May
28, 2009 - Lehigh - - Sulphurs
Lately we've been seeing quite a few sulphurs on the River.
Now is the time to get out there in the lo-light hours -
- or even the afternoon hours if we have cool/overcast days
- - and poke around for one of our most prolific hatches.
For this hatch we like to fish a parachute pattern, with
a brite white post...this lends itself to good visability
in dusky conditions.
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May
26, 2009 - West Branch Delaware Report
Could it be that the fish were stuffed, and were laying
on the bottom digesting and laughing at us? Who knows, but
if you did not know that the West Branch really is
loaded with fish, you would have thought you were fishing
in a sewer. At least that is what it felt like.
Bugs in the pm hours were somewhat prolific, but really
only toward dark. We had some march browns trickle off during
the daytime hours, but other than that, the bug life was
concentrated to the lo-light hours. There
were drakes, as well as some coffins, and sulphurs. Sulphurs
ranged from the small dortheas to larger variations in all
sorts of colors. There were also a few larger red-brown
spinners here and there. However, nothing ever rose in the
evening hours over the course of three days. Very odd for
this time of year.
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The rainbow took an ultimate and the brownie
smacked a
Lafontaine caddis emerger. The brown once hooked, immediately
rocketed downstream about 50 yards. Thick fish!
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What did produce, and provided the best action was early
morning nymphing. A large march brown nymph, followed by
either a Lafontaine caddis emerger or our ultimate (photoed
to the right), proved too tough to resist. Nymphing
did take some serious effort since there was quite a bit
of algae in the water. Though, not near as bad as a few
weeks ago. The high water did push a lot of it up into the
grass.
Water levels were perfect - - about 600cfs at the Hale
Eddy gage. This is a nice level for both wading and floating.
Sunday morning we did wake up to find the West Branch muddy
in the lower reaches, but up in the no-kill it was pretty
clean. I'd call it stained. That said...we had the no-kill
to pretty much ourselves. That must tell ya about the quality
of the fishing right now. Slow!
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May
17, 2009 - Lehighton to Bowmanstown - Lehigh
Another tough go. Multiple times on the water, and multiple
bad outings on the Lehigh - - this stretch in particular.
Today (late-morning,
thru early-afternoon) we had perfect fishing conditions.
Little bit of light rain here and there - - hardly any sun,
and very little wind, except for some gusting here and there.
Yes
the water was a bit high, but clear. Though the water
temps did nothing but fall thru the course of the day. We
had some bugs - - march browns, sulphurs and caddis. But
not near enough to bring the fish to the top - - especially
with the way the water was running. Ended the day with two
fish. Weak!
Word is - - team spin is has been doing well, so it just
might be that the fish have yet to really key in on the
bugs and our flies. Time will tell.
Pasted below is a graphic generated by the LRSA
Jim Thorpe Water Quality Probe. This is a very
cool tool. Follow the link
to see how you can access some great data!
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May
10, 2009 - SE PA Trout Water Update
If only we could keep the current
flows and color through the summer months. I don't think
you could have better conditions for early May. On the limestoners
- - fish are hanging anywhere you have good color. If you
can't see the bottom, chances are there is a fish waiting
to eat your fly. On the most recent outing, our Ultimate
cleaned-up. We fished it as a dropper under a high floating
caddis. The trout could not leave it alone!
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A nicely colored heron-scared SE PA browmie.
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May
6, 2009 - Update - Lehigh
I guess Mother Natures feels we need rain. She is partially
right, but it would be nice to mix in a bit of sun from
time to time. Just take a look at the chart to the right,
and you can see, that since the beginning of the month we
have been inundated with rainfall here across the southern
half of the state. The northern tier should make out in
the next few days. It would be nice if we could spread this
precip out over bit more time, but we will take whatever
we can get.
As for the Lehigh, we were out again this past weekend,
and found some slowish fishing. It just does not appear
the fish are too eager to key in on insects just yet. Year-after-year,
we find this with the Lehigh during the early season. Face
it, the Lehigh is still running cold with water temps mainly
in the low-50s throughout the trout fishing stretch we like
to hit up. Weather pending we might get after it again this
weekend. Don't forget there is a whitewater release on Saturday.
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