PINE CREEK

Field Log — Field Intel, Dated & Sourced

The rule that runs this log — the same standard the Deer Creek edition is held to: a field-intel entry appears here only with a source and a date on it. Anything that cannot carry both stays out. As of this edition there are no owner field reports logged for Pine Creek — no dated on-the-water entries yet, so none are printed, and nothing here is padded to look lived-in. What the log does hold is this water's verification record:

· Nov 1, 2026 — Stream cameras: the verified Keystoned camera manifest found no public camera on Pine Creek, so this guide carries no camera link rather than a dead or wrong-water one. Source: Keystoned Steel camera manifest, checked Nov 1, 2026.

· Nov 2, 2026 — Live blocks: weather & radar block added to this edition; gauge and weather blocks timestamped (reading time + fetch time, STALE label past 3 hours). Source: Keystoned Steel, Nov 2, 2026.

· Nov 2, 2026 — Edition check: AI-captioned artwork removed; North Park Lake depth & structure note added from PFBC biologist reports (2004; May 2016) with the absence of any published bathymetry stated plainly. Source: Keystoned Steel, Nov 2, 2026.

· Ongoing — Gauge record: USGS NWIS station 03049807 (Grant Avenue, Etna), daily values Oct 2024 – Oct 2026 in hand; the live reading at the top of this page carries its own timestamp on every visit. Source: USGS NWIS.

The survey in the chapters below stands on the Sources of Record at the back of this guide. When the first dated field report for Pine Creek is logged, it will appear here — dated, sourced, or not at all.

Field Notes — The Creek On One Page

Pine Creek, at a glance Read the gauge, read the color where you park, then pick your water. Everything on this page is drawn from the creek's own record.

THE KEYSTONED CALL

45–110

CFS — THE PRIME WINDOW, AND FALLING

The gauge's own medians tell the story: spring rides in prime (Mar 95, Apr 83, May 73 CFS), summer sags to the low band (30–33), and October idles at 19. The gauge sits on the creek — the number is this water. THE FIVE BANDS — USGS 03049807 AT GRANT AVE, ETNA

Pittsburgh's backyard trout stream is honestly measured: the gauge sits on the creek at Etna, so the number online is this water, not a proxy. Fish the DHALO like the spring creek it imitates — and let the gauge tell you which creek you're getting before you drive.

TOO LOW

Under 25 CFS

Deepest DHALO pools only

LOW & FISHABLE

25–45 CFS

The DHALO fishes best here by fall

PRIME

45–110 CFS, falling

The whole creek turns on

HIGH & FISHABLE

110–250 CFS

Edges, lake reach, slowest seams

BLOWN OUT

Over 250 CFS

North Park Lake instead

COLOR — READ IT WHERE YOU PARK

Read it where you park: the Grant Avenue bridge in Etna for the lower creek, the Mt. Royal Boulevard bridge for the DHALO. Pine runs tea-green when right. One urban quirk the gauge cannot show: PA DEP watershed sampling documented heavy road-salt chloride loading in this creek (winter peaks measured near Etna), so a grey, milky look after a thaw can be salt and grit, not mud - the fish still feed under it, but give the drift an extra beat. Clearing: a 67-square-mile suburban basin clears faster than the big rivers and slower than the Erie shale creeks — figure 24–36 hours after a moderate event, less for the upper creek above North Park, more when the whole basin has been soaked. SPECIES BY SEASON

Brown, rainbow & brook trout (stocked)

Spring & fall · Stocked Trout Water, headwaters to East Pennview Ave, Etna (Sections 2 & 4).

Brown & rainbow trout — DHALO holdovers

Year-round · Artificials only, no bait; catch-and-release outside the harvest window — holdovers are the prize.

Stocked trout — North Park Lake

Near year-round · The county's only water on PFBC's year-round list; rainbows ≈ 3/4 of plantings.

White sucker, creek chub, shiners

Year-round · The forage base — restocked after the 2009–2012 dredging.

Allegheny River fish at the mouth

Seasonal · River regulations (Pool 2) — a different fishery sharing the parking lot.

Field Notes — Rules & The Creek's Story

The rules, and how this creek came back Regulations are planning summaries — the current PFBC summary book is the authority for the water and date you fish. § Delayed Harvest Artificial Lures Only: 1.4 miles, from the abandoned railroad bridge near the T-575 (Bryant Road) and Duncan Avenue intersection downstream to 150 yards downstream of the SR 4019 bridge (PFBC Summary Book, Southwest Region). Artificial lures only - no bait or baitfish may be used or possessed in the section. Open to fishing year-round; trout may be kept only from June 15 to Labor Day (minimum 9 inches, creel limit 3); catch and release at all other times. § The rest of Pine Creek is a PFBC Stocked Trout Water (headwaters downstream to East Pennview Avenue, Etna): regular stocked-trout seasons apply - closed to fishing March 1 to opening day, regular season creel 5 (7 inches minimum), extended season creel 3. North Park Lake is separately designated a Stocked Trout Water Open to Year-Round Fishing - fishing is allowed in the March window but no trout may be taken or possessed then. § A valid PA fishing license and trout permit are required; the Combination Trout/Lake Erie permit also covers this water. § Respect the corridor: the Glenshaw and Etna reaches run through villages and past homes and industry. Park legally, stay off posted banks, and pack out line - this fishery survives on local tolerance. § Summaries for planning only: check current PFBC rules for the exact water and date you fish.

FROM THE RECORD — THE CREEK'S STORY

The creek Pittsburgh already owns — its value was never in doubt, only its care. Allegheny County's parks era began in 1913, and North Park's conversion of farmland into a 3,094-acre county park in the 1920s–30s put the creek's headwaters inside public land — the frame that still holds the upper reach. Below the park the creek threads Glenshaw, where the treated outflow on Mt. Royal Boulevard and the delayed-harvest section made it the classroom where a generation of Pittsburgh anglers learned to fly-fish close to home. The modern low came in the 2000s: a four-year dredging of North Park Lake (2009–2012) sent repeated sediment pulses through the upper creek until the lake was refilled and restocked. The watershed's quiet pressure is chloride — decades of road salt have raised the creek's conductivity, a slow suburban signature tracked since the 1990s in the Pine Creek Watershed Assessment. The recovery is a regulatory edge: cold treated water at the top, special-regulation water in the middle, and an urban stocked fishery that survives its basin because the basin keeps choosing to keep it.

“The trout stream Pittsburgh already owns.” — this survey's opening line for Pine Creek, as recorded in the history above