Fished a couple of my proven spots in the Gorge last evening. I(Paul K) was quite surprised as the water temp on my thermometer was 64 degrees. Rode my bike upstream from Rockport and the first thing that I noticed was how much water was flowing over the waterfall upstream from the parking lot. Normally at this time of year it is only a trickle. Also noticed other locations where I could hear water rushing down the walls of the Gorge.

Parked my bike and walked down to the first pool that I intended to fish. While putting my rod together and getting rigged up I saw three different fish rise. There was a fair amount of small dark colored mayflies and also some small yellow stoneflies. Caught 2 rainbows about 12 inches at my first stop (both jumped out of the water several times), lost one other trout, and had two other fish eat my fly that I missed. Both rainbows splashed water on me when I released them; seemed to be in excellent condition.

Went to another spot and saw 3-4 fish rising. Caught one 18 inch brown that had perfect huge fins and was in excellent shape. All trout were caught on a size 12 march brown parachute with yellow post.

Also saw one black bear walking up the RR tracks on the east side of the river and two beavers that were working on their house that was built into the bank on river left.

I thought that the water level and the temps and overall conditions were excellent for this time of year; best I have seen in the five years that I have been regularly fishing this section of the river. I saw on the LRSA page that temps were as low as 65 degrees at Jim Thorpe on Monday 8/24/09. I can only imagine how cold the temps would be in the Gorge if we had the tower modifications at FEW.