Little Lehigh, Lehigh County, 8/7/2009

[afishinado]

Weather sunny mid 60’s early morning to upper 70’s early afternoon. Water temp 62* and flow was 70cfs (Allentown gauge) which is near normal. The water was fairly clear.

Fished from 7am – 11am in the park below the Heritage section. 12pm -1pm in the Heritage section.

No trikes observed when I first arrived. Fished a scud and midge pupa in the faster water and picked up 3 wild browns. Observed mating swarms (tricos) above the riffles beginning at 8am. Saw a few fish rising to them from around 9am and ending at about 10:30. Caught 5 or 6 wild browns on trico fly (Al’s Trico) and missed maybe 3 or 4. All fish caught were nice healthy wild browns from 6-10”.

The bugs were there but not many fish rising to them. I had to move quite a bit to hunt down risers. Saw 2 other fly-fisherman when I got back to my truck. They fished below me and reported the same thing.

I stopped at the Heritage section at about noon. The water was clear and flow was normal, yet I did not observe many fish, trout anyway. Caught a big sucker there and packed it in.

Fishing wasn’t spectacular but the weather made it a great day to be out.

 

[littlelehigh]

Afish
I was fishing a blizzard hatch of trico's this morning on the LL with a school of fish rising to them BY MYSELF. Al's trico was the ticket. If your up this way again on a weekend PM me.


Hi my name is Corey and I am addicted to Trico fishing.....

 

[afishinado]

Sounds like a great time LL.

A lot of guys shy away from the trike hatch, but it is one of the best any easiest hatches to fish, once you get over fishing/tying such small flies – really no big deal. The fish are focused on the hatch and usually nothing else is on the water at the time to cause confusion. Also no need to try different fly patterns or worry about “stages” of hatches, like nymphs in the column, emergers in the film, duns or spinners. The fish usually stay in one spot and hold and near the surface when feeding, allowing a fairly close approach given their limited vision when near the surface.

I either caught or missed nearly every fish I saw rise and covered with a good drift. If I picked a better spot with more fish, like you did, I probably would have caught more fish. I’m going give the LV area another shot soon for trikes. Maybe I’ll try the Saucon.