I met Kazuo in Hancock in the morning and we did a little wade fishing on the Upper West Branch before floating to Hale’s Eddy, angler pressure was light. Kazuo missed a nice fish in the afternoon with a small BWO, hatches were slow and not many bugs were present on the water. We had a brief spurt of Dorothea Sulphurs(16) from 2-3pm but no fish were landed during this time. Eventually we managed to land a small brown, but saturday was tough.

We decided to wade sunday morning and although the first spot we hit was a bust things started looking up once we relocated near Ball’s Eddy. Kazuo Landed a nice bow and a few smaller browns on nymphs and dries, all attractor patterns. We relocated once again and found some Green Drakes hatching at 1pm. The wind must have really stirred up some shallow areas becaude the amount of drifting debris and insects was frustrating. Apart from the massive amounts of algae, there were Cahills, Olives, Rusty Spinners, Golden Stonefly adults, Green Drakes, Sulphur nymphs, and various caddis(hatching and spent) on the water and the fish were tough as a result. After lunch and a mid-day nap, we returned to a stretch on the Middle West Branch and found risers immediately. Kazuo missed a nice trout with a rusty spinner and finally landed a nice brown with a Slate Drake dun pattern.

Hatches are sporadic at this time during mid-day hours but solid activity has been seen on most evenings. Plan to stay late for the best fishing. The flow will alledgedly be raised on 6/1 which we would be great. Check you water temps before fishing. At 6am on saturday the Main Stem was already 73 degrees at Lordville. Slate Drakes are just getting started and should provide good fishing soon. Sulphurs have been good.

Heavy algae blankets much of the river in the slower sections, we drifted a 1/4 mile through one stretch without seeing the bottom of the river. Didymo is rampant so please take the time to clean your gear fishing another river.

Whew, long time since we posted a new report! I can say one thing for sure, it’s not because we haven’t fishing but really because we’ve been putting in long hours and four weeks of long guiding days finally kicked us in the rear. This past week we saw water conditions that we’d rather not for a week or two but it is what it is. Boaters should take notice that the flows are very low and boating is tough. Wade anglers should remember that if you decide to fish in the boating channel of the particular section of river that you are in you will have boats pass through the water that you are fishing, sorry but it is what it is.

Nymphing has been productive in the morning and afternoons but now with the lower water it’s not as good as it was prior. Anything from attractors to caddis larva have produced fish. Golden Stoneflies(6-8) are active at this time and they can be found in most riffles. BWOs(14-20) and Sulphurs(14-16) have been the most prominent hatches in the past week. Fish are taking both at times, if you’re not getting any looks from active fish then it’s time to change up. Try to identify the slashy emerger rises from the dun/spinner sipping rises and take the time to look for spinners, in the air and on the water. Given the odd hatch progression this year, I can only think that Slate Drakes will be here any day now so you might want to make sure that you have a few in your box if you’re heading to the river.

We had a lot of good trips this week with return clients which is always great. Ken and Fred duked it out on a very hot day and managed to land some fish. Dan and Jeff made their yearly pilgramage and found some nice fish. Frank brought his son Luke and we managed to land Luke’s first trout, three very nice trout, and we’ll be sure to post the pics as soon as Frank shoots them over. Mike brought his crew of six and everybody landed trout from novice to veteran. Between the heat, late hatches, and low water it’s been a blur but we’re still landing healthy trout from morning to evening.

