Moving from New Mexico

[agent229]

Hi all,

My boyfriend and I are seriously considering moving from New Mexico to Pittsburgh for me to attend grad school. My boyfriend and I enjoy fishing and have especially gotten into fly fishing within the past year. He really wants to move somewhere where he can get off work and drive about an hour and be able to fly fish. We'd be willing to drive up to four hours for weekend camping/fishing trips.

In New Mexico, we don't have that many options for fly fishing, but our favorite (the San Juan river) is pretty amazing. I guess I'm looking for reassurance that there is good fly fishing in PA, and perhaps some close to Pittsburgh. Also, what is the season like? Can you still fly fish during the late fall, winter, or early spring? Any other info is much appreciated!

Thanks so much!

 

[McSneek]

agent229 - There is excellent fly fishing for trout in PA although not that close to the 'burgh. You said you'd be willing to drive up to four hours for weekend trips. In about two to three hours you can be on some of PA's best waters like the Little Juniata, Spring Creek and Penns Creek. Also, about a three hour drive will get you to the Cumberland Valley spring creeks like the Letort. Lot of history on these streams but they aren't easy to fish. I think in about four hours time you can also get into the North Central mountains which offer lots of fishing opportunities.

Also not from from Pittsburgh there's fishing in the Laurel Highlands and if you like a big brawling, often frustrating river there's the Youghiogheny.

You have warm water fishing opportunities nearby and are a couple hours away from Lake Erie and it's tributary streams which have steelhead in the fall and winter. Bottom line - lots of options but not right down the street from Pittsburgh.

Where are you thinking about grad school? My daughter is an undergrad at Pitt. She loves it there. Pittsburgh is a great city.

 

[Chaz]

NM is one of the few states I haven't been too, but there is trout fishing there in the mountains. Some Native American tribes control access on some of the streams, but from what I know it's not tough to get, but don't break the law, because Native Americans are a nation and can and will arrest you.
You'll find cutthroats mostly, they are the native trout, rainbows and brown are also in a few tail waters. I'd start searching for NM fisheries dept.
The 2 biggest cities are Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Good luck!

 

[mike_richardson]

Bedford and Blair countys offer some great fishing as well. I know that West Virgina is also another option.

You would have access to a ton of streams within your 4 hour radius limits to be honest.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Moving FROM Chaz. from.

 

[MrMustard]

Pittsburgh is a great city with tons to offer, but it is not exactly trout town USA. There are opportunities for trout fishing within an hour or so of city though, but none likely comparable to the San Juan.

If you are willing to hit the road for a couple hours, you can easily be on some very good water. I've been living in the city for about 6 years and spend many weekends camping and fishing north of Pittsburgh and in Central PA. It's not a terrible trade-off, having the amenities and culture of a big city available, and in your case proximity to school, with the ability to get away to the " Pa wilds" on the weekends.

 

[Chaz]

salvelinusfontinalis wrote:
Moving FROM Chaz. from.

I see that now. I'm a dummy.

 

[krayfish]

You'll have plenty of fishing opportunities here and you can also have the following bonuses:

Steelheading

Humidity

Fancy cookies at weddings

Finally a place you can wear that black & gold outfit and not stand out like a sore thumb

 

[mario66pens]

chaz wrote: NM is one of the few states I haven't been too

I don't recommend it either. I spent some time in the badlands of nm outside the west texas town of el paso (didn't fall in love with a mexican girl :-( )


Anyhow it was about a 6 hour drive from where I was to fish the San Juan, so I got to do it a few times. Back to the OP, while the San Juan is world class, you'll be happy to know that you'll find several world class rivers within 4 hours of Pittsburgh.

Close to an hour is the mighty Youghiogheny river. The river in the trout stretches is very remote if you are willing to travel by watercraft or foot. While it doesn't offer tremendous hatches, caddis activity can be heavy and it is amazing streamer water. The lower sections are smallmouth heaven.

Penns creek is about 3 hours from Pitt, is world class and a total bug factory. Here is where you get into those dream match the hatch scenarios with the potential to catch huge trout on huge dry flies. People come from all over the world to fish the eastern green drake hatch that occurs in early may to late june. There is some thing to be said about catching trout on size 8 dry flies…

Personally I'd take Penns over the San Juan river any day.

 

[salmonoid]

agent229 wrote:
Hi all,

My boyfriend and I are seriously considering moving from New Mexico to Pittsburgh for me to attend grad school. My boyfriend and I enjoy fishing and have especially gotten into fly fishing within the past year. He really wants to move somewhere where he can get off work and drive about an hour and be able to fly fish. We'd be willing to drive up to four hours for weekend camping/fishing trips.

