August 4, 2023 – Some Trouts Were Caught on a Cool Weekday Morning – Lehigh County

August trouts during the early shift.

Yep, it’s been nearly a month since I even wet a line, but the cool days this week had me dreaming of fall, so I finally made it happen.  Honestly, I had my vehicle packed and ready to go a few times, even if just for some smallmouths on the Wissy, but I rolled over and went back to sleep instead.  As far as trout, the last heatwave no doubt had them stressed out, and I typically saw something that I did not like as I was planning—usually low flows or high temps many days in a row.  To get up before dawn and drive somewhere when I know it likely means only a bunch of small fish and YOY active, even if conditions looked safe to fish, it is just hard to justify, especially with my new job getting busier as I become more essential to the operation after a long onboarding.  Today was the culmination of a few very low August temperatures and even clouds as the humidity returned, so I made it happen.  With the exception of one solid rainbow, skinny from a tough summer but beautiful and in the high teens, it was what I expected, but it was a good trip for August.

Some short plumpers put a bend in the 3 weight, and wet wading felt pretty great.

I started nymphing small bugs on 6X, a size 16 French pt on the anchor and an 18 CDC soft hackle on the dropper.  I had a few sharp short hits that proved later to be YOY, but I was glad some fish were awake.  Before I quit, I fished a single ginger waltz, and got popped by YOY in nearly every likely spot!  After catching two 8-inch wild browns in the first 30 minutes of fishing, I was happy I got out and totally fine with catching 5 or 6 short, lumpy stocked rainbows after that.  Most of them hit the soft hackle, even though the browns took the dropper.  This place is a pale ghost of what it once was even five years ago, and thinking about longer ago is just depressing.  Stocked fish never used to dominate, but I think more and more are put in this stretch to keep the regulars happy and returning to utilize the resource.  The tricos are trailing off, but some dudes were out looking.  Even I waited to see if some risers showed, but this shot of fishable water temps probably came a little too late to rescue what I imagine was a tough trico year here, at least from the fisherman’s perspective.  The small fish probably ate like crazy regardless, of course.

Skinny girl but awfully pretty.

I only fished from 5:45 AM to about 8:45 AM, even though it was cool and the water temperature was only 62-ish.  There was really only about a solid 90 minutes of good activity and feeding fish, ending with the only better one.  It barely fought compared to the fat young bucks and especially the wild boys and girls, but I was not all that surprised.  It is tougher out there for the bigger fish—imagine a big boy sweating it out with no A/C in a rooftop baby pool in Brooklyn in August or something, and you get the picture.  The browns and this better bow could not have had their heads any closer to the low riffle plunges, just trying to get as much of that good 62 degree O2-rich shit, you know?  Tonight is another night where the ‘Ru might be packed for the morning, but chances of an August 5 report are 50/50 at best.