Five Tips for Fly Fishing the Brodhead Creek in the Summer

I recently sent an email out to a reader who had requested information about summer fishing on the Brodhead. Once I read the email, I realized I had a nice post embedded in it. So here you go, five tips to catching trout in one of the Poconos most well-known trout streams during the summertime.

1. Fish the northern most limit of the public waters. This area can be found in Analomink. It's relatively easy to get to. If you're coming from Jersey, you'll go through the Delaware Water Gap. Take the Marshalls Creek exit, (309) and make an immediate left onto PA 447. Continue to follow signs for 447, as the road turns a few times, and you'll be in Analomink 10 minutes after getting off Interstate 80. Or just Google Maps it. A bit of local knowledge: you can park in the bar parking lot (next to Rose's deli), by where Cherry Road meets 447. You can walk behind the bar and you'll notice that the river is narrower, faster, and more braided. This spot isn't fished as hard, possesses some wild trout, and likely holds some leftover stocked fish from the spring.

2. Use bead-headed nymphs and keep them all the way on the river bottom. You'll hit rocks, but you'll also hit some fish.

3. Stonefly, stonefly, stonefly. Pick up some bead-head stonefly nypmhs and float them in the fastest water you can find. At the end of a dead drift, swing the stonefly back and forth through the current before starting a new cast. This allows fish an extra chance to take the fly in fast water.

4. Forget dry flies. As some of you may have noticed, there hasn't been much insect activity at the Brodhead lately; therefore, you might as well forego dries unless you see something hatching.

5. Terrestrials. Most people forget about these. Trout in the Poconos go crazy for ants, inch-worms, crickets, beetles, and other terrestrials in the summer time. These types of patterns work really well in slower, flat stretches of the river. They are also deadly if you can actually see the trout. If you spot a fish, try floating an inch worm to it, and then gently pull the fly back and forth in front of its face. Chances are, the trout will nail the imitation.