Big Spring is a beautiful limestone stream that is on the rebound. The hatchery is closed and the fishing is improving and will continue to get better with the help of conservation minded anglers and environmentalists.
Big Spring Creek sure has come a long way since I first starting fishing it back when it was one trophy trout per day. Now it is classified as a catch and release fly fishing only stretch of 1.1 miles; from 100 feet downstream of the source (Big Spring) downstream to the Nealy Road Bridge. Below that is open regulated water. Still, it is nothing like it was in its hay day when Vincent Marinaro walked the grassy banks of Big Spring. Much has been written about the rising brook trout once found in Big Spring. These books describe a stream of miles and miles of rising brook trout, then came the mills and then the final blow - a big hatchery at the headwaters.
Much has changed since the hatchery has been shut down. Big Spring is now fishing much like a wild trout stream. Now one can find trout outside what was locally known as the "ditch". This once dead stream is now on the rebound. There is plenty of trout to be found within the catch and release water and good angling below the project water. The stream is filled with some stream-bred rainbows and brown trout. The past population of stream-bred brook trout is on the rebound. Thanks to some stockings of brook trout fingerlings, many stream-bred brook trout have begun to appear within many reaches of the stream. Efforts have begun to restore the stream and once again make it a world-class fishery.
