BirdTrout
Elk Creek, Pennsylvania
24 mapped river miles, draining 98 square miles, in the Lake Erie Tributaries basin watershed. No gauge stands in it; the nearest is 6.3 miles away, and what this page knows about its temperature is PA DEP's classification of the water itself.
50°F and colder is cold, through cold-transitional and cool, to warm above 70°F — the same four bands, breaking at 58, 64 and 70°F, that the app paints. Grey is water nobody has measured.
The nearest live reading
The nearest gauge is 6.3 miles away, at Walnut Creek Upstream Pool, Near Erie, Pa — not a reading of this water, but of what the region is doing today.
Thermal classification
PA DEP's classification of this water, reach by reach. A class, not a temperature — no July mean, because none was measured here.
| Reach | Typed miles | Band | PA DEP type |
|---|---|---|---|
| RM 23.6–20.7 | 2.9 | cold | — |
| RM 20.7–0.0 | 29.8 | warm | — |
PA DEP has classified 32.7 of the 33 miles NHD carries for this stream — 100% of it. The typed water splits 29.8 mi warm, 2.9 mi cold. The untyped reaches are not warm water — they are water PA DEP's inventory does not reach, and the mile ranges above span only the reaches it does.
The lake run
The Elk Creek is a Lake Erie tributary with 30.1 miles of run corridor on it — salmon, steelhead and lake-run brown trout, on their own calendar and under their own rules. Run timing, species and access on the Elk Creek →
Questions about this river
- Elk Creek fishing report — what it reads right now
- How to get to Elk Creek — access, parking and public land
- Elk Creek fishing regulations — season, size and gear by reach
PA DEP classification
PA DEP classifies this water as Cold Water Fishes and Warm Water Fishes. More than one class appears because the classification changes along the river. The thermal bar above shows where. The management tier on those reaches is Cold Water Fishes, Warm Water Fishes. This is a designation of the fishery, not the season and creel rules — those change yearly and live with the agency.
Access
1 mapped PA DEP access site within a quarter mile of the water, upstream first: Rick Road Access (Elk Creek) (RM 11.4). 1 walk-in, 0 boat or canoe launches.
Public land on the river
3 units of public or open-access land touch this river, 451 acres in total. Acreage is the whole unit, not the part beside the water.
| Unit | Owner | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Elk Creek — Public Fishing Right Over Private Ground | PFBC | 234 |
| Elk Creek — Pfbc Holds The Ground | PFBC | 193 |
| Mckean Community Park | city land | 24 |
Species
PA DEP designates this as trout water — Cold Water Fishes — without naming the species. No fish survey or stocking record for this water is in the files this site reads.
Tributaries and watershed
5 named streams meet this one. Confluence miles are above the mouth; the longest twelve are listed.
- Little Elk Creek 12.6 mi · RM 0.0
- Falk Run 7.2 mi · RM 4.3
- Lamson Run 5.5 mi · RM 13.1
- Goodban Run 5.3 mi · RM 5.3
- Porter Run 4.7 mi · RM 6.3
Elk Creek sits in HUC 8 04120101, the Lake Erie Tributaries basin, and drains 98 square miles, Strahler order 5 at the mouth. 73 NHD reaches carry the name for 32.7 miles in total — more than the 23.6 miles of drawn mainstem, because NHD counts side channels and braids as their own reaches.
Other water nearby
The closest 6 rivers on this site, straight-line from the middle of this one — not drive time.