Air Temp: 65-72 Water Temp: 55-58

We’ve had a few boats on the river since Mother’s Day weekend and covered a solid 20 river miles. First we welcomed Jeff, Mike, Joe and Rick. These men all worked hard over two days landing several trout and smallmouth bass. A mixture of nymph rigs, streamer and a specialty fly appropriately called, “The Aggravator” were successful. However, with flows over 1000cfs out of FEW all weekend, coupled with a few storm fronts, fishing was a challenge at times. Credit these four anglers for their perseverance.

Then we had two boats on the Lehigh on a spectacular Tuesday in early May. Release out of FEW was just under 1000cfs for the first time in over a week, but conditions on the river are stabilizing and the fishing is improving. From morning till about 2pm, trout were feeding well on black buggers and prince nymphs. I had the pleasure of guiding Kevin and he managed to boat 12 trout, including the royal flush - a brook, rainbow, brown and tiger. Kevin kept his flies mostly off the edges, down deep and twitching them at the end of a long swing. Still no surface activity, but with water levels hopefully coming down and air temps rising, we have good reason to believe that will be changing. If there’s any indication of the fish seeming to turn on to bugs, it’s that over half of Kevin’s trout ate the trailing prince nymph.

JW

Well, it’s late January and just about every one of our favorite fly fishing spots is either frozen or too dangerous to wade. Brave the streams if you must, but we suggest taking this opportunity to tie flies, clean your tackle and assess your gadgets and gear for the coming spring. But keep an eye on the forecast, cause you never know when that thermometer is going to enter the comfort zone of the 40s and award you with a winter fishing opportunity. In such cases we recommend fishing buggers, big nymphs and even egg patterns on streams such as the Little Schuylkill, Little Lehigh, Clarks Creek and Pohopoco Creek. Also, dates are filling up fast for our popular April Lehigh Upper Gorge float trips - book now so you have something to dream about through February and March!

We’ve been busy with guide training and our travels over the past week have taken us to the Upper and Middle Delaware, Susquehanna, and Lehigh Rivers. Honestly, nothing has fished stellar. We had a large healthy trout caught by Colin in our guide school while targeting smallies, but in general the smallmouth ahve not turned on in great numbers on the Lehigh yet. We’ll have more exploration this week.

The Susquehanna was sad. I don’t know what else to say. The water is cooking and the bite is early morning and evening and it’s not good. Last year we saw some quality fishing which made us hopeful and we intend to test fish a little further north  but the Harrisburg area is not fishing well.

The Upper D was challenging as always. We were there bedore the short bubble of water was released and I’m pretty sure everybody landed fish. Brian Z. from Maryland had a hog on in the West Branch but it came unbuttoned. I(Tim S.) lost a nice brown aside of the boat. Hatches were BWOs(#14-22), Sulphurs(#14-20), Cahills(#12) and various caddis. Best hookups came from CDC and Unusual BWOs(#14-20), and E.Vitrea dun imitations(Large Amber Sulphur #14).

We’ll have more reports this week. The Tully and the West Branch of the Delaware are fishing well at this time. Not much is fishing consistently for smallmouth, a cool down would help.

Unfortunately the time to check thermometers religiously has come. Besides working on our new raft today, I had some time to check out some local water and monitor quality. It’s not good. The Little Schuylkill should not be targeted for trout at this time below Tamaqua, and care should be taken in the upper stretches.The lower Lehigh should also not be targeted for trout right now. The release from Blue Marsh was 72 degrees tonight, with an evening low temp of 72 degrees, so the Tully is a bust as well, that’s the dam release temp NOT the Waterworks gauge. It’s time to look for cooler water. The temptation to fish for aggressive rising fish can be strong but the reality is these fish are stressed and if you’re going to fish on these streams you might as well take a stringer because even most of the fish that swim away will not survive. Spring Creeks such as the Little Lehigh are a much better choice at this time.

