June 2006
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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.
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Eating well?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!
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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.
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Another nice rainbow picked up by one of clients
last week.
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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.
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Fabio with a hefty Lehigh rainbow.
This fish was picked up on a size #12 sulphur.
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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.
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Becky with a a fat pocket water brownie.
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John displays his nymphing technique to a prime
lie. Dean looks on in the background.
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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.
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