June 2006 Report

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We thank you for your support!!!

We have revised our Package Trip schedule for '06. You can click-thru on the link above or below for more information. And don't forget - if you have any questions - feel free to ask.

Be sure to mark your calendar for these FFPA '06 trips:
Penns Creek - Sep 30-Oct 1
New Jersey Saltwater - Nov 11-12

Of course we always have our Business Person's Specials and Evening Floats on the Lehigh


June 26, Penns Report

Fished Penns Saturday eve. Quite a bit of surface activity from about 7 to 8pm You ask..."what on?" Who knows!! No clue! But managed to fool a bunch on a sulphur, even though not many sulphurs were observed. Could have been olive spinners, but rises were more splashy like, indicating an emerger. Very few caddis and no Isos. Actually the most plentiful bug was a large stone. They were all over the place! No wonder these fish are so fat.


Eating well?

There was also a few minutes spent hi-sticking the pocket water. A tandem right of a heavy variegated stone and caddis pupa trailer produced one fish to net, and a few others moved. Water color was really nice...peeps might call it dirty, but I'd call it perfect! At 6pm the water temp was in the mid-60s above Cherry Run in the Catch and Release stretch. As long as water temps hold up, Penns should fish well this coming week.

Going forward the brookie streams in the Lehigh drainage should fish really well into the foreseeable future - levels and temps should be in great shape. With the holiday weekend approaching, maybe some natural AC is calling. Get out and explore - I am sure the brookies will not turn down an offering.


June 24, Lehigh and Update...and ramblings...

Just the other day we were out on the Lehigh doing an evening drift - Lehighton to Bowmanstown area. Water was nipping at 70 when we launched at about 5:30pm.... and cooled rather quickly as the sun went behind the ridges. Fish were pretty active on top for most of the ride. Quite a few sulphurs are still hatching and the Isos are beginning to make their presence known. With this heat the water is getting warm in the pm. We will see what Mother Nature brings us this weekend, as we have a couple of floats in the near future...water temps will dictate if we splash.


Take a look to the left...GREEN means lots of rain. Flood and Flash Flood Watches for us Eastern PA folks. Supposedly it is on the way?! It will be interesting to see how the coldwater holds up in FEW as we move thru the weekend. As of now (June 24) the release temp is about 61-62F. The release is to bump up to 750cfs for the whitewater event this weekend. Two days at 750cfs. A release of this type with the current temp structure through the water column at FEW could very well suck all the colder (<65F) water down and out the bottom. Then there is also the wild card of what Mother Nature brings to the watershed. Something tells me the whitewater freaks will be all wet, but the coldwater will be gone!! This is why there needs to be a coldwater modeling study done at FEW, including, taking a look at modifications to the antiqueted dam tower. Learn more at the Lehigh Coldwater Fishery Alliance.

Also on the schedule this weekend is a trip to Pleasant Gap, for the PA TU Fisheries Committee Meeting discussion on the current Walleye and Muskie fry/fingerling stocking, taking place on the Lehigh. For quite a while these critters have been planted in some prime trout habitat!! Our hope is that a stop can be put to this practice with TU's help. We are all partners in this effort to create a truely classic tailwater trout fishery. It really does seem kind of counter-productive.

Post meeting the plan is to hit Penns. Conditions will dictate, but seriously, bring on rising water!


June 19, Lehigh Report

Water temps are starting to nip the 70F mark in the late afternoon down below the gorge. We really need some rain to boost the flows and cover the rocks...so that they do not bake as much. Right now the release from the dam is about 250cfs, which does not fill the river, thus exposes a lot of rocks. With these lo-flows the dry fly fishing has been fantastic. Every single section of transition water from riff to pool is loaded with rising. They are definitely starting to get a bit skittish, but still eating very well. And all these rising fish do not seem to be detered at all by the rubber hatch which is quite plentiful this time of year. To avoid them, just hit the water post-5pm.

Right now we still have trips scheduled throughout the week....but we will be monitoring day to day to see if all is fishable.


Another nice rainbow picked up by one of clients last week.

June 17, Lehigh Report

The Lehigh continues to fish pretty damn good. Targets have been there each outing. Some days they begin looking up earlier in the day than others - with the weather and cloud cover dictating what to expect. Just the other day we had a really nice olive hatch begin around 7:15pm or so, but the winds really did a number of the duns - they did not spend much time on the water. Soon there after the sulphurs began to pop. The fish were pretty opportunistic and a well-presented light colored fly did the trick.

As long as water temps continue to hold on the Lehigh, down thru the gorge, we will continue work over the water. As of now water temps are leaving the dam at about 59-60F - which is about two degrees Celsius below the long-term average. Here is a link to the Francis E Walter release temp. This is a direct result of additional storage at Francis E Walter.

If you decide to hit the water - look for olives, sulphurs, isos, and caddis.


Fabio with a hefty Lehigh rainbow.
This fish was picked up on a size #12 sulphur.

June 13, Penns Creek Report

This past weekend we hosted Becky and John, from western PA, on our annual June Penns Trip. The two of them recently decided to take up fly fishing. And they were not kidding - as the waders literally came right out of the box! In the end...something tells me they are probably hooked!

Both days started early. The idea was to get on the water early, prior to the hi-sun and do some nympying in the runs, riffs and pocket water...then rest a bit during the day, then hit it again for the evening rise.

Saturday started tough with the fish not really being all that responsive. Some fish were moved here and there, but nothing came to net. Along the way - casting, entomology, reading the water, and fly selection were all covered, along with much morel, in one of the greatest classrooms available anywhere. The evening featured some really nice dry fly action. Once the sun went down over the hill...the air and water came alive with bugs. Sulphurs (some huge!), cahills, caddis, olives, a few adult stones, olives spinners, march brown spinners and some coffins were about. John fooled a handful on caddis and sulpurs.

On Sunday the first pool we came arcross had a bunch of fish feeding on the leftover smorgasbord of bugs. John stuck a nice fish on a stone dry (pretty cool stuff!)...and Becky stuck and missed a few with a sulphur. After the action died out, hi-stick nymphing the pocket water, was the focus. Both were dialed-in and pretty much banged fish the entire way up thru the riff. All this occurred in the high sun as well! No easy feat! Caddis pupa was the fly of course. Becky hooked one that ran her upstream thru the pocket water. This is a signature sign of a nice fish! John then hooked a really nice fish in the 16-17" range, but do to a bit of operator error with the net, we came up empty. After that the action began to slowly taper off as am moved into pm.

Good job goes out to both angler as we really pushed them on two days of tough fishing. If Penns Creek sounds like your kind of stream...check out our Fall Penns Package.


Becky with a a fat pocket water brownie.


John displays his nymphing technique to a prime lie. Dean looks on in the background.


June 8, MV Recap

We are back from the Vineyard...just in time for a good 'ole nor'easter to roll up the coast. This year the fishing was good, but not great. Bluefish were few and far between, unlike last year, where they were flat-out everywhere! Size of the bass was rather small....lots of 12-18"ers with the largest going about 27" or so. As usual we fished out on Cape Poge - hitting all the hot spots. Some produced - some did not. The spotty action made us look around a bit more than usual, which enabled us to hook into fish in some not so normal locals for us. Small flies - clousers, bunnies, jiggies - did the trick as the bass seemed to be focused on sandeels. No evidence of squid was seen, which may be the reason for the lack of large fish. Big flies did not produce at all for the most part. However, a big fish was broken off on a pusher at night in the Gut. Countdown till next year is on!

Some Mv pics.

This weekend we are off to Penns Creek. As of writing, the flows are fantastic. Look for a report next week.