July 15, 2020 – One Long Last Waltz, I’ll Admit It – Little Lehigh Creek

Early but not as early as usual this summer

I just watched a documentary about The Band this week, not the one alluded to in my title, but this one did share footage from the star-studded, Scorsese-helmed concert film too.  That title was on my mind this morning, the last waltz, as I drove to the Lehigh Valley before sunrise, mostly because Ron noted that my “final” trout trip of the summer is going on three, maybe four?  To be on the safe side, then, I will make sure that I do not call this the last one.  It almost didn’t happen, to be honest, as I woke up with a start at 4:22 AM and realized that my 3 AM alarm was really set for 3 PM. 

Fish were caught.

The week has not been going great.  I nearly got to the Frank Farley Rest stop on the AC Expressway on Tuesday morning before I got a call from Ward at 5:15 AM saying the captain cancelled our fluke fishing charter due to high winds and rough seas.  Had I actually brought a rod and tackle with me, I may have kept going to the beach and caught some fluke off the sand or sods.  Instead, I turned around and was back in bed sleeping by 6:45 AM.  This morning, I planned to go somewhere an hour, an hour and change from home, a little adventure, and early, but my plans changed when I got up over an hour late.  The Little Lehigh is under an hour and an easy ride.  It was not until I was almost to Allentown that I remembered the tricos…

Remember the Tricos

Even with my late start, I was fishing right before official sunrise, and I only saw one other angler at that time and another around 8 AM.  After I finished working through a favorite run of pocket water, however, I saw them: the tricos and along with a dozen guys waiting for the spinners to fall.  Oh yeah, I thought, that’s why I didn’t want to go here today!  I left for home around 9:30 AM, and I still had not seen a riser or a spinner.  The water has been dipping down to 64 each night, even on the hot days, but I stuck with my plan to get in and get out early.  It was rather productive too.  While they waited, I landed 10 fish and dropped another before netting it.  Small bugs were the order of the day.  I caught a few on a size 16 frenchie after I lost a smaller walts that I was using as my point fly.  Most came on this small walts, one of Eric’s, but I also landed a few on his newer tiny caddis/midge pattern on the dropper.  He had just tied these up and given me a few, and we did not fish them on Saturday in the high stained water, so I wanted to give one a test run.  Small bugs are almost a necessity to fool the wild (and sometimes stocked) fish in the Heritage FFO section, but I think these bugs will also work when it comes time to midge this fall and winter.

Small larvae did the trick.

I don’t know what’s up with this stretch of the Little Lehigh anymore or what’s put in there and not put in there.  I know it is not as good as I remember from way back, and I know it was starting to decline when I first returned to it after a long absence.  Looking at the blog posts, I did fish it a couple years ago with some success.  Like the Bushkill, I fear, when someone deems the wild population is not up to snuff or will not support the historical pressure, other fish of known and unknown origins start showing up to supplement.  Today, I caught some wild browns, one brown that certainly looked like a stocker even though the fins were perfect, at least a couple rainbows with clipped tail fins (?), one small enough that I thought wild until I saw the clip (fingerling stocks in here now?).  I also caught a couple hot bows that did not have any markings of a fingerling or adult stocker, but I have no clue how many wild bows are in the creek these days (if any).  Then there is the fact that the creek is stocked with rainbows above and below, and rainbows love to wander. So, basically, fish were caught, close to a dozen.  Is that vague enough for you? 

Stocked, clipped and unclipped?

After landing about 8 fish in the pocket water where I began the morning, I ran out of water and wanted to find some shade.  That is what prompted my walk upstream towards some wooded stretches, and that is when I began to see just how many others had arrived since I last looked up.  I did sneak into a shaded riffle above the crowd and landed another rainbow in deep pocket water.  When not in the shade it felt hot, however, so I quickly worked upstream to where I had parked.  It was approaching 9 AM, but I figured it would be wiser to wait until rush hour, even a Covid rush hour, had petered out, so I fished some deep but pressured water for another half hour.  I actually found another decent wild brown right next to the lot, so I was not just killing time cooling off, it seems.

Born to be wild.

As promised, I will not commit to this being the last waltz.  The damn tricos have me thinking because I know a couple far less crowded spots where they’re probably starting to show.  As a confirmed hermit, I have a complicated relationship with the hatches and the blitzes, but I do like to catch fish.  I thought catching a few fluke on Tuesday might flip a switch and motivate me to start making some drives to the beaches and bays, but now I can’t say what the rest of July holds.  It will take rain or another cooler night like last night to send me back after the trout, I know, so maybe I need to rig up the 7 weight and target some smallies?  Take the boy for some fluke?  Call Sam in State College?  Young Pete was doing well out that way all last week.  See when Kenny is next getting out on the Susky?  Decisions, decisions….

Some clipped tails some not.  I have no clue on the Little Lehigh anymore!