I had Al and Bill out for some smallmouth fishing on the Lower Delaware and the river did not disappoint. The fish were everywhere and would eat just about anything that resembled a small shad. Beautiful scenery, relative quiet, and consistent action all day combined for a nice time on the water. The biggest fish landed was 12″ but there are plenty of stories about the one that got away from this trip, we had some nice fish come loose to say the least. Water temp was 80 degrees, all of the smallmouth were in good shape and put up the usual good fight. There was a good mix of surface and subsurface strikes throughout the day. We have some more trips on the Delaware River in coming weeks and we expect more good PA Fly Fishing for smallmouth bass.

Paul and I fished in the Rockport area tonight and caught a few nice trout as well as encountering some wildlife. I dregded a nice bow out of a fast chute with a prince nymph soon after arriving. Paul fished the tail of the pool and after a beaver quieted down was able to hook a big brown that eventually got off the hook, we’ve spotted a few beavers in the Gorge this year. At one point a bear was spying curiously at me from the bank above and eventually worked it’s way down to Paul and huffed at him for a few minutes before wandering off which brings me to a good point. As guides in the Gorge we’re required to have a whistle in the Gorge for emergency purposes(signaling/alerting in fast water, etc.) but when bush whacking in the Gorge and in the Poconos in general it’s not a bad idea to let out a blast once in a while to alert bears in the area of your presence. Trout rose sporadically throughout the evening and there were plenty of short hookups and misses until Paul finally landed a nice brown at dark. As we were leaving it quickly became evident that it was time for the Dobson Flies to return to the river so if you’re in the area fishing soon be prepared for these prehistoric flies to be near the river at dark and for some reason they seem to be attracted to people, at least they seem to be able to home in on my(Tim S.) head with precision for some reason. Sulphurs and Olives continue to hatch, we continue to catch fish on all of the patterns we’ve been using for months.

Just a few hours after the whitewater release dissipated from the Gorge there were trout rising in one of our favorite pools in the Rockport area. As usual for this time of year Olives and Sulphurs were on the water and some sulphur spinners were in the air at dark. I caught a few nice fish with sulphurs and parachute adams. There was an absolute monster well out of human casting range that entertained me during lulls in the action. I managed to latch in the nice 16″ brown just before dark with a Sulphur Unusual. Once again, I had prime dry fly water all to myself so i could roam up and down the pool freely. Water temp was 65 degrees. Once I got away from all of the mayhem at Rockport, there were still rafts out at 6:00pm, it was a pleasant evening.

Another fine evening of fly fishing in the Lehigh Gorge, tonight in the White Haven area, and plenty of trout to be had on dries. I landed about six trout in 2-3 hours with plenty of hook ups and misses. Jay fumbled around with a bruiser rainbow along the bank and was not able to get a picture but I could see it clearly from 30 yards away, it was a nice fish. Temp was 65 degrees and olives and suplhurs were hatching in decent numbers with a few slate drakes seen. Trout were hooked with all manner of dry flies but our Lehigh Unusual was producing steadily. Most of the action was from 7:00pm until dark but I landed my first trout within ten minutes of fishing and still plenty sunny.