It was a very informative meeting last night at the Lehighton High
School. That auditorium is the nicest place I've ever been for one
of these fishery/conservation meetings.
The turnout was a bit lighter than I expected with about 60-70 in
attendence. There was lots of great infomation given with all kinds
of Lehigh topics discussed and lots of audience participation.
There will be no special regs for the state park section below the
dam. Their angler interviews show about half the anglers use bait
and about half of their catch is released. Release rates are even
higher for other angling types. They don't want to exclude half the
anglers with an artificials only reg and the release rate is already
high so C&R is not warranted. I would agree with that decision.
They may go with an open all year reg below the dam which
would add about six weeks of C&R fishing in March and early
April. A good thing.
The reason there are no adult trout stocked in the state park
below Sandy Run is that there are not enough fish available. They
already raise the max they can and there are so many acres of
water in that section. I still would like to see a few hundred adults
thrown in there by anyone. That is the most wild water on the river
and it's all public.
I was very surprised to hear that they only recieved twenty(20)
Lehigh Angler Log books for 2006. Come on guys, we can do
better than that in 2007. Download a trip sheet online or pick one
at a sport shop, fill it out after each trip, mail it in. So easy.
Mark