In Search of the Ultimate PA Fly Fishing Highway

[CoopTville]

Tom Cooper recently wrote an article in the International Federation of Fly Fishers Chesapeake Council Newsletter Searching for the ultimate Pennsylvania fly fishing highways. He is looking for suggestions in four categories; Trout Bum (a week long outing), Weekend Warrior (a long weekend), Wild Trout (a trip of any length focusing on the wild ones), and the Brook Trout (a weekender hitting many Brookie streams).
You can read Tom's article here.
http://www.ccifff.org/PDF/Newsletters/oct_14.pdf
What do you think?

 

[bikerfish]

no trout in pa, go away!

 

[sandfly]

wild ones-
start in the east and follow route 6 to the west hitting the wild streams take a week or more to do it

 

[tomitrout]

RT 233 might be a nice one for either the Wknd or Wild option...native brookies in both Michaux & Tuscarora State forests anchor the south and north ends of the road with Falling Spring, Big Spring, the Letort and Breeches all sitting in between and within the 15mile corridor...plus warmwater options in the Conodoguinet and Sherman's.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

Noone wants to read about trout highways. He should write about winery, microbrewery, bed and breakfast highways.

 

[PennKev]

bikerfish wrote:
no trout in pa, go away!

And stay out!

 

[troutbert]

I you are going to drive a lot each day, and find new lodging each evening, you won't be doing much fishing.

Whether you have a weekend or a week, just drive to a good trout fishing area, get your lodging, then fish around that area.

You're assuming that a "linear approach" is a good one, but probably more for the purpose of an article than for actual fishing.

 

[sandfly]

you are going to drive a lot each day, and find new lodging each evening, you won't be doing much fishing.

why I van camp !

 

[TimRobinsin]

81

 

[troutfanatic]

I'm down with this. Keep that gas price going down. I can live off Oscar Mayer balogna, Kraft American slices on white bread. Every Walmart parking lot in America is my lodging.

 

[dryflyguy]

Kind of an odd premise. Although I recall reading an article in PA Angler years ago by Charlie Meck about the good trout streams along I -80 - and there are some nice ones.

Anyway, in the brookie stream category, I think I would have to go with route 6. That highway crosses so many BT streams across the top part of the state, that it would likely take months to fish them all IMO.

My favorite road though, would be route 45.
Crosses the little j, spring and penns - and comes very close to fishing creek. And countless smaller limestone streams too

 

[csoult]

dryflyguy wrote:
My favorite road though, would be route 45.
Crosses the little j, spring and penns - and comes very close to fishing creek. And countless smaller limestone streams too

This

 

[Chaz]

It's been done already, Charlie Meck did it in an early 90's article in PA Anglers. A couple of other articles have been written over the years.
Meck's article was I 80, I wrote one about I 81 for PA Trout, but I'm not sure who wrote others and what roads they were, though I seem to remember one about Rt. 6.
Now if it were expanded to cross country, that's something I haven't seen.

 

[mike_richardson]

872 from the Sinnemahoning - to rout 6 across Coudersport to Galeton, down 144, across 44, then down the east fork road,

Can hit up the Sinnemahoning, the first fork, freedom run, the Allegheny river, Pine Creek, West branch of pine, and The East fork of the Sinemahoning. Tons of great water to fish there, and countless wild trout streams along all roads.

That would be my Week Long Trip. You could stay in Costello if you wanted to, hit up a few bars, and eat at a few great resturants. I am sure you could extend that out a bit and hit up Fishing creek and such, but it would take me a few days to hit up all of the places I would want to fish on the First Fork.

 

[Chaz]

He's looking for brook trout water. Any trip like that would encompass much more than a weekend.

 

[BrookieChaser]

45

 

[salvelinus]

I'd do PA 144. Fish around Bellefonte, head north and hit the high plateau brookie streams between Snow Shoe and Renovo. Then head north to Kettle Creek, including Hammersley Fork and Cross Fork. Finish on Pine around Galeton. Do-able in a week?

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Yeah but the last thing some of those streams need is wide-spread national exposure. Do we need hordes of people starting to trounce through the Hammersley?

 

[salvelinus]

Good point.

 

[pcray1231]

If you focus on the big famous limestoners, hard to argue with 45. The trifecta of the LJR, Spring Creek, and Penns is tough to beat. Not to mention BFC is not far off the path, a few lesser known limestoners, and a few freestoners with brookies and browns to boot. It goes right through the heart of the most famous trout area.

If you want more of the whole picture, yeah, 144. You still got Spring, then you head up to the plateau streams, with enough brookie waters that if you were to fish a different one every day, this trip would take a year! Plus a few of our more famous stocked waters in the form of large freestoners with all of their hatches.

I feel like the Poconos should be represented, which leaves little choice but to say I80. If you have a fairly wide view of the "corridor", meaning 20 or more miles from the highway, this really includes a lot of water of all types, and adds the NW too.

And your still missing the SC limestoners, which are perhaps the most storied waters as the respected old school writers focused on these parts.

Lets face it, this state has 3000 wild trout streams, including world famous limestoners. And hundreds more good stocked waters. You can't get em all.