Our Waters
Where we live
Pennsylvania Fishing
Central Pennsylvania is packed with history, beautiful scenery, and lots of trophy fish, even in the most unassuming places. Our waters range from large freestone rivers, to technical limestone trout streams, to small headwater brook trout creeks. Among these waters are some of premier fisheries in the country, which we’re lucky to fish and guide on.
Our fish are a product of our local geology. The area we guide sits on a massive expanse of limestone, a permeable rock that creates strong aquifers. Rain and snowmelt fill these aquifers up, and the water eventually exits through one of the thousands of small springs in the area after being conditioned to a stable temperature underground. The water also carries with it calcium carbonate and other minerals dissolved from the limestone, which encourages both invertebrate and plant growth. Our main rivers are fed primarly through these springs, which means they have mostly stable temperatures, flows, and PH levels year round for at least some of their length, as well as incredibly high nutrient and bug density. The high nutrient load carries on downstream to feed our bass, musky, and carp populations where the water is too warm for trout. All that is to say, our area is set up to be the perfect fish habitat!
Pennsylvania has over 85,000 miles of rivers and streams, and luckily, most of those miles hold plenty of fish ready to take a fly. It can be hard to pick where to start, but we have you covered. Below are some of our favorite waters, the ones we spend the most time fishing, learning, and guiding. We won’t give away too many secrets, but each link will take you to a short overview of the river and how we like to fish it. Good luck out there!
Spring Creek
Spring Creek is the best river around to develop your fly fishing skills. It has the perfect mix of water types and fish behavior to provide a truly diverse range of challenges. The fish aren’t easy, but they’ll let you know when you do it right!
Fishing Creek
Fishing Creek (Big Fishing Creek) is probably the most challenging of the main Central Pa limestoners. The fish can be downright defiant, but the struggle is worth the reward of some of the prettiest brown trout in the country.
Kishacoquillas Creek
Kish Creek is something of a forgotten river among the famous Central Pa streams, likely because it’s trout population is heavily augmented with stocked fish. However, it’s our personal favorite, and a great, fun river to learn on.
Penns Creek
Penns Creek is our biggest limestone river. It’s widely known as the “bug factory”, and not without reason- it boasts some incredible hatches, and fat fish as a result! The fish can be tough to fool, but you at least know one can always see your fly.
Little Juniata River
The Little Juniata river rarely disappoints in either size or numbers of wild brown trout. It can certainly be tough, but there’s not many rivers in the country that have the potential to offer as exceptional a day as the Little J can.
Letort Spring Run
The Letort is probably the most historic river in Pennsylvania, and is widely known as the most difficult. It’s flat, weedy, meandering course and silty banks make for tough presentations. Many anglers come just to cast a fly in this hallowed water.
Big Spring Creek
The Letorts slightly more forgiving little brother. This spring creek has slightly more character, and boasts great populations of wild rainbow and brook trout instead of wild browns. It’s been known to put up some truely hefty bows as well!
Yellow Breeches Creek
The Yellow Breeches is likely the most popular Cumberland Valley river. It has much more riffle/run character than the other spring creeks and way more forgiving fish. It hosts a good wild and stocked trout population.
Juniata River
Smallmouth Bass
The Juniata, not to be confused with the Little J, is one of the best river smallmouth fisheries in the country. The bass population is off the charts, with five pound fish not being uncommon.
Susquehanna River
Smallmouth Bass
Our other exceptional bass fishery, the Susquehanna has a great smallmouth population along its entire length and in many of its tributaries and branches. It has some pretty big fish to boot!
Secret Spots
We fish a number of lesser known waterways for trout and musky. These spots are talked about under hushed voices at the fly shop, and you’ll be hard pressed to find them online or in any references about fishing Pennsylvania. They may be right under your nose, hiding big fish in the middle of a large town, but you’d never know unless you put in a whole lot of time exploring. We don’t share all our favorite waters, but we do run guide trips on a few of our secret spots that can handle the pressure.