Fishing in the Philly/SE PA Area

[Rob Shane]

I have some hours to kill on my way to Philly Monday and I'm hoping to fish for a few hours in the late morning/early afternoon before I get a colleague at the airport. 

Regretfully, I lived in Philly for a long while and never once took my fly rod out of the case so I'm clueless here. I had planned to fish through the GP on the way up but would rather explore some new water on the other side of the state line and get my license money's worth. 

Any suggestions? Not looking for a honey hole, just some decent access and a place to muck around for a few hours. Would prefer trout fishing but very open to small mouth suggestions too if the susquehenna is wadable? Valley Forge?

Thanks!

Rob

[Brendan]

during the week Valley Forge is fun and fishable...weekends, it becomes way too crowded. decent hike from the airport tho and not sure on water levels but it looks like the recent/current storm system dropped a bunch of water up there... a little further west of valley forge there's a ton of water but unfortunately a lot of the stocked streams up there get fished out and brookie streams are mostly unfishable.  

[Kevin Huntington]

I'm a Philly native and unfortunately your trout options are a bit few and far between.  White Clay Creek has a branch in PA near the DE border and I've had some fun there but again it's a stocked stream and I'd imagine water temps are fairly high.  Like Brendan said, I would maybe try Valley Creek.  It's a bit of a hike from 95 but it's a spring creek so it will be fishable.  Fish are small on average, maybe 6-10".  But there are a few bruisers in there - I usually fish dry dropper rigs or the biggest thing I have in my box.   Also focus on the riffles, you'll see plenty of fish in the slack water but the active fish will be in the riffles.

Honestly though if you don't want to go too far out of your way I'd fish the Gunpowder if you want to fish for trout.  You're going to get the same thing at Valley Creek as you are at GP and you won't have to drive 45 minutes out of your way. 

I'd also give Terry a call at A Marblehead Flyfisher (they are actually in Delaware but close to the PA line).  He's a really good due and will tell you what's going down with both trout and bass. 

On Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 10:47:41 AM UTC-4, Rob Shane wrote:

[Misha Gill]

What about Tulpehocken Creek? It's a tailwater, about an hour west from Philly. There's also the Lehigh, although water temps would be high this time of year.