Lehigh River Carbon County, 9/16/2019

[blueheron]

Beautiful day to be on the water . Stonefly shucks everywhere, sporadic caddis and assorted small to tiny mayflies. The water quality is far better than previous years, evidenced by the variety of bugs. Started with a stonefly nymph at my first stop and never changed.
Saw a stonefly in the air at my second stop , eventually I tied on a dark stimulator and they all came to the surface. I don’t who is responsible but the gorge is really returning to life, I’ve been fishing there for over a decade and it’s as clean as I have ever seen.

 

[blueheron]

Coupla more pics, guys love pics

 

[blueheron]

This is my
lehigh stone next to shuck

 

[Tigereye]

Fished stocked section above White Haven last evening 6:30 - 8:15. This is the upper end of gorge- temps were 67F. A bit warmer than a few miles downstream. Alot of spinners in air but not much surface activity. I had one fish refuse a #12 spinner twice and saw three others rising a bit above me. Never really tried for them. With so little time to fish, I felt a focused approach would be more effective than run and gun.

A friend caught 1 on a #14 parachute adams. Nice healthy rainbow. This was a good sign as holdover stockies in the upper sections tend to start getting on the lean side this time of year.

Beautiful evening but slow fishing. Saw a nice buck at dark and a pair of porcupines. Cool little critters.

 

[blueheron]

Took a day to myself and hit the gorge yesterday. Even better than Sunday, I love the low flows. Saw mostly variegated perla stonefly husks but also saw a truly yellow stonefly dun and shuck. Several small to tiny mayflies in the air, once again stayed with stonefly patterns and had a good day, saw no one on the water. I appreciate the work going on to improve this fishery but I’m happy for the difficult access and hard wading that keep the crowds away. I think everyone should fish at Bowmanstown down to the gap pool. Pretty brown, the rainbows are not yet in their fall colors.

 

[blueheron]

Yellowstone in the gorge.

 

[timmyt2]

Did you get a water temp in the gorge BH?

Thanks for the report

 

[blueheron]

Not officially, finger test indicated mid 60’s

 

[blueheron]

Speaking of wildlife, this bald eagle flew over then circled around and landed on a branch to watch me fish. Thought about leaving him one on the bank but I don’t think he needed my help with dinner. You know you’re in the right place when you fish with the eagles and the herons.

 

[vcregular]

Agree about the Lehigh. This pic is from a from a few weeks back. The river is absolutely loaded with stones. The fish made it through the summer just fine. Water is super low right now which has lent itself to some decent big water fall fishing.

 

[timmyt2]

I'll be fishing tomorrow from noon to dark, will make sure i have all my stone patterns with me!!!

 

[AFISHN]

Thanks for detailed reports:i have been incentivized after 10 days of terrible SM fishing(susquehanna and the Delaware.....I'm going to start my 2 trips a week after October 6th until rifle season

 

[blueheron]

The Great Stonefly Hatch of 2019 is winding down, hit the gorge yesterday and while I did manage a few with a dark stimulator most of the activity is back underneath. The shucks are mostly gone and the trouts attention span is somehow shorter than mine. I found a new stretch of water holding some impressive fish, that’s some of the beauty of the low flows, finding the holding areas without the full pressure of the mighty Lehigh trying to sweep you off your feet.
Cooperative native, better than it looks.

 

[timmyt2]

I was out Sunday on the upper river. Saw some small yellow stones coming off at times as well as some type of light colored mayflies (bwos perhaps). Some slate drakes close to dark but the fishing was slow for the most part. Picked up a couple on nymphs, so did my buddy, but that was about it. The sun was warm in the afternoon, water temp was 66. Basically seemed like the river was still in summer mode, green slime on the rocks, etc.

Looking forward to getting back out once the fall weather really sets in for a week or so

 

[timmyt2]

Anyone been out since fall arrived and the temps dropped a bit?

 

[Millsertime]

Unfortunately no...Tough time of year... Firewood and archery hunting typically take priority over fishing til Mid November. I can only imagine the streamer bite is good with somewhat increased flows recently.

 

[afishinado]

timmyt2 wrote:
Anyone been out since fall arrived and the temps dropped a bit?

Just a heads up, there is an announced FEW dam release this weekend.
I believe it's the last of the season.

Here are details from the FEW FB site >

Francis E. Walter Dam

Date: 10/10/19
Anticipated Change: ~200cfs
Pool Elevation: 1336.24
Inflow: 235cfs
Outflow: 247cfs
Rockport: 315cfs
Weekend Flow: Sat 10/12 @ 0100 => 2500cfs; Sat 10/12 @ 1300=> 1500cfs; Sun 10/13 @ 0100=>1000cfs; Sun 10/13@ ~1300=>inflow
Precipitation: 0.00"/Cloudy
24 Hr QPF: 0.00
72 Hr QPF:

 

[timmyt2]

Thanks afish

I guess they are dumping the water to get the lake down to the desired winter level

 

[afishinado]

From the FEW FB site >

Francis E. Walter Dam

Time: 0700
Date: 10/16/19
Anticipated Change: N/C
Pool Elevation: 1301.04
Inflow: 137cfs
Outflow: 166cfs
Rockport: 298cfs
Weekend Flow: match inflow
Precipitation: 0.00"/Cloudy
24 Hr QPF:

 

[timmyt2]

Thats what i am hoping my friend, we'll see what happens with the rain today