Enough is enough. All who paddle the Lehigh, be it raft, kayak, or canoe, the time has come for you to own up to your words. A few times a year, there are meetings to discuss the proper management of the woefully small amount of water held in the Francis E. Walter Reservoir and in every one of those meetings I have heard at least one paddler commit the most irritating act of hypocrisy. It invokes the paddler’s “love” of the Lehigh River and the environment such as, “I’d like to thank the USACE for providing us with 2? whitewater releases, we enjoy them very much and the opportunity to spend time enjoying nature and the Lehigh River.” BUT!!!!!!! Have you ever considered the potential damage caused by putting whitewater releases BEFORE the needs of aquatic life in the river? I can say without hesitation that it is quite apparent that most of you DO NOT. You bicker about how many paddlers use the river versus how many anglers use it and use that as a reason as to why whitewater interests are more important than angling interests.

WHITEWATER INTERESTS MAY OUTWEIGH ANGLING INTERESTS BUT THEY DO NOT, HAVE NEVER, AND NEVER WILL, BEAR MORE NECESSITY THAN THE NEEDS OF THE AQUATIC LIFE OF ANY BODY OF WATER.

Therein lies your complete hypocrisy, those interested in the health of the fishery are not primarily interested in how many days that we can go and fish, we are interested in the health of the river and what lives in it. WE, NOT YOU, are the ones who treasure the environment, for we are the only users of the river interested in protecting the creatures who live in it. We check water temperatures and broadcast them to the angling community so that they know if it is safe to fish for trout without causing potential stress. We monitor the Lehigh River and provide fellow anglers with information regarding other potentially hazardous conditions to the aquatic resource.

NEARLY ALL OF THE MOST DAMAGING CONDITIONS THAT OCCUR ON THE LEHIGH RIVER ARE A DIRECT RESULT OF PADDLER’S LUST FOR MORE WHITEWATER!!!

How all of you can sit in those meetings and fancy yourselves environmentally friendly people is beyond me! You routinely put your recreational interests above the needs of the wild creatures that call the Lehigh River home. Does that sound like an environmentally sound policy!?!?!?!

So the time has come for Lehigh River paddlers to decide what is more important, your recreational needs or the needs of the fish and wildlife that live in the Lehigh River. It is impossible to satisfy both in times of stress with the current storage capabilities of Francis E. Walter Dam. Your unyielding inflexibility in regards to the management of water in the Francis E. Walter Dam places risk in the domain of the survival of living creatures in the Lehigh River year after year. You often proclaim your love of the river, it is time to prove it. At the end of the day, have your words and actions really done something to help the Lehigh River or just provided you with another opportunity to scratch your canoe or kayak? Recently there have been posts on Lehigh whitewater paddling websites with titles such as “Save the lehigh!!!!!!!!!!” It is true, the Lehigh needs protection, it needs protection from excessive whitewater releases that directly threaten all of the aquatic life-forms that inhabit the river in exchange for a few more days of fun.

IS YOUR NEED TO KAYAK TWENTY SOME TIMES A YEAR MORE IMPORTANT THAT A LIVING CREATURE’S NEED TO BREATHE, EAT, AND SURVIVE?!?!?!?!

For today’s float I had Mary Kuss from the Sporting Gentleman fly shop and her friend Don. The weather was mostly overcast and chilly with some wind for most of the day. The action started out pretty quickly with a flurry of hits on streamer/nymph tandem rigs in the Lehighton area and then got quiet for a good bit. Mary caught a nice brookie in Lehighton, a fairly chunky adipose clipped rainbow was also caught near Lehighton. We started seeing risers near Bowmanstown that were taking small BWO duns. There were quite a few rainbows in the 5-7″ range visibly porpoising in that area. We fooled some fish with olive patterns and Don had a hold two nice browns on with a Slate Drake parachute but they both parted ways prematurely. Just below Bowmanstown Don caught an adipose clipped fingerling that was about 11″ while swinging emergers. We continued to see rising fish and catch them the rest of the way down the river. Hatch activity and rising fish continued until just before dark, hatching insects consisted of mostly caddis in the #14-16 range and olives in the #18-20 range.

I met Matt and Liz in the morning for a full day float. The weather was all over the place and it was mild to moderately windy until early evening with overcast and sunny conditions coming and going constantly. We put on about 9:30am and it wasn’t too long before Matt hooked up our first fish of the day, a nice little rainbow just below Lehighton that ate an olive soft hackle. Liz was on the board about ten minutes later with a chunky rainbow that she picked up with a Prince nymph. Fish came here and there throughout the day, not a blockbuster but a decent trip. We started seeing some sporadic risers around 1:00pm but they didn’t really start rising consistently until around 5:00pm. Matt lost a beast of a brown in the Palmerton area that he fooled with a Slate Drake parachute and then caught two nice browns in the Walnutport area just before dark. As of now there are plenty of actively feeding fish in the river and the fishing should continue to remain good even if the dry fly activity tails off soon as expected. I’ve had decent fishing to BWO hatches well into November in the past, we’ll see what happens this year.

