Anglers have been dropping flies on Pennsylvania waters since the 1600s, and some of the sport's most iconic writers have documented how, when and where to catch trout on the state's streams. Surely everything worth writing about Pennsylvania trout fishing already has been written. Hasn't it?
That's what Tom Gilmore thought.
"My first two books were about fly fishing for saltwater species. I really thought everything had been written about trout fishing in inland waters and there was nothing to add," he said.
Until he referenced a popular trout fishing guidebook that was so outdated it couldn't even guide him to the water.
"This is why people don't go fishing in (unfamiliar) streams _ they don't know where to go. I thought, I'm going to write about how to find it, what's there and how to catch it," Gilmore said.
An accomplished outdoors writer, his new book, "Flyfisher's Guide to Pennsylvania" (Wilderness Adventures Flyfishing Guides, 2016) debuts this week.
A former vice president and general manager of the Philadelphia Zoological Society and retired president and CEO of the New Jersey Audubon Society, Gilmore has authored four previous books on fly fishing.
A painstaking researcher, he tested flies on more than 250 Pennsylvania trout streams, finally winnowing the new book down to 160 creeks, hundreds of public access points, hatching schedules and 177 photographs.
"We are so blessed in Pennsylvania. We have 10,000 miles of trout-producing waters _ more than Alaska," he said. "There are almost 60 miles of Class A waters right around State College."
Surely a book titled "Flyfisher's Guide to Pennsylvania" visits Spring Creek, Penns Creek, Brodhead Creek, Letort Spring Run and more of the state's world-class trout fisheries. But Gilmore's research included a week last fall, with Tom Doman of Penns Creek Guides, exploring the trout streams of the Laurel Highlands.
"We got to (the Catch-And-Release Fly-Fishing Only upper end of) Dunbar Creek shortly after the fall stocking and every single pool near the end of the parking lot had a bucket of fish in it," he said. "The stream improvement work was in good shape (courtesy of Chestnut Ridge TU and the state Fish and Boat Commission). It was a beautiful fall day and we were the only ones there. I couldn't believe it."
Still recovering from recent back surgery, Gilmore started following Meadow Run Trail from Dinner Bell Road down, down, down to Meadow Run, but stopped short and turned back before he reached the creek.
"That was a bit much," he said. "So we fished Meadow Run farther upstream in the park."
Gilmore said he was pleased to find and catch wild trout in the Catch-And-Release Fly-Fishing Only stretch of Clear Shade Creek. He stopped at the Loyalhanna, but didn't fish because the water was still above 70 degrees.
"I was pleasantly surprised by the fishing, the scenery. I didn't appreciate how mountainous the Laurel Highlands are," he said. "Because of the height, even the freestone streams are cooler."
In a story he calls "Lost," Gilmore describes the time he and Doman got lost in the woods overnight in the mountains of north-central Pennsylvania.
"We got to the top of the mountain where our car was and it wasn't there," he said. "Wrong mountain. So we followed a stream downstream knowing it would take us to a road and eventually a town. At 1:30 in the morning, we came out at a forestry station and explained our situation to the ranger, but he wouldn't give us ride back to our car, wouldn't even give us anything to eat. He pointed the direction of a bar and we got there just before they closed. We hadn't eaten in 36 hours. They were very nice. They fed us and rode us back to our car."
Elsewhere in the state, Gilmore said he was excited about fishing some of the Class A wild trout streams in Allegheny National Forest, but was frustrated when thunderstorms washed mud from poorly designed extraction-industry roads into the creeks. The book follows the Little Juniata from its long-polluted history through the landmark navigable-water legal decision that opened public access.
"This book took a while," he said. "I put 15,000 miles on my car doing it."
"Flyfisher's Guide to Pennsylvania" follows Gilmore's previous fly fishing books, "False Albacore," "Tuna on the Fly," "Flyfisher's Guide to the Big Apple" and "Flyfisher's Guide to Eastern Trophy Tailwaters."