Prospecting New Waters

After fishing the upper Lehigh Gorge solely upriver from the Rockport area, I (Paul K.) decided it was time to check out some new territory.   Once again I parked at Rockport, but this time I headed down river in search of rising fish.   Many excellent looking pools were easily spotted directly from the bike trail and several times I parked my bike and climbed down to the river to take a look.   A few smallish rising fish were spotted and although I was sure that many of these pools held larger fish that were waiting for lower light levels to show themselves, I was set on a larger corner pool that I had seen via Google Earth.   When I arrived at my destination, I was shocked at the extremely low water conditions, but happy to see rising fish.  Five brook trout (each approx 10-11″) and seven brown trout (14-20+”) came to the net from 6:30 to 9PM.  These fish were all caught in an area of the river that is approx 6 miles downstream from Sandy Run (the limit of the PFBC stocking) and approx. 6 miles upstream from Bear Creek (the upstream limit of the 5 Mile Club stocking).   At least 3 of the brown trout were 20″ in length and seemed to be in fine shape even though the water temps have been approaching the 70F mark.   Hopefully next week we will see some much needed rain across the entire watershed as the tributaries are very low.  Without rain or cooler temps, this will most likely be me last report for a while as I would not want to risk the health of any of these wild or holdover fish.

Paul’s Report

In fear of the upcoming forecasted hot weather and the soon to be depleted coldwater pool at FEW, Jay and I decided to load up our bikes and head to Rockport for some evening wading.   Air and water temps were a cool 62F.   Headed upriver from the parking area to check out a few normally productive pools.   The first pool was fairly quiet but a nice thick rainbow (15″) came to the net and a larger brown was lost, both on an olive sparkle dun.   The “ski patrol” pulled up stakes and moved downriver in search of targets.  The second pool proved to be much more active as bright yellow stoneflies and large sulphurs were sporadically present.  Jay continued a 3 day slump, missing and losing (more of those notorious hook spitters) numerous smaller fish in the rapids, all the while intentionally ignoring the larger rising fish in an effort to build up some “lunker karma”.   I can only hope that I am present when Jay decides to cash in his karma as I expect it’s gonna take a “true hog” and photos will be essential.  Paul was much greedier and wasted no time in pursuing the larger rising fish.  Numerous brooks, rainbows and browns in the 8-16″ range came to the net via traditional size 12 Light Cahill dry flies.   At about 8:30 PM some truly large fish began rising and one true lunker brown (20″+) (pic to follow later) was brought to the net and one other lunker was broken off.  Mysterious noise (snapping of branches, etc.) kept both anglers on high alert for ”old blackie”, but no bear sightings were reported.   An uneventful bike ride back to Rockport in the dark capped off a successful evening of fishing.  Although sometimes challenging to get to the river from the bike trail, stealthy anglers are usually rewarded with a few healthy fish from each likely looking location.  At each pool, prior to casting, take a minute or two to observe the suds lines in search of rising fish and move cautiously towards them making minimal wake as these fish can be a bit spooky in the low water conditions.  My advise would be to take advantage of these favorable water temps in the upper gorge while they last and make sure to bring your camera as mnik, beavers, deer, and bear have been showing themselves on a regular basis.

Water temp 66-68 degrees. It was overcast and drizzly but the hatches are being driven by water temps and not light levels right now so the hatch didn’t begin any sooner today. After we saw moderate rise activity, we decided to prospect with dries. It paid off very quickly with Ray nabbing a nice brown with a small BWO. We had seen the fish finning from some distance upriver and it got a little quiet as we approached but then showed itself and gobbled the olive up quickly. We had sporadic rises from Palmerton to Walnutport and then at dark we had steady risers and Paul and Ray caught a few more nice browns, these fish taking big sulphur parachutes. All of the fish were nice and healthy and put up a strong fight. The drop in air temps is helping a lot but the water is very low and it won’t take too many hot days to put a hurtin’ on these fish.

