As for the fishing, it wasn’t bad. For my long initial wading period I didn’t see a fish rise, not even a bass or sunny. I was wading back up river when I thought I saw a nice fish rise. Then I saw it again. I got in position and tied on a foam beetle but nothing even looked at it. There were no real hatches though I saw a few Sulphurs and Cahills. Against my better judgement I tied on a Sulphur and missed one or two fish with it before slaying a few sunnies. They were all over it. I could see trout rising but still no bugs. I saw a few spent caddis and tried an imitation but no dice. For whatever reason I decided to tie on a #16 CDC Tan Caddis despite the fact that there were none hatching. Well, these fish must be imprinted on it because for half an hour I don’t think I needed to make more than three casts to a fish before the fish took the CDC Caddis. In 45 minutes I landed a bunch of nice fish including a 16″ bow that was just gorgeous. I should have netted it because the fish got loos in front of me while I was digging for a camera.
So the Tully is fishing well but please check the temps and do not rely upon USGS data at this time. Hopefully Mother Nature will help us out soon but the outlook is not good.

The Susquehanna was sad. I don’t know what else to say. The water is cooking and the bite is early morning and evening and it’s not good. Last year we saw some quality fishing which made us hopeful and we intend to test fish a little further north  but the Harrisburg area is not fishing well.

The Upper D was challenging as always. We were there bedore the short bubble of water was released and I’m pretty sure everybody landed fish. Brian Z. from Maryland had a hog on in the West Branch but it came unbuttoned. I(Tim S.) lost a nice brown aside of the boat. Hatches were BWOs(#14-22), Sulphurs(#14-20), Cahills(#12) and various caddis. Best hookups came from CDC and Unusual BWOs(#14-20), and E.Vitrea dun imitations(Large Amber Sulphur #14).

We’ll have more reports this week. The Tully and the West Branch of the Delaware are fishing well at this time. Not much is fishing consistently for smallmouth, a cool down would help.

After fishing the upper Lehigh Gorge solely upriver from the Rockport area, I (Paul K.) decided it was time to check out some new territory.   Once again I parked at Rockport, but this time I headed down river in search of rising fish.   Many excellent looking pools were easily spotted directly from the bike trail and several times I parked my bike and climbed down to the river to take a look.   A few smallish rising fish were spotted and although I was sure that many of these pools held larger fish that were waiting for lower light levels to show themselves, I was set on a larger corner pool that I had seen via Google Earth.   When I arrived at my destination, I was shocked at the extremely low water conditions, but happy to see rising fish.  Five brook trout (each approx 10-11″) and seven brown trout (14-20+”) came to the net from 6:30 to 9PM.  These fish were all caught in an area of the river that is approx 6 miles downstream from Sandy Run (the limit of the PFBC stocking) and approx. 6 miles upstream from Bear Creek (the upstream limit of the 5 Mile Club stocking).   At least 3 of the brown trout were 20″ in length and seemed to be in fine shape even though the water temps have been approaching the 70F mark.   Hopefully next week we will see some much needed rain across the entire watershed as the tributaries are very low.  Without rain or cooler temps, this will most likely be me last report for a while as I would not want to risk the health of any of these wild or holdover fish.

In fear of the upcoming forecasted hot weather and the soon to be depleted coldwater pool at FEW, Jay and I decided to load up our bikes and head to Rockport for some evening wading.   Air and water temps were a cool 62F.   Headed upriver from the parking area to check out a few normally productive pools.   The first pool was fairly quiet but a nice thick rainbow (15″) came to the net and a larger brown was lost, both on an olive sparkle dun.   The “ski patrol” pulled up stakes and moved downriver in search of targets.  The second pool proved to be much more active as bright yellow stoneflies and large sulphurs were sporadically present.  Jay continued a 3 day slump, missing and losing (more of those notorious hook spitters) numerous smaller fish in the rapids, all the while intentionally ignoring the larger rising fish in an effort to build up some “lunker karma”.   I can only hope that I am present when Jay decides to cash in his karma as I expect it’s gonna take a “true hog” and photos will be essential.  Paul was much greedier and wasted no time in pursuing the larger rising fish.  Numerous brooks, rainbows and browns in the 8-16″ range came to the net via traditional size 12 Light Cahill dry flies.   At about 8:30 PM some truly large fish began rising and one true lunker brown (20″+) (pic to follow later) was brought to the net and one other lunker was broken off.  Mysterious noise (snapping of branches, etc.) kept both anglers on high alert for ”old blackie”, but no bear sightings were reported.   An uneventful bike ride back to Rockport in the dark capped off a successful evening of fishing.  Although sometimes challenging to get to the river from the bike trail, stealthy anglers are usually rewarded with a few healthy fish from each likely looking location.  At each pool, prior to casting, take a minute or two to observe the suds lines in search of rising fish and move cautiously towards them making minimal wake as these fish can be a bit spooky in the low water conditions.  My advise would be to take advantage of these favorable water temps in the upper gorge while they last and make sure to bring your camera as mnik, beavers, deer, and bear have been showing themselves on a regular basis.

In search of cold water, the elder statesman of the “Ski Patrol” headed north to Rockport for an eveing of fishing.  Weather conditions were cool (60F) with intermittent showers.   Water temp 60F.

Once again the Lehigh did not disappoint as the olives were on.   Targets were plentiful and obviously easy to reach with only a 200 CFS release from FEW.   Although the olives were small (sz 16-18), I was able to fool numerous fish with a sz 14 olie cdc.   Brown, rainbow and tiger trout were caught from 6 to 20+ inches.   This is the first time that I ever caught a big thick rainbow or tiger trout this far up into the Gorge.   The tiger trout may have been stocked by the “Five Mile Club”; however I believe that they only stock as far upstream as Bear Creek.  This fish would have had to migrate upstream approx. 10 miles to where it was caught.   Several browns in the 5-7 inch range were caught but did not exhibit any fin clips, therefore leading me to believe that they were wild.  I also had a visitor (see pic) check me out from approx. 30 yards downstream.  This large black bear didn’t seem to mind my presence and simply swam to the other side, shook off like my lab, and proceeded up the bank.   The rising fish were oblivious to the bear as they rose within 10 feet as the bear swam the river.   What a great night on the river; come on fellow “ski patrollers”, get your bikes fixed!!

Tim’s Report

I had Chris and Brent out for a float this evening. Water temp was 67. Olives and Sulphurs continue to hatch but we continue to catch fish with Slate Drake duns more than any other fly. Nymphing has been so-so, nymphs are fooling more smallmouth than trout. The best dry fly action has been in the faster runs and heads of pools but solid fishing to BWO hatches can be had in the slowest pools for skilled casters. Swinging wet flies continues to take fish from time to time, Streamer fishing is brining the smallmouth out but not many trout. The water is dropping hard, if we don’t get another dose of rain the lower river will be over 70 degrees in a few days, it’s been rising 1-2 degrees a day as it drops. Once the temps rise over 70 anglers should move upriver and find colder water in the Gorge or elsewhere. Targeting trout in fast water may be productive this time of year but in warmer water it is very irresponsible.