I was psyched that my mechanic got my truck fixed up early so I could fish this evening, so I headed to the Palmerton area. I had planned to fish there yesterday but was without transportation and Paul’s report was salt in the proverbial wound. I got to the river at about 5:00pm, air temp 71, water temp 62, water clarity was very clear despite the rain from the previous night. Light caddis and no rising fish. I hiked up and down the river looking for a snout but couldn’t find a riser anywhere so I prospected some riffle water with dries but without any action. I was sure some Sulphurs would appear at some point so I decided not switch to nymphs, I’m sure I could have nymphed a few up though. I headed back down to a pool and soon began to hear some fish and moved around until I could spot one. I found two fish rising with some regularity but moving around a bit and they wouldn’t touch my Tilt Wing Adams so I put a Sulphur on and quickly landed a small rainbow(12-13″) that I would guess was an unclipped fingerling from past stockings by the PFBC. Looking around I found some more targets but could not get them to take the Sulphur parachute that I was tossing so I decided to switch to a quill bodied Klinkhamer that I had tied in the morning. I tossed it in front of a fish that started rising about 20′ away and quickly hooked a 20″ brown which was pretty tough to land. It wasn’t as big as the BEAST that Paul landed the night before but it was plenty big as the pic shows below. After that I landed a few more smaller fish on Sulphurs and called it a day so I could get some more flies tied for tomorrow’s float. There wasn’t a ton of sulphurs tonight, and they came off in little spurts which was probably why there weren’t and regular risers. I did spot a handful of Sulphur spinners in the air but not enough for any kind of exciting spinner fall. I didn’t take too many pics because I was using my phone but all of the fish were pretty fat and healthy for their respective sizes.

Conditions:  Air Temp 50F Cloudy with Drizzle, water temp 56F.

In an attempt to satisfy my addiction, I (Paul K.) ignored the nasty conditions and the heavy traffic (location hint) and set out for a short wade fishing adventure.   My first indication of hatching activity was the amount of swallows present above the riffles.   Apparently the hatch must have been better earlier in the afternoon as I really didn’t see many mayflies.  Sulphurs of various color phases in the size 14 range were present in sparse numbers, but there were a few targets.   I put on a rather large (sz 10) sulphur CDC and immediately caught two nice rainbows in the 12-14″ range.  As the hatch seemed to abruptly end at 7PM, I put a march brown emerger (I’m sorry Tim but I was desperate) behind my Sulphur and quickly caught two nice browns in the 14″ range on the emerger.  I then took a lesson from the X-Games and decided it was time to “go big or go home”.   I re-rigged with a size 10/2xl March Brown Thorax and caught a brown about 16″.   By now (7:50PM) the swallows had all gone home and surface activity had completely stopped.    Although darkness was seting in, I could easily see my huge fly riding high on the surface.   A short cast into a heavy riffle and my fly simply was gone (no splash, no slurp, nothing), I instinctively set the hook and knew I had found what i was after.   A few tense moments later a 20+ inch brown was into the net.   In my experience, these rainy, cloudy, overcast days are the rare occasions when these larger browns will actually come to the surface in the daylight hours so my advice would be to forget about the weather and just fish.   Kind of reminds me of one of the big clothing manufacturers slogans, which goes something like, “There’s no such thing as bad weather…..only bad clothing”.    

Fresh off of Guide Appreciation Day, I had Joe and Carey for a full day float from Lehighton to Walnutport. We hit fish soon after launching the boat on nymph rigs and the action was consistent throughout the morning. Little bug activity was observed but the fish ate our prince nymphs readily. We had a brief spurt of dry fly activity and landed a nice adipose clipped bow above Bowmanstown. After lunch we continued to hit more fish nymphing and we continued for a while before switching to dries. Suplhurs were the ticket again but today it was the Dorotheas(#16). Random March Browns, caddis, and Invaria Sulphurs were around late afternoon, but none in numbers to excite the fish. We got delayed up river longer than I would have liked and made our last stand at a proven location, a wise decision as we landed a couple of fish between 15-20″ on top with Sulphur and BWO parachutes with several nice fish missed and an absolute BEAST broken off. Seriously, BEAST! As evening rolled in we began the marathon row to the boat ramp and paused to stick a big rainbow that unbuttoned itself after a good fight.

What an excellent day. Fish caught from top to bottom and bugs when we needed them. More clipped fish in the net. We had some reels that were hot to the touch from screaming runs and a bunch of hogs that broke off. It was definitely on today and it seems like the dry fly fishing is going to be excellent again this year..

Air Temp 65F, Water Temp 61F.

