News & Views
Trout thrive in the 14 miles of water controlled by a club in central Pennsylvania. The controversial idea is seen as ensuring the sport's future.
June 18, 2006
Spruce Creek, Pa. - Chris Maybury and Bob Burke have fished some of the world's great trout waters. Among the very best, they say, are the streams of the Spring Ridge Club in central Pennsylvania where it's common to catch six-pound rainbows, and it's possible to land trout twice as large.
Controversial in the fishing community, the idea behind Spring Ridge Club may be the key to freshwater fishing's future in America.
"I've fished all over the world," says Burke, who lives in Cambridge, Mass., and flies to Spruce Creek several times a year. "I have a frame of reference," he says, "and I can tell you that you can catch as many fish here, and as many large fish here as, literally, anywhere in the world." His other fishing destinations this year include the Rockies, British Columbia and New Zealand.
Maybury is the complete sportsman: He also fishes the world, shoots on the best of Britain's estates, and races cars, as well as a 112-foot Swan yacht. On Spruce Creek last week, he routinely caught and released several trophy rainbow trout, any one of which would be considered the fish of a lifetime by most people. Maybury was like a kid, bubbling about each fish.
"I would suggest that this is as good fishing as you will find anywhere in the U.S.," he said. Releasing a bright, 25- or 26-inch rainbow, he said, "I've been catching fish like this all day."
A new member of the Spring Ridge Club, Maybury lives in Greenwich, Conn., and plans to either drive or fly his Learjet to fish here "once every six weeks or so," he says. "Next week, for instance, I'm doing some motor racing at Watkins Glen, and then I'll come in for a day afterwards. Most times, I'll drive in the morning, fish, stay the night, and drive out the second day."
The Spring Ridge Club controls over 14 miles of 11 streams in central Pennsylvania, says membership director Mike Harpster. Its members currently pay a one-time, fully refundable "membership deposit" of $71,500, and $6,000 a year in dues to have exclusive access to the waters. Fees for fishing guides, accommodations, and other amenities are extra, along with modest "conservation fees," averaging $50 for a day of fishing, for the upkeep of the waters, their fish, and surroundings.
Each stretch of streamside, or "beat" is limited to two rods, and each beat is rested as much as it is fished during the busy season. The club limits the number of members to ensure privacy. As Spring Ridge acquires more water, it opens more memberships. When more memberships become available next month, the membership deposit will increase to $79,500, and club officials expect it to continue rising.
The club has stocked many of the fish from its own hatchery, and others have spawned naturally. If the trout can escape predation, they grow to trophy proportions in the rich limestone streams, loaded with aquatic insects to eat.
Last week, Maybury was fishing on the manicured lawn of Rick Stever's rural home on Spruce Creek. On another day, the angler could be fishing the wild banks of Warriors Mark Run, a tributary where the banks are covered by high grass, blue phlox and goldfinch- yellow wild irises. The scent of mint rises as you hike through a meadow to reach the little limestone stream.
"One day, it's like you're fishing a lawn in England," says Bob Burke, "but if you enjoy a more natural setting, you can be on your hands and knees [in a meadow], and it's a challenge to get the fly to the fish." For him, last Thursday's fishing was "a bear." A day earlier, it was a breeze when he caught and released several fish, the largest a 25-inch rainbow.
Donny Beaver, a successful entrepreneur who grew up in the Spruce Creek Valley, founded the Spring Ridge Club, and welcomed its first member in 2001. It has grown from controlling 3 miles on 4 streams to 14 miles on 11 streams.
For its members, it's a dream. For other fishermen in central Pennsylvania the club is controversial, especially on Spruce Creek, arguably the best trout stream east of the Mississippi. Except for a short stretch of bank owned by Penn State University and open to everyone, the banks of Spruce Creek have always been privately owned. Farmers have controlled most of the access.
In the past, many of them allowed fishermen to cross their land to reach the water. Wayne Harpster, who owns a large dairy farm in the valley, rents his stretch of the stream to fishermen who also must rent accommodations from him. (That's where former President Jimmy Carter fishes.)
"If you look at the famous trout streams of Pennsylvania, none of them fish the way they once did because of suburban sprawl and its runoff," said Mike Harpster, the membership director. The Spring Ridge Club is helping farmers pay their taxes and make a little income so they don't have to sell their land to developers and the sprawl they bring.
That conserves the land, its streams and their fish.
What does Beaver say to a fisherman who has been using the farm streams and compensating the farmers with an occasion bottle of scotch or an afternoon of volunteer labor?
"He has been extremely lucky," Beaver answers. "He has been given a gift. He has so grossly undervalued the resource for so long that he believes it is a right, rather than a privilege.
"I'm asked this question every day, and I say to fishermen: You should be organizing yourselves to meet the new economic reality. You may not like it because you've had an incredible gift, but it is a reality."
Volunteer fire departments, youth groups, and others raise money to support causes dear to them, Beaver says. For whatever reason, the community of fishermen does not.
"My fire department raises $250,000 a year doing bingo," he says. "That will buy you a lot of fishing access. Start to value the resource for its inherent worth, and you will be able to compete against a less inherently valuable thing like housing developments. We're not competing against other people who want to use the resource; we're competing with people who want to devalue the way we use the resource. It's time to ante up."
