Little Lehigh, Lehigh County, 7/15/09

[afishinado]

Fished the LL just above the Heritage section between 1pm - 3pm (before the casting jam). Weather sunny with air temp in mid 80's. No water temp taken, but I would guess it to be in low 60's. Flow slightly above normal (for the summer) and fairly clear.

Caught 10-12 fish in 2 hours. More than half (6 or 7) were nice wild brownies from 6-12" - beautiful healthy fish. The largest was a 16" stocked rainbow with a nasty Heron tattoo. Few fish rising, caught most an small BHHE and a scud. Too late in the day for tricos, but saw paralep spinners dancing above the water here and there. Heritage Ed told me they always do their dance their up and down dance there, but never seem to land in the water.

Decent fishing for a midday trip on a sunny summer day. I agree with JeffS's opinion that the LL is really fishing well this year. Great to see those healthly wild fish thriving among the stockies. Oh and Old Lefty and Wetnet had some decent fishing below the Heriage section that afternoon.

BTW, all fish caught on 5x fluoro tippet, no 7 or 8x spiderweb tippet or tiny flies needed to fool those fish.

 

[Fredrick]

Tweed those guys probally think that you were drifting wax worms off of that 5x floro now . I'm not sure why people think that you need 7x or less to catch fish on that stream...

 

[afishinado]

Fredrick wrote:
Tweed those guys probally think that you were drifting wax worms off of that 5x floro now...

C'mon Tweed, you promised not to reveal my secret.... 🙂

 

[surveyor06]

If you ever went to the Little Lehigh fly shop, you would know why ppl think you need 7x or smaller. Rod pushes that stuff pretty hard. I have no doubt he knows how to fish, and is def. better than I. But I have caught alot of wild browns there this year on 6x and 5x and I have only been fly fishing a year. He also gives me a flyer for courses on fishing, which Im sure are great, but I dont have the cash for that. IMO, all you need are a few books and alot of patience. Im no expert but I went from catching nothing, to 3 or 4 an outing, even at the little lehigh and valley. Just my two cents.

 

[Chaz]

I was @the LL this morning at 8 the water temp was 62. Tricos and Paralepts. were in the air. Trout rising steady until about 11. Caught some fish. Iused 7x but I can see that most of the year you wouldn't need it this year. My rule of thumb is to lengthen the tippet, before going to thinner stuff.

 

[littlelehigh]

5x for me on Sunday did the trick nymphing. I see no reason going to 7x and pushing that stuff on inexperienced FFers only hurts the fish in the long run. Lot's of break offs if you don't know what your doing like me when I tried it.

 

[GreenWeenie]

I'll second LL's advice - no smaller than 5x tippet is needed.

I fish the LL infrequently but did so twice last week at the heritage section during mid day and in the course of about 1 hour time picked up 4 one day (3 lifeless rainbows and 1 small wild brown)and 6 the next day (4 lifeless rainbows and 2 small wild browns) all on 5x tippet and nothing smaller than a #12 scud pattern. All were probably caught no more than 10 feet away from me. I also had probably 3-4 other takes each day where I simply missed the set.

It's all about presentation and for the most part you have to get your fly to drift and arrive at the fish's mouth exactly like whatever else they are taking. Most of the trout set up in feeding stations and only take stuff that is following a certain drift lane. If your fly is rising, dropping or going side-to-side when the stuff in the water is just floating a straight line, I don't care if you're using a 5 foot long Varivas 12x tippet and a live scud glued to a #32 hook, the trout more than likely isn't going to take your offering. It's all about getting the right balance between weight and where you land you fly above him. I'm not even convinced it has anything to do with pattern per say because I watched some of these fish take debris and simply spit it out - the debris just floated and arrived at the fish's mouth like everything else they were taking.

As for the rainbows, you might as well reel in a wet rag - these rainbows just offer zero fight. Those little 8" wild browns fight with everything they have and those 16" stocked rainbows just act like, "Okay, I know the deal, you pull me in, take out the hook and let me go so let's just get this over with and move on with our lives."