Wild brookie streams near Philly?

C

Clams

Active member
Joined
Feb 28, 2012
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211
Location
Ardmore, PA
Hi, guys, I'm a beginner fly fishermen and I was wondering if anyone could recommend any wild brook trout streams within an hour or 2 (or closer) to Philadelphia. I know that there are a lot of streams up north towards Allentown, but its tough to figure out which ones are accessible, etc. I've done all of my fishing for browns and rainbows so far and I'd like to try and catch some brookies, especially since I just did a research project on PA brook trout for school.

Thanks for any info!
- Mason
 
anyone ever fished northkill creek in berks county?
 
^ You're on the right track.
 
Yes.
 
Segloch Rn in SGL, Lancaster Co.; Hammer Ck in the stocked section above RT 322, Lancaster Co; Furnace Ck, Berks Co above Robesonia where the reservoir property has been open to walk in fishing for years ( but we have not checked that for at least three years so pay attention to any newer signage that might be contrary to my observation regarding access ), Northkill Ck, Berks Co in SGL above Shartlesville; Sixpenny Ck, Berks Co in French Ck State Park. There is also a wild Brook Trout stream on private land in Conshohocken, but the fish are too few to make fishing worthwhile. The population is barely hanging on. It is just nice to know that they are there, especially given the location and the fact that a transfer of fish from another wild Brook Trout stream about a decade ago started this reproducing population.
 
Thanks for the info, mike. I went up to northkill today and caught a few brookies, but nothing in the stream seemed to be more than 4 inches long. I'll be keeping an eye out for something a little closed to home
 
Big flies catch big fish.
 
Clams,
In the northkill most brookies are small, it is very infertile.
I did however catch an 8" one out of there just 2 weeks or so ago.
What are your expectations?
If you are looking for large brook trout, you are going to have to go to big spring or get creative a do a ton of footwork and research. They are out there just not in good numbers.
 
Clams wrote:
I went up to northkill today and caught a few brookies, but nothing in the stream seemed to be more than 4 inches long.
Click to expand...

SEPA is not a haven for wild brookies. They're there, but if you're really hankering to chase mountain brookies, look further west and north where there are higher elevations and bigger forests.

Even in prime brookie areas, 4" is a typical fish. I consider an 8" fish to be large on a mountain stream. Many days when I've caught dozens of wild brookies, the average size is about 4" and no fish even reach the 8" mark on my rod.

Have realistic expectations for what you can expect to catch when brookie fishing.
 
Have realistic expectations for what you can expect to catch when brookie fishing.
Click to expand...

Good advice here. When the rare 10-15" fish is caught it makes it that much better
 
salvelinusfontinalis wrote:
Good advice here. When the rare 10-15" fish is caught it makes it that much better
Click to expand...

Until you post a pic of it round here and us "experts" tell you it was stocked. :p

Here's my experience from a lot of PA Brookie fishing, in terms of setting a realistic expectation. This is on your typical small PA freestoner...Big Spring and a few other limestoners or lake run scenarios are different.

10” or > - Maybe one fish every other year is about my average. This is a special fish.
8-9" – On good streams, with appropriate habitat, this is a once per outing type fish give or take, and what most Brookies max out at size wise in small PA freestoners. It’s hard to get one bigger than this and a rare bird when you do. Some smaller, infertile streams will be incapable of producing a fish even this size though.
6-7” – These are good, typical adult size fish in most streams. Several per outing is reasonable to expect.
4-5” – This will dominate your catch on most streams, and makes up the majority of the “catchable” fish population.
 
In all my years and mileage fishing for brook trout, I have never really tried to break it down like that. I think that is highly accurate. I like it!
On one brookie stream I hit the 100 fish mark and not a single one was bigger than 6". Didn't care it was beautiful.
There are exceptions but they are pretty rare.
 
http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/oo39/jessedavis47/CC83AFD2-F7EE-445F-A0B3-6A1D631EC5C2_zpsxtvtayhs.png


There's a brookie over 8 inches in SEPA
 
I've noticed you have to fish in early spring and fall for the big ones. In the summer it's much harder
 
Vegetation is suggestive of the Sixpenny area.

Nine inch and longer Brook Trout represent about 1.5 percent of the wild ST in Pa.
 
I wouldn't fish six penny in the summer. It gets super low and the bushes and trees around it make it almost impossible to fish even if you did!
 
I have heard of Browns in the lower section of six penny but don't know any access points or where it's not posted
 
Lower Sixpenny supports both Brook and Brown populations.
 
I've caught several wild brook trout in the 10-11" range in SE PA. But the streams are small and on private property. Some of them probably do not hold more than one or two dozen fish over 6" in over a mile of stream length. But where the overhead cover and depth is there, the fish are there. Fun to explore growing up when I lived 15 minutes away from them, but I wouldn't drive far for it. From the Philly area, Berks Co probably is the closest place where you can find worthwhile brook trout fishing.
 
Its a tough time to be a wild trout in these creeks.
 
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