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Home › Waters › Delaware › Brandywine Creek
Creek · Northern Delaware · Delaware

Brandywine Creek Fishing Guides

Delaware's signature stream, running out of the Pennsylvania piedmont through Brandywine Creek State Park and Wilmington, with smallmouth in the ledges and shad in spring.

A small waterfall stepping through mossy boulders in an eastern hardwood forest
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Brandywine Creek

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About the Brandywine Creek

The Brandywine is the water Delaware built itself around. It comes out of the Pennsylvania piedmont, crosses the state line north of Wilmington, and drops through a series of rocky ledges and old mill dams to the Christina River and the Delaware. The corridor through Brandywine Creek State Park and Alapocas Run is wooded and surprisingly wild considering it sits inside a metropolitan area, and the whole stream is walk-and-wade or small-boat water.

Smallmouth bass are the mainstay, holding on the ledges and in the pocket water below every riffle, with largemouth in the slower pools and bream everywhere. Delaware stocks trout in the Wilmington-area sections in spring, which creates a short, popular put-and-take season. American shad run up from the Delaware in spring, a fishery that has improved as dam removals have opened the lower creek, and it is worth timing a trip around.

The Wilmington gauge reads near the mouth and reflects the whole watershed. Moderate readings in the low hundreds of cfs give clear, wadeable water over the ledges; the creek is flashy, and a summer thunderstorm in Chester County can put a thousand cfs of brown water through Wilmington a few hours later. It clears within a day or two, and low late-summer flows make for easy wading and spooky fish.

Wilmington is right there, with Chadds Ford and the Brandywine Valley museums just over the Pennsylvania line. This is an after-work fishery for a lot of people and a good introduction to moving water for anyone new to it.

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Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

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We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Brandywine Creek cfs

Now: 268 cfs, read 3:30 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 01481500, BRANDYWINE CREEK AT WILMINGTON, DE).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Brandywine Creek State Park: the main public access, trails and creek frontage.
Thompsons Bridge and Rockland: upper access points near the state line.
Alapocas Run State Park: wooded access with rock ledges and pools.
Brandywine Park, Wilmington: city park access near the gauge, including the spring trout water.
Josephine Gardens and the Market Street area: lower creek access in the city.
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania: upstream access a few minutes over the line.
Most of the creek is wade fishing from park trailheads.

Seasons

March through May: shad in the lower creek, stocked trout in the city reaches, high spring flows.
June through August: smallmouth on topwater, low clear water, easy wading.
September and October: the best smallmouth fishing of the year as temperatures drop.
November through February: quiet, cold and fishable between storms.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Brandywine Creek?

As of Oct 19, 3:30 am, the USGS gauge BRANDYWINE CREEK AT WILMINGTON, DE reads 268 cfs, the 63rd percentile for this date. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Brandywine Creek?

Anglers target American Shad, Bluegill, Brown Trout, Largemouth Bass, Rainbow Trout, Redbreast Sunfish, Smallmouth Bass on the Brandywine Creek in Delaware.

Where can you access the Brandywine Creek?

Brandywine Creek State Park: the main public access, trails and creek frontage. Thompsons Bridge and Rockland: upper access points near the state line. Alapocas Run State Park: wooded access with rock ledges and pools. Brandywine Park, Wilmington: city park access near the gauge, including the spring trout water. Josephine Gardens and the Market Street area: lower creek access in the city. Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania: upstream access a few minutes over the line. Most of the creek is wade fishing from park trailheads.

When is the best time to fish the Brandywine Creek?

March through May: shad in the lower creek, stocked trout in the city reaches, high spring flows. June through August: smallmouth on topwater, low clear water, easy wading. September and October: the best smallmouth fishing of the year as temperatures drop. November through February: quiet, cold and fishable between storms.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Brandywine Creek?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Delaware agency site: https://dnrec.delaware.gov/fish-wildlife/fishing/regulations/