Two-thirds of the ski patrol took advantage of their day off from guiding and floated from Bowmanstown to Walnutport in search of rising fish.   Apparently the word of tight lines on the Lehigh is calling out to anglers afar; eight drift boat trailers in the parking lot at 2 PM (I don’t know whether to be happy or sad).   Tim S. and I (Paul K.) passed by a few risers in the always productive Olive Garden in an effort to distance ourselves from another ROA boat and concentrate our efforts on the Slatington area.  Conditions were excellent (although fairly breezy/windy) and our expectations were high.  I had been wade fishing recently and our mission was to stick a few of the fish that I had previously seen that were out of wading range.  Hopes of March Browns in size 10/2xl (see pic below) kept us on the lookout.  While we did see a few March Browns, it was the sulphurs that brought the fish to the surface.  The first consistent riser was found in the ledges but would not cooperate.  Shortly thereafter, Tim had one of those ferocious rises that his flies are famous for, and a nice 16″ brown was brought to the net (see Tim in his classic pose below).  As we approached our destination, the sulphurs began to emerge and the fish did not dissapoint as we had at least 8-10 targets within fairly easy casting range.  Several browns were brought to the net with from this “new hotspot” with an average size of 14″.  We then moved downstream towards the proven large trout waters and hit a few borderline “hogs” with the largest being a thick rainbow of 18-19″ and two browns in the 17-18″ range.  Near dark a true hog began rising close to the boat but much to our surprise this fish managed to refuse Tim’s collasol tilt wing dun while crushing other mayflies in the exact same line.  Although we had enough excitement for one day, the ride home provided a scary scene on the offramp of Route 248 in Bowmanstown.  While we don’t know the details, the guardrail at the top of the ramp somehow managed to keep a compact car from flying airborne back onto Route 248; the sight of the driver in handcuffs coupled with the bonehead driving had DUI written all over it. 

A recent burst of rainfall gave us the chance to get into the Lehigh Gorge again. We had a couple of guys who have been chomping at the bit to get up there since we started offering the trip a few years ago and I think that they would agree that it was worth the wait.

I(Tim) guided Tom and Eric, I’ve guided these guys for about seven years now and I’m glad we got to hit the Gorge on a productive day and productive it was. The first fish, which I think Tom hooked on his first cast, literally, was right beside the boat for a while as I tried desperately to eddy out somewhere, that’s how it goes sometimes up there, we give a decent number of fish a change in zip code. We caught fish on nymph rigs, bugger/nymph rigs, and dries and basically had action the entire day. Hatch activity was light to moderate with some BWOs(#16), Grey Foxes(#14), Invaria Sulphurs(#14-16), and tan caddis(#14-16) with very light March Browns. I saw a handful of very large spinners(#8-10) toward evening but was unable to snatch one for ID

The number of large, perfect looking brookies continues to be outstanding. Whether they are holdovers or wild fish, they are incredible and we are lucky to have seen so many in recent trips. Personally, it makes me very happy to see big, fat, and healthy brook trout thrive in the Gorge because this is part of their native range and this section of river suits them perfectly. This section of river is probably one of the last places in PA that can harbor a huge population of big brookies and it may be well on it’s way.

I met Chris in the morning for a Bowmanstown to Walnutport float. Water conditions were good, 54 degrees and good clarity and flow. The fishing started out a little tough but we managed a few fish on nymphs and even a nice brown on a parachute adams before lunch. The daytime high temp came and went before lunch and continued to slide for much of the afternoon, and not in a good way. Still we saw some light hatch activity, BWOs(#18), Invaria Sulphurs(#12-16) and Grey Foxes(#14), with very random March Browns(#10). Anglers should keep in mind that Ephemerella Invaria now includes the flies that were formerly known as Ephemerella Rotunda and there is quite a bit of variation from day to day in coloration, fortunately dead on imitations are not necessary on the Lehigh but anglers should have a size range of sulphurs patterns at this time. Invarias typically have a dun colored wing(medium to light) and are a bit larger than the little Dorotheas that should be a few weeks off.

We tagged a couple of big fish in the afternoon and evening but many came unbuttoned at various stages of the fight. The insect activity was never strong and the fish were sporadic for much of the day. We caught a few more clipped fish from last years stocking, both about a 12-13″ long and strong for their size, but that’s nothing new for the Lehigh. One looks to be have a little regeneration of the adipose fin, we’ll try to get a verdict.