June 14, 2017 - Rollerskates, a Drowned Rat, a Plastic Sled, a Basketball, and Wild Brown Trout – The Lackawanna River

A conservation success story in a populated and once environmentally ravaged area of the state.

I have only fished the Lackawanna River about three times, and twice it was for a short, curiosity trip.  I liked what I saw, obviously, in the water at least.  The last time I was here was about this time last year when I was returning down Rt. 81 from Canada, and I only spent an hour stretching my legs from a long drive and hooking a couple fish.  Today, I had an entire morning to do more exploring around Archbald, PA, and even though I was new to many of the runs I fished, I found some good trout and had fun.  Part of the fun was discovering all the ridiculous things than end up in an urban/suburban river.  Now, I am no snob.  Two of my favorite places to fish are the Bushkill in Easton and the Brodhead in Stroudsburg (not to mention the Wissahickon Creek in Philly), so I am no stranger to tent cities and swimming holes full of empties and shopping carts, but I can say that I have never witnessed a size twelve basketball shoe floating past me, as happened today.  One deep hole that I will target again this winter and early next spring with midges will forever be known to me as the rollerskate hole, due to some classic, old skool white pleather rollerskates—the pair still together, mind you—resting on a sandbar near the low waterfall at the pool’s head.  Random or modern art or ghosts?

B-ball/snow sled run.

I was up at 3:30 AM and on the road by 4:10, so even with a pit stop at the Hickory Run rest area, I was fishing by a little after 6 AM.  As I was suiting up, one other fly guy arrived, which turned out to be fine.  There is plenty of water and plenty of access via rails to trails path. Having limited experience with the river, it also confirmed that I had selected an area worth fishing.  We also were heading in different directions to start, and he was only putting in a couple hours, so an easy deal was reached.  So much for the cool off, though, as it was humid and hot to start, the change in the weather not making itself apparent until the light winds kicked up later in the day and the stickiness started to dissipate.  It did not take long to tag a decent fish of 14 inches while targeting the basketball/plastic sled riffle/run, not to be confused with the bloated dead rat behind the automotive shop stone current diverters run.

A good start to the morning.

The water temp was a good 64 degrees and had a stain to cover me a bit, but like most summer fish in wild waters, the trout were in the riffles and runs, which provide their own cover.  The fly guy in the morning said that rain events have been spiking the creek all summer, but we agreed that today’s conditions looked just about perfect.  After my first fish, I continued to work the riffles on my way to a deep run where I had scored fish on another visit. 

A good 17 incher too.

Even before I got to my destination, however, the slow, methodical working of the pockets with jigged pheasant tail and a caddis dropper paid off with a little 8 or 9 incher and probably my best fish of the day and the one that opens this post, an 18 inch jumper from a bankside run.  In some places, fish really only have stands of knotweed to use as shade, and this fish used them well, hanging close to a deep, shaded run close to the bank.  Somewhere on this riffle fishing, I also landed a good 16 or 17 incher on a weightless pheasant tail dropper. Good stuff, you know?

The wounded warrior.

Thankfully, the run I had in mind also produced another good fish of about 15 inches.  He had tangled with a bait fisherman or spinner by the looks of his wounded jaws, but despite being a little skinny, I think he will make it.  He didn’t fight like the 18 incher, but he was sporty in his own right and continued to dominate a prime location, perhaps not the prime location, which held nothing for me this time, but a desirable spot amongst his trout brethren, no doubt.  I managed another sporty 12 inch fish near this area too.

A productive and pretty run rimmed in knotweed.

I ended my uphill approach around 10 AM, coming up dry at a couple easily accessible plunge pools that looked fishy, and I walked back using neighborhood streets and part of the Lackawanna Heritage trail.  After a break to eat a little something and refill my water bottle, lose a layer of cloths, too, I hiked down the trail hoping to spot some more new spots.  Prospecting from the trail was tough this time of year, as the aforementioned knotweed (think bamboo) obscured most of the views.  Instead, I had to enter the stream where small paths had been broken, either by fishermen or dog swimming fans, but a couple did lead me to decent looking pocket water.  I also found the rollerskate hole during one of these excursions.  

The long, deep, placid hole below rollerskate falls

At a split in the river, I found a nice deep run where the currents converged behind an island.  Here I pulled two small wild browns, one only 6 inches long, the other 9 or 10 inches.  No big boys to cooperate, but it was getting close to high noon on a hot and sunny day.  Working upstream to a large plunge pool or low falls (rollerskate hole) I saw one small fish rise.  I got him to take a swipe at my nymphs, but no hook-up.  I did catch another 10 incher at the base of the plunge.  This was the kind of place that either holds big fish or gets hammered and/or poached, but I could see sneaking back in the winter to see what lives in the deep hole and run below the falls.  A nice hatch would probably reveal a lot more life here, I am sure.  Besides some small olives, maybe, and a random caddis, there was not much bug life and only the one rise that I witnessed.

Last good fish of the day chewing on Sam's jig hook pheasant tail. the perfect high-stick nymphing tool.

Instead of taking to the trail again, I stumbled down a long riffle, testing some pockets along the way, but eyeing the pool at the bottom of the fast water.  The riffle ended at a slight bend, plunging into a deep run under some low hanging trees.  The trees did not preclude some high stick nymphing, however.  They were just enough cover to make a trout feel secure, a good trout, the one on which I decided to end my morning on the Lackawanna River.  I believe I counted 8 fish, ranging from 6 inches to 18 inches, so the river seems to be doing well, as all reports claim.  The atmosphere is an acquired taste, especially since a two hour drive from my house can place me in some pristine and beautiful spots, but there is no denying that the river holds some gorgeous fish and is a conservation success story that is hopefully never undone.

Another shot of the first piggie of the day, a good 18 inches!

Another shot of the last fish of the day on a good day on some new water.