There's one particular boulder -- I won't tell you where -- that for decades has remained undercut by the current. Even in the summer when Loyalhanna Creek is low and the water warms, big trout find comfort at the edge of the current a yard or more under the protection of the rock, picking off any Wooly Bugger that passes.

I accidently discovered "my boulder" some 30 years ago when my dad was teaching me to read the water. It was mostly at Loyalhanna that I learned to walk over slippery stones waist deep in a stiff current, when to want a natural drift and when to work the current and, most importantly, how to find fish where other anglers aren't.

Although I've occasionally sullied my secret spot with clumsy casts, the boulder has remained a trout sanctuary and I've returned the favor by returning my catches to their dark, hidden home.

Westmoreland County's Loyalhanna Creek isn't the nearest trout stream to metropolitan Pittsburgh, but the volume, breadth, minimal overhang, variety of water types and abundance of stocked trout through the Loyalhanna Gorge has made it a invaluable classroom for countless Southwestern Pennsylvania anglers. Many who graduate from entry-level fishing move upstream to 1.7 miles of Delayed Harvest Artificial Lures Only, honing their skills where the trade-off is stricter restrictions but year-round fishing.

Perhaps because of the tremendous access and heavy stocking from Ligonier to Kingston Dam, most anglers know little of the rest of the creek.

"Loyalhannins" or "middle stream" was also the name of a Delaware Indian village settled near the creek after the tribe was relocated from the Susquehanna area in 1772. A few years earlier, the British had completed Ft. Ligonier between Chestnut Ridge and Laurel Hill.

The stream that brought water to the fort begins as a trickle near Stahlstown. Much of the headwaters drain through posted private land. But as tributaries converge, upper Loyalhanna begins to show signs of a healthy, fishable stream. Two weeks ago, near a confluence miles above the first stocking point, the water was a brisk 40 degrees and caddis larva stuck to the stones.

"Not many people fish it that far up," said Dan McMaster of Ligonier Outfitter. "Not that there might not be natives up there, but most people who come to Loyalhanna come for the heavy stocking, and people who want native brookies go to other places."

Loyalhanna nears Linn Run surrounded by upscale camps-turned-homes and the private Rolling Rock Country Club. Unlike the Little Juniata, the Loyalhanna was never declared "navigable" so the public has no access to a stretch where privately stocked trout are fed by landowners. But big fish move, the experts say, and some may wash down to the Zimmerman Run confluence above Ruthie's Diner where the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission begins stocking browns and rainbows from the Bellefont State Fish Hatchery.

Below the Rt. 711 bridge in the Delayed Harvest area, McMaster swears by Wooly Buggers, Hare's Ear Nymphs, Pheasant Tails and, early in the season, Green Weenies. And watch out, he says, when the stone flies are hatching.

"We open the back door here," he says, at Ligonier Outfitters a couple hundred yards north of the creek, "and see them stuck to the door in sizes 16 to 18."

In the weeks after opening day, expect lots of trout and predictably heavy angler pressure throughout Loyalhanna Gorge, where east- and west-bound lanes of the Lincoln Highway parallel the creek.

Finding Fish Where Anglers Aren't, Lesson 1: When people are lined up elbow-to-elbow around big pools, don't fish there. Read the water. Fish the riffles above and below, particularly at the current's edge. Dead drift baits; swing spinners, streamers or salted minnows across the current and work them upstream; or pitch nymphs up and across and try to get a natural drift.

Lesson 2: When the creek begins to warm in the summer, some trout will seek cooler water just up the mouths of feeder streams. Follow them and few anglers will be dedicated enough to follow you.

Decades ago, before local groups and later the Fish and Boat Commission turned part of Loyalhanna into a trout fishery, the gorge stretch teamed with smallmouths and rock bass. Initially the trout stocking continued as far down as Kingston Dam. Just above Latrobe, mine acid turned the lower end of the creek red.

"That's no longer the case," said Waterways Conservation Office James Vatter, standing near the big slow pool under the westbound Rt. 30 bridge west of Rt. 217. "We stock it now all the way down to Monastery Run [near St. Vincent College], but not as many [anglers] fish it the two miles to St. Vincent."

Below that, red-rimmed rocks -- vestiges of less environmentally sensitive times -- line the creek through Latrobe and beyond. But the stain is deceptive. Since the installation of remediation ponds near St. Vincent, the Loyalhanna is fishable all the way to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Loyalhanna Lake, north of New Alexandria.

"The pond at St. Vincent takes out 90 percent of the iron oxide," said WCO Vatter. "It looks ugly, but kids down there are taking out trout. Guys are catching smallmouths."

With relatively clear water and low angling pressure, he said, even muskies are finding their way upstream all the way to Rt. 30.

"A guy fishing top-water lures -- buzz baits -- took a 10-pounder two years ago," he said.