April 27, 2021 – Take the Good, Take the Bad: One of those Twelve Hour Tours – Lehigh River

One of the better ones, but not the one....

I took a ride to another large NEPA freestoner today to fish the lower water (for April).  Usually, one can’t get around much, at least safely, this time of year, but real rain appears to be a phantom this spring.  The upside is that the Lehigh today, like the Brodhead last week, was pretty darn accessible for this time of year.  Granted, the Lehighton gage was close to 560, so not summer flows yet, but not 1300 either.  We need rain, but I take the good, I take the bad, I take ‘em both, and there you have it.  I arrived in the lower gorge at 7 AM, and I ended the day upriver a good thirty minutes at a second spot about 6:30 PM, so it was a day—more like two days.  Day one began cold, in the high thirties actually.  I relied on my wading staff quite a lot for the first two hours, not wanting to fall in until at least noon.  Rocks in low water and with no tree shade yet seem to carry a special slickness with them, so I was prepared.  I considered felt and spikes today, but a few weeks ago I had sunk a few additional spikes into my everyday boots to supplement the Simms Hardbite star cleats, which are fine for most places, but for me not on the hard round rocks of the Lehigh, Brodhead, Lackawaxen, and so on.  I have a pair of felt with studs for such places, but the fit, comfort, and stability for a marathon day are no comparison with my G3’s in this category.   I was also giving my new 10’6” 4 weight nymphing stick its first day outside the garage.  It performed well, close to my 10’ 3 weight, just with more balls and slightly more reach, so the learning curve was brief. 

Big water, but not that big today.

Brief, but not nonexistent—of course the first fish I hooked in the cold, slow morning was a friggin’ 20 incher.  I fought him for ten seconds, then he took a run upstream that ended in a spectacular leap, and then he was gone.  I was fishing big bugs on 4X looking for such a fish, maybe even this fish.  When I was here with Jay last year, I hooked a beast that I never saw in the same great, big fish lie.  That time ended badly too, as the fish just ran downstream in not-560 CFS but more, and I had line around my reel handle that took my attention away for a few seconds while getting him on the reel.  No redemption today, at least not on this scale, but I did end the day with a flurry of great wild browns, including a good 17-inch wild one, another close to that size, and one nicer holdover brown, too.  When caddis emerged, I clipped off the 4X and big, size 10 jigs with soft hackle droppers, opting for 5X and a little trick.  Instead of split shot, I carry a bag of 3mm tungsten beads, so I can make a size 14 walts or caddis larva on the point into a 6mm double trouble, yo!  Countersunk not slotted beads actually slide nicely over an improved clinch knot too.  Sexy, you know?  Even sexier with a pink tag blowtorch on the dropper.

Slow motion stocker-fest after losing a first fish pig.

The first spot, well, I landed a consolation stocker brown from the same midstream boulder seam as the big fish I lost, then I had to fish a big glide downstream for at least an hour for three more porker stocked rainbows, while I rested the riffle upstream and/or waited for the warm-up to provoke more than midges on the water.  I even swung Eric’s micro-sculpin for a while and rose two but didn’t stick them, both bows as well.  Fat, lazy and so silver they were almost white, but like all bows, they never stop moving in the net, never really give up, so I apologize if pics are blurry (I also included the ol’ empty hand shot, where the bow beats the camera with a quick escape).  When I started seeing caddis flying upstream before lunchtime, I hung in this same general area even a little longer with nothing else to show for it. Cold, sunny, dropped pig, tough morning.  I decided to take a break, lose some cloths, and take a ride up into the gorge.  If caddis were down in town, they were up there too, perhaps stronger, I assumed—and I assumed correctly, finding two hours, maybe three, with clouds of caddis and rising fish, almost all of them wild browns.

Some second stop wilds and one porky holdover

It was a beautiful afternoon, warm but not crazy yet, so I took a longer walk away from the bikes and dogs after I had a little food and iced coffee at the ‘Ru.  The water looked even tamer here, and I know the wading at this spot very well, so I left the wading staff behind.  Mostly a good call.  No spills, but I had a close one in the literal eleventh hour:  Took a seat in six inches of water after releasing a trout, so I had to get an arm wet to lift my tired ass up.  It was worth the extra time out there, however, as the 4 to 6 PM shift was pretty magical.  No redemption 20, but a great 17 that fought his way all over the river before giving up, and at least 5 wild browns from 12 to 14 inches, plus the old long-time holdover stockie.  I dropped one other good fish, probably 16 or 17 as well, before a clean net job.  In @400 cfs, cold water, stream bred, well-fed, I needed the extra muscle that the long 10’6” blank’s butt section provides.  

A looker and another shot of the one I estimated at 17 inches.

I still need a day of tighline nymphing to really put it to the test.  I euro-nymphed the morning, but the second spot/shift/day required a bobber most of the time to get in the game.  Fish were rising on the opposite bank, or chasing emergers in current, so the suspended bugs gave the right presentation at a distance.  I got a couple closer on a tight line, and I tried to swing the tailouts and glides, but the water was moving a bit too much for my liking just steps off the bank.  It is good to get bobber reps in, anyway, as that is a nice tool to have on big water even in out of seasonal low flows.  It is also nice in hour 9 of 11 to rest the right shoulder.  My right shoulder probably looks like some bizarre version of a tennis pro’s forearm by season end—does the season end, though?  

Not dandruff or a dirty lens but a substantial caddis hatch to improve the afternoon.

I may have a window on Friday to conclude the month of April.  I also have a little lull between spring and my first summer session classes, depending on how fast I grade, so I hope May is even more fishy than April.  We need a week of rain, but until then, I will probably see the Brodhead, the Lehigh, maybe even the Lackawanna again this spring.  Since I lost a 20 as my first fish on the new rod, I am on the fence about whether that is good mojo or not, but I think the fisherman puts the mojo into the rod, which can’t be done in a day.  I gave it two or three trip’s worth in one spring day, so it is on its way there, I hope.  Tom is going to take my 10’ 4 weight off my hands, and know that has good mojo on it, even if you count this year alone.  I joked with him that I would have landed that first fish of the morning with it!