Best places in PA to "get my feet wet" fly fishing

[dwstout]

I fished 4 times 7-8 years ago when I lived in the Adirondacks, so I'm a beginner. 74 years old and looking for the best places for me to start out.
I live in Philadelphia so east and central PA are an easy day's drive.
Born and raised in Carbon County, I'm curious about the Lehigh downstream of the dam where bank and wade fishing are possible, e.g. Packerton Yards, Lehighton...
BTW: There was no dam when I lived in the area.

Catching "big" fish isn't my goal ... just looking to get outside more and staying active.

Looking froward to hearing what others have to say.

Be well,
Darryl Stout

 

[FollowTheBlueLines]

Welcome, Darryl!

I'm in the same corner of the state. While the Lehigh is technically wadeable below the dam, it's probably some of the toughest wading you will find in the state. The river is lined from bank to bank with greased bowling ball rocks, and is very pushy, even in lower flows. The other thing with that river is that you'll have to check the dam release schedule, as it can go from tough-to-wade to outright deadly/unwadeable when there is a release.

I'd recommend checking out some of the Class A streams in the Lehigh Valley area to get your feet wet. This map is a great starting point.

Experience

experience.arcgis.com

 

[Bamboozle]

I'd make life easy...

Just hop in the car and hit the FFO sections on Ridley Creek & French Creek. Both are very close to Philly and probably are still fishing OK.

 

[Kms]

There’s also Skippack Creek in Evansburg state park. This may help (viewable on mobile devices, but better viewed on a desktop):

Map Viewer

 

[gfenlikestolosepasswords]

Further up the road is the Little Lehigh which has lots of wide open spaces along the bank, especially through the old Heritage section by the hatchery (which was no wading for a long, long time).