Lehigh River (Rockport Access, Carbon County) 4/14/18

Good luck. Rockport is a nice area. Be sure to check USGS gauges. Just checked as we are floating lower river Sunday and it's ripping at 3-4K CfS.

I suspect they will scale back release if that is the reason for the high flows...hope so at least.
 
Buckspa: https://www.facebook.com/fewalterdam

Always check this for the dam's weekend plans. It rips during the week, but it says "400 CFS Fishing Friendly Flow" for the weekend, so it usually is at a very steady 400 CFS coming out of the dam, and pick ups going downstream over Saturday and Sunday.
 
Brad: In your experience does the extreme fluctuation in flow from weekday to weekend releases mess with the fish? I would guess it takes some time for the fish to adjust. If true, Sunday may be the better bet. Also, Sunday should have lighter winds and warmer temps.

I have some flexibility in which day I go.
 
They do a decent job of starting to cut the flow down Friday halfway through the day and I think its usually around 400CFS by Friday at midnight. I've only fished both Saturday and Sunday back in the fall a few times - and I caught just as many fish on Saturdays as I did Sundays, didn't really notice a difference. If anything, by now, the fish are likely more used to it and with temperatures warming up I don't think it should much of an issue. I've always noticed Lehigh river fish to be highly aggressive and feisty no matter what the conditions are both in the Spring and Fall (never fished for them in the dead of summer heat though, and neither should anyone else unless the water is the proper temps).
 
Good info! Thanks.

The other variable for me is I have a dinner party to go to in Scranton at 6 on Saturday. I'm 90% sure I'll be in the Lehighton area Sunday so I have more free time to fish.

I may meet up with an old buddy who hasn't fly fished (and waded) for trout in years. We may end up fishing the Po. He may only have a few hours to fish so I could fish the Lehigh before or after my time with him. I'll know more this evening.
 
They can only scale back the release for fishing if the dam level is under 1370 ft. Luckily, it is. Stopped by the river this morning after I got done fishing another stream, and it was in the trees. When I got home to check the flows, it had dropped from over 2000 cfs to 1250.
 
Fly-Swatter wrote:
Brad: In your experience does the extreme fluctuation in flow from weekday to weekend releases mess with the fish? I would guess it takes some time for the fish to adjust. If true, Sunday may be the better bet. Also, Sunday should have lighter winds and warmer temps.

I have some flexibility in which day I go.
Click to expand...

The river has some nice fish and fishes well at times, and is very tough other times given the yo-yo releases in spring, summer and into the fall.

It will never happen given the whitewater releases, but one can only imagine what the river would be like if the flows were steady throughout the year. More moderate and steady spring flows, plenty of cold water in the summer, and moderate fall flow for the spawn.

If the river continues to be cleaned up (the tribs), and flows were moderated, the Lehigh would rival the Delaware River as great trout fishery. In fact, given all the public access and wild beauty, it would exceed it in many ways.
 
It's nice to think about, though... 🙂
 
Caught a couple today, nice fat 18 incher as well out of my favorite hole, and then about 4 dozen rafts and kayaks came through and spooked all the fish. Ran into Tiger Eye as well on my way back upstream!
 
Good stuff, Brad. I am game for Sunday, but I have to be back home around 5 or 5:30 PM. Hit me up if you are going. While I would like to save gas money, I will probably meet you up there this time, so I can skip out when I need to.
 
I made it up there yesterday to the access point just below Rockport on the other side of the stream. Only managed one and missed a few hookups. Did see a good Hendrickson hatch in the afternoon and found one pod of rising fish but they were on the other bank and I couldn't get to them without going for a swim. Love that river around that area.
 
Fly-Swatter and I hit Rockport today. Only a couple landed - lost a few. Rainbows, Browns, and about a 12 inch wild brown as well that had some beautiful color.

 
It was a beautiful Spring day! Thanks to Brad for showing me some new places. I hope to return the favor soon.
 
Hi Brad,

I took a few photos yesterday. The lighting was not ideal, but the shot of you with your rod up landing the fish is interesting.

This site restricts files to 150k. If you want a high-res version, let me know your email.

 
I was thinking of fishing tomorrow, i know there is a fishing release planned for Sat but looking at the last couple weeks it looks like they dont start to dial down to the 400 release until about halfway thru the day on Friday basically making Friday unfishable, am i correct?

Also, i dont have facebook. People say that they FEW dam puts their plans on the facebook page to let people know. How do i see it? When i look at FEW facebook all i can see are some posts of pics people put up there from 2015. What do i need to do to find out the plans for the next couple days? Log on to my wifes and look that way?
 
See link. Also good reading is the 2018 FEW Flow Management Plan. Rockport will be ok to fish Friday evening. As for week days essentially what is coming in is going to be discharged to keep lake levels static. To much to detail here but that is a good rule of thumb
http://www.nap.usace.army.mil/Missions/Civil-Works/Francis-E-Walter-Dam/Flow-Management-Plan-Schedule/
 
I checked it out on my wifes facebook last night, will do that for info from now on. Came to work today, might go up sunday
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Montana Angler Fly Fishing
Montana Angler Fly Fishing
Harman's North Fork Cottages

Share this page

Back
Top