Lehigh River Carbon Co 4/19/20

[Tigereye]

Fished near 80 overpass Noon til 4. Lots of Q. Gordons, Blue Quills, and grey/black caddis. A few Brown Stone flies to . Flow was 400 CFS, Water temp 46F. Saw one fish rise.

I wish I could give you more than a weather report but fishing was tough. Fished Grey soft hackle, Coachman wet, HE, PT and Bread and Butter nymphs.

Saw a few other fisherman 3 fly fishing and 3 or 4 bait fishing. One guy caught a fish on minnows. Otherwise nothing to report.

 

[Clams]

My son and I fished the Lehigh yesterday too. We were down in the Gorge. We covered 3 or 4 miles of the river via bicycle. Not many people were out. We passed a few people who were on bike and foot, and we only saw about 5 other folks fishing.

We arrived around 130pm and bugs (hendricksons?) were hatching and fish were rising until about 5 pm, then things shut down. We caught 5 browns between us, all on dries. Two were probably 15", two around 12" and one dink. They were all solid, strong fish. It was a good day.

 

[Millsertime]

Tiger...That sounds typical of early season Lehigh fishing. I wish they still had fish release weekends in late May and June.

Clams...Were your trout wild or stocked or undetermined?

 

[Clams]

Pretty sure all wild. I'll try to post pics tomorrow

 

[Clams]

Here ya go, pretty sure these are wild

 

[LehighRegular]

Clams,

I would say they all appear as being wild. The first fish photo may be a holdover, but its tough to tell. Definitely the 2nd and 3rd with the 3rd fish being a beauty. The last fish is likely wild too as that is a different strain of brown trout we are seeing in the river and are becoming more numerous. The bug pic is definitely wild. Sounds like a great day!!

LR

 

[Fly-Swatter]

All are nice fish. The 3rd down, yellow, is particularly nice!

 

[Tigereye]

Sweet. #2 is cool. The lack of orange or red spots is distinct. Next time I'll go with you. ;?)

 

[timmyt2]

LR,

Any idea what the source of the newer strain of fish with the sparse spot pattern is? I have caught at least one fish that had that look to it so far this year in a totally different area of the river from the one in the pic. Nice healthy fish about 14 inch, i didnt get a pic

 

[LehighRegular]

Timmy

No idea where they came from. But they are becoming more numerous and widely distributed. Will be interesting to see if their numbers keep increasing.

 

[blueheron]

Good job! Bikes are the way to go, as far as streamborn or stocked it’s all speculation unless you catch a parr or yoy, either way whatever spawns is from a stocked fish at some point or another. I’ll be up as soon as it warms a smidge more.

 

[LehighRegular]

BH,

True, most times it is speculation in determining wild vs stocked, but there are indicators that can give away stocked or wild and some are very distinguishable. And just because a brown trout is stocked and spawns does not make its offspring a stocked trout. That off spring is now a wild trout. All brown trout in PA came from stocked origins.

 

[Mike]

I wouldn’t get too hung up on “strains” in the Lehigh or in Pa in general based on coloration. There are a lot of natural color variations even coming out of the same PFBC hatchery, let alone wild fish, and as I have mentioned before, salmonids are very plastic in their external characteristics.

 

[Tigereye]

Stopped at 4 locations on river today and it was MOBBED. It looked like a typical opening day. I didnt fish. I stood and watched for 15 or so minutes at each place and didn't see many fish caught. 3 to be exact. All on bait.

Conditions were similar to last w/e. Remarkable was that the river was distinctly more "tannic" than usual and noticeably more foam on the rocks. Foam or suds could be an issue; however, in this case I think with the recent rains, ensuing runoff and increasing temps, what your seeing is the result of biological decay of last falls vegetation ie leaves twigs etc. It explains both.

People were practicing their social distancing. ;?) There were signs in the parking area with social distancing messagesl

 

[vcregular]

Where abouts did you observe?

The lower river - below the gorge was also being heavily used. Pontoons. Drift Boats and wade anglers. And the rails to trail was extremely busy. Parking lots near the AT trailhead were jammed. People have officially discovered the out of doors.

 

[blueheron]

Hit my usual spots, another glorious day on the Lehigh. Yes , the parking lot was jammed and the yakkers were out, as were the caddis, march browns, egg laden hendricksons, and willing browns. I heard Bowmanstown to the gap was stellar.

 

[Tigereye]

VC

Observations from FEW outfall (gauge) to Tannery Bridge.

 

[Hilltop]

Tigereye, I don't know if it was the foam, biological decay or what but in some spots wading was really a challenge. It felt like the rocks were coated with wd40. I know wading the lehigh can be a little tricky but I've done it for a pretty long time and that was the slickest I ever remember. I didn't think it looked any more tannic than normal, but I was below the tannery. Bug activity was pretty good especially caddis, saw a decent amount of risers too.

 

[blueheron]

LR, I am aware of the worn fins that are the telltale sign of a stockie, I was really referring to the two distinct strains I see and definitively stating that one or the one or both are stocked or streamborn , I personally am not qualified to make that judgement call one way or the other and I don’t know anyone where is. Just sayin.

 

[blueheron]

Yesterday I caught mostly this strain, the one I will say is “scaly” or Scottish as opposed to the smooth or German, these are my terms and have no use except as a note to myself. Streamborn or stocked long ago I won’t guess, I knew LRSA or some group has stocked the lower gorge in the past as I have caught many stocked rainbows , just don’t know about this year .