A River Coming Back

[djs12354]

The Lackawanna River continues its journey back from the polluted mess it was only a few short years ago. Still a ways to go on this trip but the improvement is impressive to see and experience.

I took these pictures this morning, when I finally had the opportunity to wet a line after all the rain.

These pictures were taken in Childs, just a couple of hundred yards from the Meredith Street ramp to the Casey Highway.

Pretty view and easy to forget you are on an urban stream until you start to encounter litter. Did not see much of that. The heavy rains took care of a lot of it.

Hopefully the river will continue to improve and the next generations will get even more enjoyment from it.

 

[Canoetripper]

Thanks for the post and photographs. The Little Juniata River was also once a polluted mess and now it is a destination trout fishing trip in Pennsylvania.

 

[troutbert]

When I first began fishing the Lackawanna in 1991 it had very good fishing. Lots of wild browns.

And pretty decent bug life. Sulphurs, tan caddis, golden stoneflies.

Some of the local guys who had been fishing it for some years before that said that the fishing had already gone downhill, with not so many big trout as earlier, because it was getting hit. People keeping too many trout.

But just how long there have been decent numbers of wild trout in the Lackawanna I don't know, but I'm curious about that. Even the local people didn't seem to know.

One guy who grew up there told me that the trout were "always there." I don't interpret that as meaning "always" but as they've been there a long time. There have been a lot of trout there since at least the 1980s, for sure. But were they there much earlier than that?

 

[djs12354]

Troutbert,

I think the trout were pretty much always there. Probably more populus in the northern section of the Lackawanna in the days when I was growing up.
In that period of my life, the Lackawanna was pretty much a cesspool from Forest City on down through the valley. I avoided it like the plague in those days.

Regarding people keeping too many trout, I have run into more people than I would like who talk about trout dinners. And have heard more than one story of people finding trotlines on the river.

I went through a long hiatus from fishing and only got back into it a few years ago, when a friend introduced me to fly fishing and that reignited my desire to fish.

Personally, I never catch numbers of fish on the Lack, but having watched a participant in the Coaltown Throwdown take a half-dozen fish out of a 25 foot stretch, I know they are there. You just have to figure out what they want.

 

[CathyG]

The Lackawanna was an open sewer into the 1970s. The further downstream you went the worse it was. My Scranton relatives lived within yards of the river and often had to keep windows closed in the heat of summer due to the smell.

The upper river always held trout but there's no way the lower river had trout before the 80s.

 

[ICM]

I fish the Lackawanna often, usually from Archbald down to Olyphant. I can't speak to the condition of the river years back since I only retired to the Poconos 7 years ago. If you want wilderness go elsewhere, but access is plentiful and once on stream, its pretty water. I've never found it to be a numbers stream as someone noted, but I've caught and released more wild 20"+ brown trout on the Lacky than on any stream I've ever fished.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

It can be numbers but almost never.
In all my trips only a few times have I hit 20 fish.
But like ICM said, I have caught and released more large trout from here than any other.
Also I have caught 10 or more 16"or bigger fish on this stream in one day. No were else in pa have I done that.

 

[Fly-Swatter]

The Lack is an acquired taste, IMO. I lived in the Scranton are for a handful of years before I started really devoting myself to fishing and learning it. Joining TU and hanging out at A&G Outfitters helped shorted my learning curve. It has its idiosyncrasies. Once you figure the out, success becomes much more likely. You won't get a wilderness experience and you won't see Penns or UDR level hatches, but you can fish over a fair number of large wild browns.

It still has pollution issues, namely raw sewage influx during heavy rain events. There are numerous signs along the river stating this. There are sections that always smell of sewage (Elm Street, for example). In fact, my waders stink for days after fishing the Lack. There are water bottles, bicycles shopping carts, tarps and other flotsam randomly and frequently strewn about the river. It is quite obviously in an urban corridor.

I cannot fathom why anyone would eat a fish from the Lack. Nasty and foolish. I have heard stories of locals taking stringers of 18+ inch trout that ended up as fertilizer in gardens. WTF??

I have seen really big gutted trout that were apparently discarded. Sinful.

The other issue I found is the trout dong fight very hard. I caught a very fat 20+ inches last evening that gave me a 2 minute half-hearted tussle. By comparison, a 15 inch trout from Big D fights twice as hard.

The Lack is my home water and I fish it frequently, but I would not drive very far to fish it. It needs a lot more TLC . Thankfully, there are concerned parties (Berny McGurl, Lackawanna TU, Lackawanna Valley Heritage, etc.) who are working to continually improve the river and riparian areas.

If only the "throw it over the bank" culture could be purged...

 

[wildtrout2]

The Lackawanna has always intrigued me. Although I have never fished it, I hope for nothing but the best for this river, considering what it has gone through over the years, and how it continues to produce some good size wild brown trout.
Now that I think about it, I can't recall ever seeing a pic of one of these big browns. Can someone post a couple pics of a big Lacky brown?

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Click my profile and look at my pics

 

[wildtrout2]

salvelinusfontinalis wrote:
Click my profile and look at my pics

Thanks sal. Those are some beauties!

 

[Chaz]

Recently I've have a few very good days catching browns. From Carbondale upriver I've caught brookies.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Chaz that is sweet. Any size to them?
Years ago I caught a fairly big brookie in old forge, though I believe that was a stocker. It was still suprising.

 

[Big-Bass]

I caught a 12" Brookie in Olyphant/Dickson that was beautifully colored but I assume was stocked.