🎣 Go fish | Outdoorsy Newsletter

Steely Dan is fishing for your answer: “Are you reelin’ in the years?”

How about some major catch? In the spirit of National Go Fishing Day (June 18), I’ll hook you up with a list of the best places to fish around Philly. Plus, Jason Nark introduces you to a mystic in the sport of fly fishing who has taught thousands, describes the activity as “an art form,” and once stalked a brown trout for three whole years before he made the record catch.

This edition is full of fishy material. But don’t get it tangled — they don’t stink. Not one bit. Load up a tackle box and let’s get to it.

☁️ Your weekend weather outlook: Friday might be soggy at times, but the rain should usher in better conditions on Saturday and Sunday. It also looks like a heatwave is on the way.

📮 Are you a new or experienced angler? Got any tips or favorite spots? Email me back for a chance to be featured in this newsletter.

— Paola Pérez (outdoorsy@inquirer.com)

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Whether you’re in it for table fare or you simply enjoy the thrill of sportsfishing, there’s a site waiting for you in our area.

The Schuylkill River alone is home to over 40 fish species — anglers can find perch, sunfish, common carp, bass, catfish, and more along the banks — but there are various other creeks, piers, and parks worth checking out. Before you go, you should know:

🪝 In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, anglers over the age of 16 must have a valid fishing license.

🪝 Not all fish is safe for consumption. Some waterways are contaminated with chemicals that could result in various health problems.

🪝 Look out for signs with posted “Do Not Eat” advisories.

It’s all in our guide, including a handy key with specific limitations at each location. Get the full list of notable fishing spots in the Philadelphia region.

🎤 Now we’re passing the microphone to Jason Nark. You’ll always find his work here.

A few weeks downstream from his 90th birthday, Joe Humphreys still dreams of future trout, the muscled browns he lost during the fight, and those rare, wily titans he couldn’t conjure up from the cold eddies of Pennsylvania’s legendary streams.

Humphreys, a mystic in the sport of fly fishing, dreams of his first brown trout, too. He was 6 years old, wading through Centre County’s Spring Creek, a waterway that “runs through his soul.”

“It was eight inches long, and to me, it was one of the most beautiful things I ever saw. And my mother made a sandwich out of it for me, and that was the best sandwich I ever ate,” he said Monday night, a smile beaming across his face from the decades-old memory.

Wearing a black turtleneck and an autumnal tweed blazer instead of his traditional rubber waders, he was sitting in a cafe inside the Uptown! Knauer Performing Arts Center in downtown West Chester. Outside, snow was falling, but the room was packed. Some had driven hours to see him, and many clutched a thick, yellow book as if it were a bible: Joe Humphreys’s Trout Tactics: Updated & Expanded.

“Oh my God, wait till my husband sees I’m sitting next to him,” one woman exclaimed. — Jason Nark

Jason was there in 2019 when the legend himself was in town for a screening of the documentary, Live the Stream: The Story of Joe Humphreys. Go deeper into the lifelong passion that landed this fly fishing aficionado in the Hall of Fame.

Major bragging rights are due for one Berks County teen.

Christopher Barrett, 19, caught a two-pound, one-ounce white perch during a fishing trip with his father in the Delaware River back. It might not seem like much, but it’s a record for Pennsylvania, recently verified by the state Fish and Boat Commission. It beat the old record by 5 ounces.

“We usually keep a few perch to eat, and when I went to put that one in the cooler, we both said that’s got to be the biggest white perch we’ve ever seen,” Barrett said in a PFBC news release.

See how Barrett reeled in the attention-getting perch.

Courtesy of a beautiful, breezy day at the Willow Creek Winery in Cape May.

I was recently recovering from a stubborn spring cold. Frustrated, I brewed what I hoped was my last eucalyptus mint tea to soothe my throat. But I couldn’t help but smile when the teabag I pulled gave me this Emily Dickinson quote: “How strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!” May we never forget it.

Until next week, Outdoorsy folks.

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