in PA)
Drains
57.3 sq mi
Drop
826 ft · 41.4 ft/mi
Flows into
Licking Creek
Watershed
Conococheague-Opequon

Guides and shops near Big Cove Creek

About this

Listings marked Unclaimed are built from open map records and the business's own website: confirm licensing, rates, dates and hours directly.

Guides

  • Mike Heck's Trout Guides

    Fayetteville, PA · 26 mi

    Beginners & lessons · Letort Spring Run & Yellow Breeches

    • Unclaimed

    Nearby

All Pennsylvania guides

1 shop nearby

All Pennsylvania shops

How these are chosen

Guides whose own website names this water come first, nearest first. After them, fly-focused guides within 40 miles whose website does not name it. Distances are straight-line.

Shops: fly shops first. A distance is shown when the shop’s website gives its location (within 60 miles); otherwise the shop is in one of the towns within 25 miles of the water.

Guide and shop listings come from the Legendary directories.

Species and hatches

About this

What 1 nearby guide website mention: what guides advertise, not a survey or a promise of what you will catch.

Named on 1 nearby guide website

  • Brook trout1
  • Brown trout1
  • Rainbow trout1
  • Salmon1
  • Steelhead1

When the bugs come off

Regional hatch months: Catskills and the Northeast
About this chart

8 hatches charted for the region, not measured on this water. From Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission.

  1. January: no charted hatch
  2. February: no charted hatch
  3. March: no charted hatch
  4. April: 3 charted hatches
  5. May: 2 charted hatches
  6. June: 1 charted hatch
  7. July: 1 charted hatch
  8. August: 1 charted hatch
  9. September: 2 charted hatches
  10. October: 1 charted hatch
  11. November: no charted hatch
  12. December: no charted hatch

Blue Quill (April) · Hendrickson (April) · Quill Gordon (April) · Green drake (May) · Mayflies (best hatches) (May) · Mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies (June to September) · and 2 more on the chart

How we put this together

Named by guides nearby (within 40 miles), counted from the species each guide lists on its own site. No agency page we hold lists species for this water.

Plan a trip here

About this

None of our destination hubs is within 40 miles in a straight line. The trip planner builds a trip around the water itself: the guides and shops listed within 40 miles of it, its gauges and its nearest towns and airports.

No hub within 40 miles

Plan a trip here

Gear checklist

About this

A practical checklist for fly fishing small mountain trout streams: a short 3–4 weight rod, light line, a few buoyant dries and simple wet-wading gear, with estimated prices and where to buy.

An angler stands on a boulder at the edge of a fast forest stream and fishes the run

Small mountain streams

7′6″–8′6″ rod, 3–4 weight, floating line · Brook, cutthroat, rainbow and brown trout

Open the checklist
Videos for this water (5)

Watch: reading a trout stream

About this

Seams, shelves and soft water, shown on real rivers.

Public YouTube videos from established channels, chosen by us to support this page. Not sponsored; the creators are not affiliated with Legendary Fly Gear.

  • How I Learned to Read Water (Fly Fishing)Embedded from YouTube · Mad River Outfitters · not affiliated with Legendary Fly Gear. Watch on YouTube
  • How To Read The Water with Tom RosenbauerEmbedded from YouTube · The New Fly Fisher · not affiliated with Legendary Fly Gear. Watch on YouTube
  • Reading the Water to Successfully Locate TroutEmbedded from YouTube · Orvis Guide to Fly Fishing · not affiliated with Legendary Fly Gear. Watch on YouTube

Not sponsored All videos on reading water

Watch: nymphing basics

About this

Indicator rigs, depth and detecting the take.

Public YouTube videos from established channels, chosen by us to support this page. Not sponsored; the creators are not affiliated with Legendary Fly Gear.

  • 90° Nymph RigEmbedded from YouTube · Huge Fly Fisherman · not affiliated with Legendary Fly Gear. Watch on YouTube
  • Casting with an Indicator & Better Nymphing TechniquesEmbedded from YouTube · The New Fly Fisher · not affiliated with Legendary Fly Gear. Watch on YouTube

Not sponsored All videos on nymphing

Fish Tales

About this

Trip stories anglers chose to share publicly and tagged with Big Cove Creek.

No stories from here yet.

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Sources for this page

Not a statement of access, fish presence or conditions.

Something wrong?

All 12 sources and dates

A water page organises discovery. It does not assert public access, legal access, current fish presence, guide availability or fishing conditions.

Flows, gauge statistics and flood stages come from USGS and the National Weather Service when the page is shown. Regulations, stocking, species and season statements link to the agency that publishes them; this page copies only the species names and the quoted sentences. Guide and shop listings come from the Legendary directories. Position: a point on the mapped channel of “Big Cove Creek”, halfway along its length in Pennsylvania, from the USGS high-resolution hydrography (NHDPlus HR), read 4 Nov 2026. It marks the water, not a particular access or reach. Water type is our own classification.