lackawanna bugs

[k-bob]

http://wnep.com/2014/05/25/lackawanna-river-water-quality/

 

[SBecker]

Clean river...lmao..cleaner yes...clean no.

 

[troutbert]

I'd be curious to know when wild browns starting showing up in the river. I talked to some local fishermen and they were pretty vague about this. I caught wild trout there myself around 1990-1991, and at that time I talked to some locals who had been catching wild browns for at least some years before that. So they must have been there at least by the mid-1980s. But maybe well before that? Who knows?

The bugs were at least decent around 1991 also. I recall sulphurs, Perlid stoneflies, and of course lots of tan caddis, around that time.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

It's a lot healthier now Dwight than it was then. Still far from clean though.

 

[henrydavid]

They didn't say what stretch they were on but they did comment about the "smell". I've fished sections and the smell was NOT healthy. Good vid though and yes it is comforting to know the insects are thriving.

I'd still choose the Lehigh any day over the Lackawanna, the smell gives me a headache.

 

[CathyG]

I think you have to differentiate the various sections of the Lackawanna.

I've been fishing the upper Lack since about 1969. It was never polluted. And yet even now it doesn't have the hatches or the fish of the lower Lackawanna, even though its stocked. Thanks to mine water the mid and lower sections run colder.

Raw sewage and factory pollution were really only a problem starting in the mid valley area. More or less that's the trophy trout section. Above that there weren't many factories and people had septic tanks. The city and bigger towns had sewer systems that ran into the river. Sewer plants were built in the 1970s.

There was mining the entire length of the river but its effects mostly affect the lower river. Except for the Old Forge bore hole which turns the lowest most section orange for a stretch, the Lack was never the acid mine orange color that some streams still are today.

As far as smell I don't really notice it. Back in the 60s and 70s the smell was so bad in the summer my relatives in Scranton often couldn't open their windows. And none of them had air conditioners back then. As (really stupid) kids we played on the river bank near Albright Ave in Scranton. One of our past times was to count the "brown trout" below a sewer outflow. Another was to swing on a rope out over the river and hope like hell you didn't fall in. Ah, the good old days.

Sure the river isn't like some pristine wilderness stream. But its primarily an urban stream and as an urban stream its a gem as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Fishidiot]

Good stuff! Thanks for sharing this video with us.