Central Pennsylvania Fly Fishing
World Class Rivers and the Best Fishing in PA
Central Pennsylvania Fly 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 there should be more than enough info to get you started in the right direction. If you’re looking for some more in-depth tactics for success on these rivers, come out with us on a guided fly fishing trip with us to really up your game!
Planning a Trip to Fly Fish Central PA?
Central Pennsylvania is an anglers dream come true. We have tons of great rivers for all skill levels with ample public access. There’s also a wide range of other activities available if you’d like to mix it up, or bring the family. Whether you’re coming to fish with us, or exploring on a DIY trip, we want to help you find success on our rivers.
Where are Our Trout Streams Located?
We get a lot of questions about where our Central PA trout streams are located, which are near each other, and how to plan a trip to explore multiple streams. Central Pennsylvania is a large area, with as much as an hour and a half separating some of our best trout fishing areas. The map below shows where our best streams; Spring Creek, the Little Juniata River, Penns Creek, Kish Creek, and Fishing Creek are located in relation to each other, and to the towns in our area. The South Central PA spring creeks are located around 1.5hrs south of here.
Where to Stay when Fly Fishing Central PA?
There are a lot of options for lodging when coming to fish our Central PA rivers: camping, cabin rental, AirBnb, hotel, or classic bed and breakfast. You can take your pick of what’s right for you. As far as what town to stay in, if you want flexibility in where you fish, and the largest number of restaurants, activities, and hotels, State College is the best option. This town houses Penn State’s main campus, and is no more than an hour from any of our famous trout streams. It’s only about 15 minutes from Spring Creek, 30 from Fishing Creek and upper Penns, and 45-50 from the Juniata, Kish, and Lower Penns. Each river has at least one town close by, so if you want to fish one creek in particular, you’ll find lodging and restaurants there.
When to Fly Fish Central PA?
Because our limestone springs keep our rivers flowing through the winter, we operate our Central Pennsylvania guide service year round. There’s no bad time to come and fish PA, but if you want the best experience possible, the months of April, May, and June usually offer the best fly fishing opportunities and most comfortable temperatures of the year. This is also there period where bugs are hatching and dry fly fishing is most prevalent, so if that’s what you’re into, there’s not better time. This is the busiest time on our rivers though, so if you want more peace and quiet, consider coming in the shoulder season.
Later in the summer is good as well, however the only trout rivers guaranteed to be cold enough to fish by July are Spring Creek and Fishing Creek. This is a great time to try for some bass on the fly though!
Fall, winter, and early spring all offer exceptional fishing for the anglers willing to brave the cold. The fish are predictable and the water is usually lower and easy to wade. We get some mild days, but Central Pennsylvania can get pretty chilly!
What Gear do You Need to Fly Fish Central PA?
Central Pennsylvania fishing doesn’t demand much specialized equipment. The fly fishing rod, reel, and line you already have will work just fine. That being said, there are a few things that will make your trip a bit better and up your chances of success.
The Central Pennsylvania trout streams are set up perfectly for euro nymphing. They have a structure that makes indicator nymphing difficult in a lot of the water and less effective, and our fish won’t always rise or chase streamers, so euro is the way to go. A 10-11 foot, 2-3 weight euro nymphing rod paired with a mono rig or micro leader system will consistently catch you the most fish. If you don’t euro nymph or don’t have the equipment, you can certainly do fine with conventional tactics, but may not have all the success you could. If you’re interested in giving it a try or upping your skills, we specialize in teaching euro nymphing tactics on our guided trips.
For fishing our hatches, a 9-10 foot, 3-4 weight dry fly rod and a weight forward line is best. Our trout see a lot of angling pressure, so a longer leader is usually necessary to get a good enough drift to fool them. We prefer 12 foot, 5-6x leaders with ~5 feet of tippet off the end.
If you prefer to fish streamers, a 9-10 foot, 5-6 weight rod is perfect for our water and fish sizes. A floating line and weighted streamer will cover you most places, but and intermediate or typer three sink tip is necessary for covering all the water. Don’t go crazy with fly sizes, a 3 inch long streamer will be more than big enough to catch the biggest fish in our rivers.
Other items that will really help your success: polarized sunglasses, waders and boots with felt or good tungsten studs (our rivers are slippery!), a wading staff, and net.
Helpful Links to Plan Your Central PA Fly Fishing Trip
- Buy your fishing license on HuntFishPA
- Plan out other activities with info from the Happy Valley Adventure Bureau or the PA Wilds Cooperative
- Find the laws and other fishing opportunities on the PA Fish and Boat Commission Website
- Monitor the stream levels with USGS
Pennsylvania Trout Stream Overviews
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.
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.
Innovative Angling Guide Service
Want some help out there? We offer full and half day guide trips on all our other world class Pennsylvania waterways. We focus on education, so not only will you catch fish while were out, but you’ll learn the skills to go out the next day and catch more on your own. Give us a call, and we’ll work with you to put together a one of a kind trip to suit your specific needs.