Fly Fishing in PA
 

I am just moving to bucks county pa and am wondering if anybody could help me out on were i could fly fish. What rivers are best and what hatches are there. thank you for your help

RE: Fly Fishing in PA
 

Smoothsteve,
I'll try to help a bit if I can i'm not as familiar with that area as most but I do know some decent water down there........

1. West Valley Creek: (Delayed Harvest Artificial Lures only)_About a 1.5 miles section of stream.......Between Exton and Downingtown. The best fishing is between Whitford Rd downstream to Rt.322
In April you'll see some Hendricksons, and little black and also some tan caddis.
In May there is a decent Sulphur hatch and some Light Cahills.
The lower end has a pretty good Trico hatch as there are some meadow sections open to fishing.
The stream is tight in places but the canopy helps with temps. Probably 20-30 ft wide in most places.

2. Valley Creek (No Kill) Very historical Limestone spring stream.....some of the best waters are right where Lafayette's headquarters were located during the Revolutionary War. You might be landing trout right where Washington crossed.
The trout here are not stocked.....it holds thousands of wild streambred browns.
The last 3 miles of the stream are within Valley Forge NAtional Park.
April will show some Blue Winged Olives....crane flies and some dark olive caddis.
In May you'll see the typical Sulphurs and Cahills as well as some green caddis.
Also some Tricos in the summer and some more sparse cadis hatches in the fall.

3. Ridley Creek(Fly fishing only) The FFO section is just under a mile long.....near Media , PA. Look for the Sporting Gentleman shop which is very close to the stream.
The stream is located in Ridley Creek state park.
Stocked stream, but gets some holdovers and could be a wild trout stream if left alone.......
The hatches are similar to Valley creek except you'll see some ehndricksons and Quill Gordons in the spring and also some Grey Fox and March Browns mixed in with the sulphurs once you hit May.

4.French Creek (Delayed Harvest Artificial lures only)
good sized stream about 40 minutes from Philadelphia.......30-60ft wide in sections.
About 15 miles of stream get stocked and there is also a FFO section thrown in there somewhere? Between St. Peters and Kimberton.
Gets warm in the summer and holds some Smallmouth bass.
Sees all the hatches I listed above for Ridley.

These are probably the closest decent trout water to you, but if you want to travel just a bit.......less than an hour probably, look for the Tulpehocken Creek near Reading in Berks Co. This is big trout water and Limestone as well as a tailwater. I fished there a lot. Good hatches and year round fishing. And then are 2 of my favorites near Allentown.......Little Lehigh Creek and Cedar Creek. Limestone streams that stay cold year round with tons of trout and some great hatches! Especially the Sulphurs in May. Little Lehigh has some special regs sections including a no-wade FFO section. Definitely give them a try.

Also.......don't overlook the Schuylkill River up towards Hamburg on down to Reading. Terrific Late Spring/summer Smallmouth Bass fishing. I've had some 100 bass days there on Clousers and Wooly Buggers.