July 27, 2022 – Another Small Window, Nearly a Handful of Trouts, a Lot of "Virtue Signaling" Out There – Little Lehigh Creek

Wild bow, stocking brown over Class A brown trout, the early shift was productive-ish.

Looking back over this blog, I am beginning to think that I am triggered or at least irked on some level by the Little Lehigh??  I have been convinced for some time that a lot of the talk on discussion boards and other social media platforms about minding the water temps when fishing for trout in the summer is mostly virtue signaling, at least for half of the guys out there and a notable percentage of them devoted dry fly guys, too.  For example, I watched a YouTube video of a Pennsylvania guy that I know knows better.  He was fishing the Tully trico and caddis hatches, and that creek has not been in safe fishing range in my humble opinion for quite a few weeks (especially nowhere near the limestone tributaries, where he was).  He was also not keeping stockers for the table—which is another popular virtue signaling angle: if you are fishing in higher temps, you ought to be keeping them, and we all probably know one guy tops who actually does that, even on DHALOs.  Not that I think this local YouTube guy is that guy at all, quite the opposite in all likelihood, down to earth salt of the earth type, but the same guys out smoking pipes in tweed on the Little Lehigh Heritage Section waiting for trico spinners to fall are probably the same guys most likely to roast a newbie about fish handling or even water temps.  Some of them are there early, sure, but like today, sometimes those spinners don’t fall until 11 or noon when the water is steadily warming.  I regularly see guys showing up at 11 AM when I am undressed and having a snack in the car ready to start my drive home.  Many of the fishing vehicles I saw in the lot this morning at 6 were still there when I was heading back to the lot, and the swarm of tricos I had in front of me was still hovering 12 or 15 feet above the creek.  That spinner fall could have happened even later today because of the cooler start.

Best one, tiny bugs, likely stocked though.

Today was a legitimate July window on this creek, as the water temp on the gauge was 62 degrees when I arrived this morning.  I fished 5:45 to 9:45 AM and then quit, partially because I was wet wading and did not have my thermometer, which is in my waders, and partially because I dropped my potential fifth fish, and the short-distance release sent my perdigon and 6X tippet into the tree above me.   Pack it up!  Fishing was hardly on fire, or I was hardly on fire, having been out of the game a few weeks, and it being hot as heck for a week prior to yesterday.  Conditions warranted my A game, but I did not bring that from home.  The water was low, really low, and I was nymphing small bugs on 6X, so technical fishing too.  A size 18 perdigon accounted for two, and an equally small walts took another.  I think the fourth one took a size 20 caddis on the dropper tag, and so did the fifth fish that got away right before the net job. Not that I wanted to land them, but I had some YOY come off in really protected little spots.  They are too small for a size 20 right now, but come fall they will be a necessary nuisance!  It was good to see them.  I dropped enough deep thoughts already today, but you may notice the verbiage on the PFBC sign about this being both stocked and a Class A.  I still find that a strange practice, especially when I frequently see stocked browns in this stretch.  Today, I either landed a wild rainbow or one stocked as a fingerling, likely the former not the latter, so this place continues to be such a thriving contradiction.  There are still at least 6 goldens eating tricos each afternoon in 70 degree water if you want a meal!  Oh, but you can’t keep them in the Heritage stretch!  Come early, or at least tell your friends you were there before false dawn and quit a few minutes after sunrise.  Definitely triggered....