In New Mexico, we don't have that many options for fly fishing, but our favorite (the San Juan river) is pretty amazing. I guess I'm looking for reassurance that there is good fly fishing in PA, and perhaps some close to Pittsburgh. Also, what is the season like? Can you still fly fish during the late fall, winter, or early spring? Any other info is much appreciated!

Thanks so much!

Pennsylvania has high quality trout fisheries. You have some options within an hour of Pittsburgh, although good trout streams in that range are somewhat limited. Within two hours, you can be on the Erie tributaries for steelhead and lake-run brown trout, an artificial but very fun fishery. For your weekend trips, with three to four hours, you are easily within striking distance of the Allegheny National Forest, all the streams around State College, the Cumberland Valley limestoners and lots of stuff in between.

If you are into warm-water fishing on the fly, then you have many more options around Pittsburgh.

I would consider your fishing options line item checked off for Pennsylvania.

 

[DGC]

Risers in PA in mid winter are not impossible to find, but nothing like the SJ. Otherwise, what everyone else has said.

 

[agent229]

Thank you all so much. I'm considering graduate school at Carnegie Mellon, which I just visited and like a lot. I will use this as a reference later if we do end up here and as evidence to convince the boyfriend that he won't just waste away in a city away from all the fish ;-)

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Welcome agent229. I believe that there is enough water North of the "Burg" to keep you busy . I'd get a map of the streams and draw a circle an hour out and give them a try. GG

 

[Fishidiot]

Welcome Agent.
As you can see, we're a friendly crew around here. If you do wind up coming to Pittsburgh, keep hanging out here on Paflyfish and you'll enjoy learning from your new fishing buddies here. We'll take you under our wing and keep you informed. If you haven't already done so, take some time to read thru the thousands of topics posted here and you can really learn a lot about what is happening here in PA with respect to places to fish, issues and controversies, hatches, etc. Enjoy, and good luck with your studies.

 

[dryflyguy]

We've just gone through one of the worst winters that I can remember in quite a while. And I haven't fished for over 4 months. But when I do finally string a rod again - and I plan on doing so shortly - it will be very sweet for sure. And I plan on making up for lost time
That said, we've also had many relatively mild winters lately too. The winter of 2011/2012 was very easy going, and there were opportunities to fish just about that whole year.

As for driving times to fish - the best streams are about 2 - 3 hours away from the burgh. I usually just plan on hitting those places during my 2 days off from work, and staying over a night or two. And I've gotten quite used to making those kind of trips for quality fishing.

And there are some pretty good fishing opportunities closer. There is even a small stream that holds a pretty decent wild trout population 40 minutes from my door.

So yeah - even though I wish it was closer to some limestone streams, pittsburgh is still a nice place to live IMO.

 

[agent229]

dryflyguy wrote:

And there are some pretty good fishing opportunities closer. There is even a small stream that holds a pretty decent wild trout population 40 minutes from my door.

So yeah - even though I wish it was closer to some limestone streams, pittsburgh is still a nice place to live IMO.

Do you mind me asking what neighborhood you live in? I was driven all over the city yesterday and can definitely see that it might take longer to get out from some neighborhoods than others.

Thanks!

 

[djs12354]

Welcome to the jungle.

 

[dryflyguy]

agent229 wrote:

dryflyguy wrote:

And there are some pretty good fishing opportunities closer. There is even a small stream that holds a pretty decent wild trout population 40 minutes from my door.

So yeah - even though I wish it was closer to some limestone streams, pittsburgh is still a nice place to live IMO.

Do you mind me asking what neighborhood you live in? I was driven all over the city yesterday and can definitely see that it might take longer to get out from some neighborhoods than others.

Thanks!

I live in the north hills area - about 5 miles north of "dahntahn" - and just off of route 279. Quite handy for me to bypass traffic whenever I go fishing in any direction.

The south hills part of town is very tough to get around in IMO, without sitting in traffic. I would avoid that area, unless there is someplace there where I really need to go to.

If I were to pick a part of the area to live that is more convenient to get fishing, it would be the north hills - or even better, the eastern area - which is closer to the great limestone streams of central PA

 

[agent229]

Thank you all again for your replies. I know it's been a while, but we are definitely moving to Pittsburgh and hoping to do a couple weeks of exploring and fishing when we get there before school and work start. I will refer to your comments and the maps on this site for ideas on where to go!

I just have kind of a dumb question... I was reading about "opening day" and can't seem to find out what that means exactly. Does that mean you can't fish for trout before that? Or would you not even be able to anyway? Here in NM we can fish year round for trout, in fact some of the better fishing we had in the San Juan was during some biting cold and snow.

 

[gfoledc]

You can fish year around for the most part. Approved Trout Waters (streams that are stocked) close from beginning of March until opening day which is early or middle of April