Trout streams of PA by Landis- good maps and some tips. Highly recommend.
Keystone Fly Fishing Guide- newer book by several experienced regional fly guys. One of my buddies is in the book. Nice pictures and adds a few streams not in other books.
Trout streams and hatches of Pennsylvania by Meck- several guys dont like his style which is fun for me to read their reactions. He puts ratings on streams he has been to once but does try to solicit local knowledge. He has visited several lesser streams that I eventually checked out.
Limestone streams of PA by Armstrong. It’s okay.
Fly fishers guide to Pennsylvania by Wolf. Little dated but has good warm water spots.
If you want to get granular to specific streams-
If your focus is the Delaware-
Fly-fishing Guide to the Upper Delaware River by Weimer. Lotsa good maps and info.
Dan Shields has books specific to Spring Creek and Penns Creek with nice color photos.
IMO if your a fly fisher in Pennsylvania, you will want to own these books along with a Gazetter. All of the books have a few streams mentioned that the others don’t. It not as much of a revelation nowadays with the advent of the internet.
The best deal is to fish streams with someone who has before. For me, I like to explore so driving hours in the car is something I am used too. It’s like mini adventures.
I can come up with a list of streams I still want to fish every year.
Muncy, Loyalsock, Lycoming, Pleasant Stream, Oswaygo, Lackawanna
If you dont want to own the books- use the libraries. In Allegheny Co (Pittsburgh) all the libraries are connected and you have access to hundreds of fishing books for PA and all over the world for free delivered to you local library.
My additional thoughts- Southwestern PA is poorly represented in all of these books. Yes, I know the area is the dearth of PA flyfishing but there could be 20 more streams in the Laurel Highlands added to these books. In my lifetime (49 years) the Laurel Highlands is an area that has only gotten better over this time.
