Clear, low, water temp at 58 around 9am. Mostly cloudy / overcast but a few times the sun managed to poke through for a couple of minutes. Various caddis hatching. A few more and done risers but nothing steady. Wind dead upriver 20 - 35 mph turning most flat sections into wave pools with 2' rollers. The guys I had out tossed a variety of small nymph patterns as well as a chubby / PT dry dropper. We managed to catch a good case of wind burn. Conditions were brutal making casting near impossible 50% of the day.
Lehigh River, Lehigh County, 4/22/23
- Thread starter krayfish2
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TimMurphy
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Dear kray,
It's not like I really like that you had a bad day. I just appreciate the honesty.
I tried fishing the Susky from the bank with no luck. I figured I'd try Memorial Lake. On one side I couldn't even begin to cast. On the opposite side I just stripped line out and let the wind carry my fly.
I struck out both places!
On the plus side, we got enough rain today that I can safely burn my brush pile and not set SGL 211 ablaze. I'll take that as a win!
Regards,
Tim Murphy 🙂
hooker-of-men
Well-known member
I know I'm 300 miles away, but, in solidarity, I took a hard skunk on two natural reproduction streams yesterday that I thought would really deliver. No wind, but I'll try to blame the still very cold water. Couldn't even spook one.
Put in a full day of pain yesterday, which made me feel a bit better parenting all day today.
I keep telling myself it's early still (not that I ever stopped).
Put in a full day of pain yesterday, which made me feel a bit better parenting all day today.
I keep telling myself it's early still (not that I ever stopped).
I'd normally say "thank God I was guiding and not trying to get fish in those conditions". Yesterday might have been an exception. I'd anchor to change flies for the guys, we'd be blown 100 yards back upriver dragging the anchor with us. When in a riffle, if I didn't keep the oars moving, gusts were strong enough to send us backwards up the riffle! After casting, if they didn't keep rod tip close to the water, wind would get under their line and they were flying a kite. I've been rowing for at least 20 years and yesterday will definitely make the top ten for brutal days on the water.
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Clams
Well-known member
I had a rough day on the Lehigh yesterday too. I was wading in the gorge below Rockport from 930am-230pm. Unbelievably I didn't see or hear one rise in that entire time. Literally not one, and there were plenty of bugs in the air. I started with a dry/dropper but got no action so I switched to tight lining a couple of nymphs. Was fortunate enough to hook two, a rainbow and a brown, but both managed to break loose before I got them to the net. But it was game set match when the wind rolled in around noon. The wind was a precursor to the stormy cold front that came through around 6pm, so maybe that was the reason the fish shut down (that's what I'm telling myself, lol). Anyway... it was good to get out on the big river and ride my bike on the trail, but it's never good when the highlight of a day fishing was the streamside lunch.
KeviR
Active member
The river valley seems to amplify the wind. And an upstream wind is the worst. I feel sorry for you and the poor schmucks who were trying to fish. If the forecast calls for significant wind esp. out of the south, I usually avoid floating the Lehigh. Usually with big wind, it's gonna suck. At least with a downstream wind, if it sucks, getting out is easier.
100% thumbs up on getting out easier with downstream wind but too much of that is also a bad thang. Two places that come to mind where topography + upriver wind = bad day.... #1 Dauphin narrows, #2 Lehigh Nature Gap. Wind is pinched between 2 ridges and dramatically increased. 24 hours later and I can tell you that I'm as beat up as I've ever been. 😁
Millsertime
Active member
Kray…thanks for report.
where did you put in & take out?
where did you put in & take out?
Fish Sticks
Well-known member
Sounds like slinging a cone-head streamer on an 8ft 0x leader with a double haul might be a good option.
Or just throw in the towel and chuck it out there with a light action spinning rod and some split shot avoiding the additional hassles associated with high winds and fly equipment. Better trips are ahead. (Not being a wise guy here, but being a wise man).
Silent Ocelot
Well-known member
I'll flail around helplessly with my my fly gear and take my skunks, thank you very much!
Tigereye
Well-known member
You are a better man than i Gunga-din
Not really, I watched the guy in the second boat catch 12-15 on a dry dropper rig. The exact same dry dropper we were using in my boat.
Guessing spin gear would have been better since a guy walked out 5' from my boat, made a cast to the water I just floated over and landed a 18-19" brown. 2 casts later, 15-16" brown. I turned the boat away and kept rowing.
Lmao. Yes Jason...windy AF this year. I'm headed up for a week and what do you think would happen.... rain every day with possible totals over an inch on several of the days. Oh well, they still have to eat and I've finished it at ridiculous flows before.
JeffP
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What is Memorial lake like?
TimMurphy
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KeviR
Active member
+1 on that. BTW, I wasn't saying that a downstream wind is good - just that it sucks a bit less.
And I usually carry a spinning rod on my boat for such times. A conehead bugger or fish skull sculpin can be cast into basically any wind. If there's big wind, the fish don't rise anyway.
But 2 fish on 3 casts doesn't happen very often with ANY setup. Just lucky or verrrry good.
