Lehigh River

softhackle73

softhackle73

New member
Joined
Sep 4, 2012
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14
I want to explore this river this year. What is your favorite htach to fish on the Lehigh? And can you recomend a guide to float with during my first visit?
 
Olives, sulphurs, Iso, caddis

Joe Demarkis
 
There's a Joe Hatch? :)
 
I have found it hard to time things perfectly on the Lehigh...like you'r trying to time a hatch, the time comes but the river is blown out...Its best to be flexible and react on short notice when conditions are good. Unfortunately my schedule doesn't always let me do this...the weekends I'm free end up being whitewater releases many times. I'm looking forward to the "fishing" releases this year
 
Exactly what Shane said: Olives, sulphurs, Isos & caddis. Also expect good hatches of hendricksons, march browns/grey fox, & various stoneflies. Joe DeMarkis is a great guide choice for the Lehigh.

As for timing the hatches on the Lehigh it's indeed best to be flexible and don't just plan to fish one hatch that day. Bring flies for several different hatches that might be occurring during that time. The fish will quickly tell you which hatch they're keying in on. Plus, the hatch you planned to fish might not be coming off great that day but another hatch is rocking and the fish are all over it. If you plan for several hatches you're still good to go. The other important thing for timing hatches on the Lehigh is to carry a handful of black woolly buggers! Some days on the river they're the only thing that works.

There are hatch charts available online from the Evening Hatch, also the LRSA site & Joe's site- Rivers Flyfishing.
 
I love how you show up out of no where. Lol we need to get togethor Ryan.
 
Ha, yes I do seem to do that lately! It's been a busy winter with snow plow work, a new pup & coaching but thankfully most of it's winding down now so I hope to get a fair amount of time in on the Lehigh this season, even help out with the LRSA, etc. So yeah, I'd like to get together for some fishing soon.
 
Hung out down at the river yesterday for about 45 minutes at mid day hoping to see some activity. Very few olives and some midges. Things have to be getting ready to pop.
 
I would think so, I'm sure ready to fish it! I saw some BWO's and early stones a week or so ago. I'm still looking for my first rise though.
 
Did anyone fish it after the large heat waves in July and August? Encountered goods fish counts? In 2011/2012 years there were plenty of wild browns from high water in 11 that were doing great. They were far away from stocking sites from LRSA or FC and they were wild for a fact. I found a lot of wild browns in 2012 when the water was super low this year last time.

I see there are fishing releases on Lehigh this year, lol. Doesn't look like it will solve the thermal issues and holding a lot more water back at all. The rafting lobby is strong it seems. Are there 3 companies or 4? Hope they wash those boats well if they use them in the Delaware with Didymo.

Remember to fill out those reports cards on your WILD brown and NATIVE Brook trout catches in the Lehigh. Seems like with the threat to native brook trout habitat from fracking the Lehigh could be quite the sanctuary with its many tributaries for our native fish.
 
I fished it in August and after, plenty of seeps and the fish can find them, probably 5 to 1 ratio bass to trout in August, but man if they could or would do cold water releases.
 
Beast & Blue

The reason there aren't coldwater releases is a result of the discharge tower configuration. When the Corps goes into flood control mode and drops the lake after a flood event or during a whitewater release, the large bottom release gates are cranked wide open. When that happens the coldwater goes bye-bye. ONce the coldwater is gone, we don't get it back until Fall when inflow water temps drop.

We can't do away with WW release so we have to figure out how to save the coldwater. A new tower with selective withdrawal and a little bit more water in the lake is needed.

The Corps is finally (ughh) wrapping up the Study that has been ongoing. It shows some real potential. Support by anglers and the local community will be needed and of course money to make it a reality. The Study shows the number of projected miles that will be supported with coldwater all summer long would be more than anything in the Eastern US. If you interested in the Lehigh you will want to check out the report for yourself.

The "fishing releases" will be interesting to see how it all plays out. I don't like the language in the 2013 Plan, but devil will be in the details. THe good thing is that there are now dates where water levels should be good for fishing when typically flows are high in the spring season. How the water will be managed is a different story.