Paul’s Report

In search of cold water, the elder statesman of the “Ski Patrol” headed north to Rockport for an eveing of fishing.  Weather conditions were cool (60F) with intermittent showers.   Water temp 60F.

Once again the Lehigh did not disappoint as the olives were on.   Targets were plentiful and obviously easy to reach with only a 200 CFS release from FEW.   Although the olives were small (sz 16-18), I was able to fool numerous fish with a sz 14 olie cdc.   Brown, rainbow and tiger trout were caught from 6 to 20+ inches.   This is the first time that I ever caught a big thick rainbow or tiger trout this far up into the Gorge.   The tiger trout may have been stocked by the “Five Mile Club”; however I believe that they only stock as far upstream as Bear Creek.  This fish would have had to migrate upstream approx. 10 miles to where it was caught.   Several browns in the 5-7 inch range were caught but did not exhibit any fin clips, therefore leading me to believe that they were wild.  I also had a visitor (see pic) check me out from approx. 30 yards downstream.  This large black bear didn’t seem to mind my presence and simply swam to the other side, shook off like my lab, and proceeded up the bank.   The rising fish were oblivious to the bear as they rose within 10 feet as the bear swam the river.   What a great night on the river; come on fellow “ski patrollers”, get your bikes fixed!!

Tim’s Report

I had Chris and Brent out for a float this evening. Water temp was 67. Olives and Sulphurs continue to hatch but we continue to catch fish with Slate Drake duns more than any other fly. Nymphing has been so-so, nymphs are fooling more smallmouth than trout. The best dry fly action has been in the faster runs and heads of pools but solid fishing to BWO hatches can be had in the slowest pools for skilled casters. Swinging wet flies continues to take fish from time to time, Streamer fishing is brining the smallmouth out but not many trout. The water is dropping hard, if we don’t get another dose of rain the lower river will be over 70 degrees in a few days, it’s been rising 1-2 degrees a day as it drops. Once the temps rise over 70 anglers should move upriver and find colder water in the Gorge or elsewhere. Targeting trout in fast water may be productive this time of year but in warmer water it is very irresponsible.

The water temps are holding up around 66 degrees but the flow is dropping again. Fishing has been tough, but we’re still catching healthy trout. Fish are packed into faster moving water but so are fishermen so finding some real estate has been the most difficult part of fishing lately. Large Sulphurs(Epeorus Vitrea - #14 Amber/Olive Dun Wing) continue to hatch in large numbers as well as large Olives and the occasional Slate Drake. Nymphing has turned up some fish in the faster water which is where Vitreas are most active. Smallmouth are becoming more active, especially in slower pools. Parachute Adams flies have continued to fool rising trout daily despite the hatches.

Though all of the Ski Patrol were present on the Lehigh tonight, I(Tim S) didn’t manage to meet up with the other guys. I’m sure they’ll have a report. I was fishing between Bowmanstown and Palmerton and the fishing was good. Water temp was about 60, pretty much the same as the air temp. I got down to the river at about 5:30pm and had to look for some risers with the rain falling but I found them. After the first five creek chubs I was inclined to move elsewhere but I knew there were  some trout lurking. I landed a smaller brown and then a small bow(likely a clipped fish from 2009) before I saw a nice brown porpoise. I tossed my BWO at the fish about a dozen times before I hooked up and landed it. It was a long fight as were they all, these trout are still plenty strong and showing no signs of thermal stress from the low water and warm weather last week. I got smoked by a few more big fish before landing another big brown around 8pm on a sulphur. BWOs and Sulphurs were hatching in good numbers with a few Slate Drakes, I could only seem to entice chubs with Slate Drake patterns. Anglers should also note that many times if the fly was allowed to drag and swing for extended periods of time a chub or smallie was on it quick so if you don’t want your dries, especially CDC patterns, getting slimed up by these guys get your fly off the water when your drift is finished.