Brent, Tommy, and I hit the Upper D for a little fishing, funny all I got to do was row. We were greeted with Blue Quills and then Hendricksons later on with sporadic trout surface activity starting just a few yards from the Shehawken ramp. Brent managed a few nice trout on an Adams dry fly, and Tommy had some lookers that just wouldn’t cooperate. The water temp was 52˚ and with the recent drop in releases from Pepacton and Cannonsville the water has become clear and the fish are no longer chasing the big streamer patterns as much. Lehigh Unusuals in the proper flavor will produce for all of the mayfly hatches otherwise make sure to have plenty of Blue Winged Olive, Hendrickson, Blue Quill, and caddis patterns. Para Adams always seem to produce and subsurface Flashback Hare’s Ear and Pheasant Tail patterns and a good assortment of Stonefly patterns should get you some action.

We saw risers here and there all the way down to the Buckingham ramp. It was pretty windy and had the wind let up a little I’m sure that we would have seen a lot more surface activity from the fish.

What can I say, we love getting out on the Lehigh! Paul and I decided to shake the cobwebs off and do some real boating so we hit the Lehigh Gorge for an early season Gorge run from White Haven to Rockport. The water temp was in the low 40s from start to finish. The fishing started out slow as expected but picked up throughout the day. Paul tagged the first fish of the day, a chunky bow, a short distance above the Hayes Creek but it shook the hook with a head shaking jump, at least we got to see the bruiser. The pool where Hayes enters had very light bug activity and hence no rising fish and a few anglers tossing bait and hardware. Pushing on we found a good group of risers and managed to land three healthy browns and a nice brookie on Lehigh Unusuals in the popular Hendrickson flavor. The action trailed off and but rise action picked back up as we approached Rockport. Hendricksons and various caddis were present for most of the day and it was a beautiful day to catch a few rising fish and a little sunburn.

It looks like we’re going to have another great run in the Gorge this spring if the water level cooperates. We were having so much fun catching fish that we forgot to take pics but we did snap a few mayfly shots for your viewing pleasure.

After a busy weekend of fly fishing schools we decided to take a nice float from Bowmanstown to Walnutport. Brent and I launched under the bridge in Btown and were greeted with a blizzard Grannom hatch but no risers. Water temp was 50˚ but would rise to 54˚ by days end. Shortly into the float we had our first hook up and they continued throughout the day with Brent landing the Lehigh Grand Slam - Brookie, Brown, and Bow - all on a black tungsten conehead bugger on a sink tip. A few risers were spotted in the final stretch but all were so inconsistent that we spent little time on them. Little Black Stones(#18), Brown Stones(#14), Hendricksons(#14), Blue Quills(#18), Grannom Caddis(#16), and Blue Winged Olives(#18) were all present along the river throughout the day.

Though cold water has kept the surface activity to a minimum anglers should be prepared with plenty of Lehigh Unusuals, Parachute Adams, LaFontaine Deep sparkle Pupas and Emergent Sparkle Pupas and similar patterns because the fish are going to be on top before you know it.