Little Lehigh, Lehigh Co. 4/14/2013

[Van_Cleaver]

Fished the Heritage section today; I know some of you are rolling your eyes. Hadn't really been out this year and had the hankering to catch some stream bred fish. Guess I could have gone to Valley, but figured it would be crowded and since I'm really rusty I would have been lucky to land a trout or two. Sunny and breezy, the wind blew downstream almost all day. Water was clear and 55, a little above average flow. Craneflies coming off (Tan) but not enough risers to make me want to fish on top. Fished a bh caddiss pupa (14) with a no. 18 soft hackle for a dropper. 5x main, 6x to the dropper. Had a great day; despite rolling at least a couple dozen or more, I landed a lot of fish. Fished from the Fly shop bridge to the covered bridge and was really happy to see how many stream bred browns were present. I'd say four or five year classes, and more nice ones than I've ever seen without a hatch on. Anyway took out an old Loomis IMX 5wt. rod I built years ago to deal with the wind. Landed a handful of rainbows; all 13'-14'', a couple small brook trout, and a bunch of pretty browns from 6-13''. Wasn't too crowded, and just a nice day too be alive and fishing. I'll try to put up a few pix. OK, too tired to remember how I posted them in the past. Maybe tomorrow....

 

[troutwilleatflies]

That's some nice water and not heavily fished compared from that bridge up.Seems the majority of people feel the fishing is better at the hatchery stretch🙂

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Depends on what you like; there are definitely a lot more stocked fish above the bridge. I'd like to see a couple of those pools I fished today with a good hatch on!

 

[Van_Cleaver]

OK, Two hour nap and here goes. BTW, it was Sun. 4-14

 

[troutwilleatflies]

Very nice! Those brownies with maybe a few exceptions never saw a hatchery pool,the bows are all stocked or escapees.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Pretty sure those Browns were all spawned there. Have caught stocked browns there before but yesterday was a different day! I've seen stream bred fish with a lot less color, but never saw a known stocker with red adipose fin and red on the tail, though I suppose it's possible.