Saucon Creek, Northampton 7-12-15

[Foxgap239]

Hadn't been to the Saucon in about a year due to the continuing bad reports plus my own last trip up during tricos in 2014. Arrived at 6am in the park and found the stream lower than I expected. Air temps were in low 70's and stream temp was about 65. Fished nymphs for the first 2 hours and got a few including the one in the picture below. Then switched to a trico and proceeded to find all of 3 fish rising even though tricos were in abundance. I really hope this stream makes a comeback because it used to be fantastic. I probably won't go back until again next year for a trico day. I love fishing tricos and do much better at the LL but stream etiquette is really a lost art over there and I get too easily frustrated.

Not sure if the pic fish is wild or stocked but he gave me a really nice fight. I'm thinking stocked because I know of no tribs to the Saucon that have brookies but I honestly can't be sure.

 

[J55tyger88]

Nice Fox! Those are awesome looking fish.

 

[3wt7X]

Great report and beautiful tiger, I don't know the fishery enough to hazard a good guess, but at very least that fish has been in the stream for a season or more.

 

[CLSports]

I caught a tiger trout in Saucon as well, but this was probably 7-8 years ago. I assumed at the time it was a stockie from the ATW above the park area.

 

[Heritage-Angler]

Foxgap239 wrote:
Arrived at 6am in the park....

Slept in, eh?

Nice looking fish.

 

[martinlf]

Yes, that's a stocked tiger trout. The last Fish Commission shocking turned up very few trout in the Saucon, and nobody's seeing many fish these days from what I hear. Don't know if they've been mostly poached out, or if something else happened, but the locals have pretty much stopped fishing it as they are finding very few fish rising to Tricos. Fortunately, the Little Lehigh is fishing well.

 

[NickR]

I dont think poaching is the main issue. Ive noticed a similar decline in other sepa limestoners as well as the Saucon so I am giving them a break. I have caught 2 wild brook trout out of Saucon last year. Gotta love tiger trout.

 

[JohnPowers]

what a difference a year makes. posts from 2014 were effusive over the number of five inch fish. had they lived they'd be worth the drive for me but I guess they all died.

 

[troutbert]

martinlf wrote:
Yes, that's a stocked tiger trout. The last Fish Commission shocking turned up very few trout in the Saucon, and nobody's seeing many fish these days from what I hear. Don't know if they've been mostly poached out, or if something else happened, but the locals have pretty much stopped fishing it as they are finding very few fish rising to Tricos.

If the population takes a nose dive, there must be a reason. This is particularly true of limestone streams. On freestoners, just extremes of scouring floods or severe droughts can know a trout population down 50% or more. But limestoners tend to vary much less because they have better base flow.

What are the theories?

Have there been any major changes in physical habitat in recent times? Has something happened that reduced pool habitat and/or overhead cover?

Has there been a chemical spill?

 

[NickR]

Herons? Idk...but I noticed declines through this very cold winter we had. The fish never really seemed to return.

 

[Mike]

There are more than enough fish present in the Saucon to provide good fishing. Anglers may have to work a little harder, but as usual, fishing success will depend upon the normal factors of location, habitat recognition, flow, water clarity, and technique, including timing relative to weather events and time of day fished. Many anglers do quite well around the state fishing over brown trout biomasses that are much, much lower than the average biomass recorded in 2015 over the three sampling sites.