Jordan Ck 06, Whitehall, Lehigh Co. 5/7/24

[Mike]

Fished from 11:45 AM -1:15PM. Water temp 62F First fly fishing of the year. Nymphed with copper John and SJ Worm combo. Caught a mix of stocked BT and RT, predominately BT. Landed 10, lost 2, rolled 1. About 2/3 on SJ worm. Section has been fished hard due to inseason stockings in close succession on 4/10, 4/18, but that bodes well for light pressure throughout rest of May. Very low mid-day caddis and sulphur activity today and just an occasional rising fish.

 

[LVRobS]

I like fishing the Jordan and the the Allentown area strictly as put and take. And I take every single trout out because I've watched the river warm up and actually dry up in the 20 years that I've been living in fishing here. Good for getting them on a flies. The river has really good fishing action through the month of May and d there's no competition. Once the heat comes in, those trout up and die.

 

[Mike]

Last evening’s nymphing 5/13 yielded three BT in 1.5 hrs on the SJ Worm. More interesting was a substantial number of sulphurs over the riffles anywhere from 4-8 ft in the air and some rising fish nearby. This evening 5/14 in the rain I returned to fish a sulphur dry from 7:15-8:30, landed two BT, and lost a much larger fish following a take on a good drift under a bush. It ran upstream and just came unbuttoned after about 30 sec. It was easy to find surface activity and fish to individual risers. With nobody else around I could make three or four casts to each riser and if I didn’t have a take move on to the next one. No need to spend time coaxing the smart ones while I could easily find a less educated one. Water temp around 62 deg F.

 

[Troutmeister]

I also fished the Jordan last night. Was nymphing for the first couple hrs. and it was kinda slow, a fish here and there. I came upon a long slow pool with fish rising everywhere. Put on a sulphur and had a ball landing over a dozen fish. I left that pool and went upstream to another hole that I knew held fish and could not manage a single fish even though I saw fish and had a couple looks. It's funny there were no risers in that second pool either.

 

[Mike]

5/15/24 Surface activity increased tonight with many more fish rising and sulphurs were clearly visible drifting downstream. Dry fly fished from 7:30-8:40. Caught 7 browns. Only one other angler seen fishing bait hundreds of yds downstream.

 

[Mike]

5/16/24. Fished the sulphur again hatch from 7:40-8:50 PM. It was dark by the end, but some of the fish kept rising and I was guessing a bit when they took the fly. Nevertheless, I caught 4 browns and one rainbow including one in darkness. In darkness I also missed three…felt the weight of the fish but the hook didn't set properly and fish was lost immediately.

 

[Mike]

5/20/24, H2O temp 67F, flow low and clear. Sulphur activity is limited now, but still a little active. Winding down. Fished from 7:45 PM - 9PM. Missed three good takes and connected with two others. Both BT. Landed 2nd fish in darkness. Had quit and was walking down the trail back to my car. Heard a near-shore splash and then noticed a surface ring from a rising fish in the glare of moonlight. I almost ignored it, but then I figured “what the heck, this is why I’m here.” So I climbed down the bank again and carefully waded to the opposite side of the 40- 50 ft wide pool with head lamp turned off, made my way 75 ft upstream, centered myself out in the pool, and cast the rest of the way across the stream to the edge along the trail where I had seen the ring of the rise. With a splash the fish aggressively took the fly on the second drift. After releasing the fish I looked at my watch…9PM. They may not be wild trout, but they can still be fun and it’s a good tune-up for the coming season of night wet fly fishing.

 

[JeffP]

You are clearly retired! Good for you getting out there a bunch of times. There is something about catching trout on stocked stream during hatches. I am sometimes surprised at the sulphurs on seriously marginal stream like those I fish in Lancaster County. Unfortunately, work is crazy this time of year so I don't get out much. Then when I'm ready in June, these streams are usually hurting.

One question, are the earlier bigger sulphurs pretty tolerant? And what about the smaller ones (dorothea)?