The bugs are starting to hatch. Fish have been spotted up and hungry. This weekend looks very promising. I'm jonesing to get out on the river.... LR

 
Plan on scouting my water for heads tomorrow. Flows are good, weather should be great, and hopefully bugs will be hatching. Just need the fish to come play.
 
I'll be out playing tomorrow.
 
LehighRegular wrote:
Beast & Blue

The reason there aren't coldwater releases is a result of the discharge tower configuration. When the Corps goes into flood control mode and drops the lake after a flood event or during a whitewater release, the large bottom release gates are cranked wide open. When that happens the coldwater goes bye-bye. ONce the coldwater is gone, we don't get it back until Fall when inflow water temps drop.

We can't do away with WW release so we have to figure out how to save the coldwater. A new tower with selective withdrawal and a little bit more water in the lake is needed.

The Corps is finally (ughh) wrapping up the Study that has been ongoing. It shows some real potential. Support by anglers and the local community will be needed and of course money to make it a reality. The Study shows the number of projected miles that will be supported with coldwater all summer long would be more than anything in the Eastern US. If you interested in the Lehigh you will want to check out the report for yourself.

The "fishing releases" will be interesting to see how it all plays out. I don't like the language in the 2013 Plan, but devil will be in the details. THe good thing is that there are now dates where water levels should be good for fishing when typically flows are high in the spring season. How the water will be managed is a different story.

The bugs are starting to hatch. Fish have been spotted up and hungry. This weekend looks very promising. I'm jonesing to get out on the river.... LR

The rafting companies appear to have more influence than the fisherman. I could be wrong- don't know- but based on that Army Corps comment page it appears they tell everyone that runs the river with them to inundate the page with comments. Now, obviously they currently bring in more money than fishing of any type in the river-based on the numbers of fisherman I see in peak hatches. I don't fish in the most popular spots, I go higher into the formal state park, but I still have a general idea of pressure and money being spent.

Now...considering that the upper park is what??? 26 miles of public water with variance on each bank, surrounded by 3 game lands, 1 state park, and probably a few conservation easements that I don't know about...I would think this is a prime class A potential water,if....the tower structure is added to. If they were to hold tons of water back without a new tower, that would add to the volume of cold water at the bottom. I understand it was built as a flood control project, but doesn't releasing giant white water flows run counter to that objective?

Additionally, the now "dead" tributaries on the west bank are still pouring freezing cold water into the main river, they may one day recover more completely from those acid mine projects and someone may be able to simply dump limestone in there or put in a tumbler.

I do think that combined with the excellent bear hunting(world record bear currently from the area),pretty good deer hunting, and the mass of public property for hunting opportunities at a reasonable price, that if that were to release more cold water and become an amazing tail water, there would be a nice surge of money to hit the area from increased trips and people even buying cabins.

One of the primary problems some of the areas up there have is the outrageous taxes.They are forcing people into foreclosure. Some of the taxes on 2,000 sq ft houses up near the FEW are 7-8k/yr. All those 2nd vacation homes of which there are 1,000s at 1000-1500 sq ft, would be a nice hunting/fishing 2nd home, but the taxes basically put a second mortgage on the house. I don't know what is going on with those taxes, but they need to halve.
 
Did not get to fish today because of having to put a new door on my house, but I did get to stop quickly at one of my spots to check activity. Lots of bugs. Caddis, Hendericksons, and stoneflies were in the air. In the 5 minutes I was there I did not see a rise though.
 
Yea I know where your coming from Shane, I did a major garage cleaning today, major check of the to do list. Getting out Sunday after drill.
 
Hit it today , among other spots. Water temp 47 at Treichlers at 4 pm, some slight bug activity on top but no rises. Had a few half-hearted takes subsurface but none brought to hand. The morning in the Poconos was a different story, for a different time, I'm whupped.
 
I was north of there around the same time and witnessed a lot of bugs. Magic number is 50. Tuesday...........
 
Fished today for a few hours. Caddis, caddis, and more caddis. Saw a nice amount of rises. Picked up two and lost one. Picked up all of them at the end of my drift swinging my cdc and elk and peacock & partridge just under the surface. My buddy lost three. One on top, one swinging the same setup, and one nymphing.
 
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