Hit up the river in the Walnutport area tonight. Water temps around 60˚ and the skies were a bit overcast so basically the same conditions as yesterday. I sat on a rock and waited to see a fish it took about five minutes but a nice trout mashed something on the surface, a few small olives, a lot of caddis, and a handful of Slate Drake spinners were in the air. I put a Slate Drake ParaQuill over the rise but no take. A few more casts, no take. Sat down for a bit and watched, another fish rose in the same general area, I fished for him for a bit with the same fly and caught a nice brown, about 15″, after a few casts. A while later I saw the first fish rise again, a few casts still with the Slate Drake ParaQuill and after a short time I had this fish hooked up as well, again about 15″. I had fished some caddis pupas and soft hackles under the dry for a while but no takers, they don’t seem to be real interested in the caddis. Around 6:30 it got prety windy and was getting a little cold. I watched for a few minutes and saw a small trout clear the water about a 70 yds up river but other than that nada so I packed it up for the night. So there you have it, trout are still looking up in the Lehigh - go get ‘em.

It was a bit windy yesterday which was unfortunate because water conditions were perfect. As of today the river is back to wading levels with a water temp of 60˚. I(Tim S) met fellow Ski Patroller Paul K. in Palmerton, Jay W was AWOL. The fishing started out slow with moderate bug activity consisting mostly of large caddis, but a few mayflies were present. Paul hooked a bow while prospecting with a Slate Drake ParaQuill, but other than that it was quiet. Some clouds settled in and around 6:00pm and the caddis were on strong with some #16-20 olives and #16 sulphurs in the mix. I tied on a Slate Drake ParaQuill and waited for a head to poke up and quickly hooked and landed a nice bow. Paul worked on a hog downriver from me but it was just to far away for a wade angler. The trout became more active and I managed to hook up with four more but only landed three of them, all on the Slate Drake. Paul fooled another fish at the head of the pool which turned out to be a adipose clipped bow of about 11-12″.

Water temp 60°; air temp 60° and rising. Decided to try some morning fishing on Sunday in an effort to beat the white water release. As most of you know, the Sunday release at 1:00 AM arrives at the new ramp in Bowmanstown approx. 2:30 PM. Fish above Palmerton from approx. 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM. Bugs were present from the onset. Spinners, duns, caddis, etc. The most impressive were the isos that seemed to be about a size 10 2xl. I decided to prospect in some shallower riffly nursery water in an attempt to catch some grown up fingerlings. It didn’t take long and I was into some 9-11 rainbows and browns. Rising fish were seen from 10 to 11:30. Numerous fish in the 10-14 inch range were caught on some generic prospecting dry flies. While I have had better days as far as catching is concerned, I must say that this was my most enjoyable day on the river in quite a while. The sun was warm and bright, there was no wind, the river was very wadable, and the fish were active. For once, I was able to quit when I wanted to and not because it was dark. The only thing missing was a boat to allow me to fish the far bank where some nice browns were rising. Attached are a few pics; check out the golden rainbow? All of the fins on this fish were perfect. The other pic is possibly a fin clipped rainbow.

Two thirds of the “ski” patrol were on the river last evening.  Tim S. actually had a full day float with clients and I was on wading solo from 5:30 till dark.  Tim reported good hatches of very small olives with a few cahills and isos mixed in.  I too saw the small olives and isos but in small numbers.  River temp was 58° in the Slatington area and the air temp was 50-55°.   The picture above is a 20+” brown (largest fish of the night) that looks like he is getting ready to participate in a fall spawn.   This fish was feeding right in the middle of a very heavy riffle and I could hear him rising from 50 yards away.  After two casts with a Tim S. special slate drake Lehigh Unusual the fight was on.  What a difference cold water makes concerning the energy levels of these fish.  All in all 2 browns and 5 rainbows came to the net.  I have several other pics of the brown but experienced some camera problems and had accidently turned off the flash.  Only including one pic of the brown as the image size is huge.

A lot of surface activity in the glassy area (tailouts); however these fish were eating the very small olives and would not continue rising after Tim’s boat got within casting range.  I experienced the same thing.  Several small rainbows (9-11”) size were hooked but lost before the net.

The weekends warmer temps should be good for the bug activity but the white water release (1,000 + inflow) for Saturday/Sunday followed by the ramp up/ramp down from the 4,000 CFS megadump for Monday will most likely keep me off the water for upwards of one week.   If only we could get the USACE to provide some info on how they are going to step up and step down the megadump.  I talked to a few anglers yesterday in the Poconos that stated they were going to fish below FEW on Sunday afternoon following the scheduled WW release of 1,000 CFS + inflow.  I warned them that their trip may be a waste of time and also very dangerous as the USACE might start to ramp up towards  4,000 CFS sometime on Sunday.  (Mark H. I hope you are reading this!!)

The USACE (George Sauls) was quoted in the local paper up here (Pocono Record):
“The 4,000 cfs release is going to happen,” said George Sauls, Northern Area engineer for the U.S. ACE, who is responsible for executing the plan. “The thing that hasn’t been ironed out is how we get to 4,000. That release is on a Monday. The plan is to release up to 850 cfs for Saturday Oct. 3, and Sunday, Oct. 4. The issue is how to get from 850 cfs on Sunday afternoon up to 4,000, and how do we get down from 4,000 to the weekday releases, which are in the order of 300 cfs?”

Actually the posted release for Oct 3rd and 4th is 1,000 + inflow and not the 850 CFS as stated above.

Someone famous once said,

“What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.
Some men you just can’t reach, so you get what we had here last week which is the way he wants it.
Well, he gets it. And I don’t like it any more than you men.”
Actually this is a line from the movie “Cool Hand Luke”; but in my twisted way of thinking I found it totally appropriate and a fitting ending to my river report.