A drive to Toronto and the promise of warmer weather led me back to Potter County at the end of March. It became my first brook trout trip of 2025 after a long and cold winter in Western New York. I decided to explore a familiar watershed along with a few tributaries I had never fished. Pennsylvania Elk As I approached the state game land road that leads to the stream, I noticed a strange animal grazing in a field beside the main river. At first, I thought it was the biggest

The famous Salmon River. In November, I started my first engagement as a consultant. This meant lots of time traveling to the client site in Toronto and unexpected exposure to fishing opportunities I normally wouldn’t be able to explore. I would drive to my grandparents’ house in Lockport, NY, and commute to Toronto every Monday, often spending several weeks in Western New York before heading home to Philadelphia. My grandparents were living in Florida for the winter, leaving

When most people think of fly fishing in Baltimore, they think of the Gunpowder River in northern Baltimore County. The wild trout population in the Gunpowder is strong and the cold water temperature allows for year-round fishing. I grew up fishing on the Gunpowder and it was where I learned to fly fish. I can remember catching my first brown trout near Masemore Road. I have many fond memories of the Gunpowder and feel a special connection to the river. Unfortunately, I have

As the temperatures get hotter, many of the tributaries transition from trout waters to smallmouth habitat. To give the trout a rest, I have started smallmouth fishing a lot more this summer. This series, Summer Smallies, will highlight techniques and fisheries, detailing the different opportunities that anglers have to target smallmouth. These stories will range from fishing small creeks to major rivers, after work wade trips to day long drifts. The summer can be one of the

I recently took a trip to Potter County, Pennsylvania in hopes of finding some wild brook trout. I ran into a local on a stream and he gave me some advice, “If there’s water, there’s trout”. Using his advice, I decided to fish a stream that ran right next to my campsite. There was no listing for the stream on the class A wild trout stream list provided by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. The stream followed along a main road through a stretch of forest and meadowlan

The Savage River State Forest in Western Maryland is home to some of the best trout fishing in the state. The section of the river below the dam is nationally known as an incredible trout fishery. Additionally, the small tributaries that flow into the river and the reservoir offer some great native brook trout fishing. These streams are well protected with zero creel rules and artificial lure regulations in place. The goal of the trip was to revisit these streams where I had

I left my hotel in Chicago tired but excited for the four-hour drive ahead of me. Soon I would be casting a dry in a small Driftless stream, a goal of mine ever since I had heard of the place. The Driftless Region is a region that includes the portions of Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois that border the Mississippi River. The region is a result of a lack of glaciation, making much of the land flat. Streams in the region are in the flat sections of small valleys, creat

The journey began traveling south from Renovo, PA, a small town located deep in the heart of Sproul State Forest. The concrete road south of the town slowly turned to gravel, marking the entrance into the park. I looked down at my GPS which informed me that I still had 10 miles to go. Only a few miles into the forest, the gravel disappeared, and I was left with a dirt path that was ambitiously classified as road. The Susquehanna River paralleled the roadway, providing a nice