June 28, 2025 – She’s Warming Up Her Pipes, but It’s Not Totally Over Yet – NEPA

A little redemption.

Still no Lehigh River trip with Joe.  The Corp of Engineers changed the flow management based on all the rain, so the river was up above 700 CFS coming out of the dam.  And it’s 65 F from the bottom release, so even a tailwater is becoming marginal.  He and I postponed a Saturday meeting this Friday, but we are still hoping to get one more shot at some dry fly fishing in good water temps.  We shall see.  Maybe the Po is in our future instead?  Honestly, trout fishing’s been over in SEPA, but now it’s just about over in NEPA.  There is still cold water to be found during the summer morning grind, of course, especially on limestoners, spring creeks and some tailwaters (like the Po), but it sucks to drive 3 hours to fish 4 hours, unless you are spending the night in an air-conditioned hotel room and can take a late morning nap.  I am just about ready to switch to bass fishing or the beach.  I do have a fluke trip with team Ward in early July, so maybe that will motivate me to make a few more shore trips this summer.  I know my son wants to get out and fish again.  This morning, I made two stops, and I caught some fish, including a few good small stream browns, but it was feeling like borrowed time, and I had to quit by 11 AM after dropping my thermometer.  If it was this warm already, it was probably hitting 68 F today.

Early morning drizzle but three good small stream fish.

Against my usual mode, I made a last-minute decision to exit early this morning and return to the creek Joe and I fished last week.  It was on my way to the mighty Brodhead, which was the intended destination.  I think I was still looking for some redemption from a bonkers spring visit where I lost two big trouts.  I eventually got to the Brodhead about 9:30 AM and caught some fish, but I when I took a water temperature reading at 11 AM there, and it was 64 F in good flows and following a cold front day on Friday, I was convinced it was time to go home.  I was suited up and fishing my detour creek by 5:30 AM, and it was quiet to start, which made me question my decision until I stuck a good trout.  The water was low and clear, so I knew I would have to make the most of this low, misty start.  No bugs active, so I tossed caddis larva with a small blow torch on the dropper.  Coming back with cased caddis on my hooks was good confirmation that this might work.  I caught my first good fish on the larva, then I got a second on the blowtorch.  I had to switch to a big stonefly to get my third nicer fish, this one from a very deep hole.  Sadly, this was the sort of day where active fish might move up into riffles to eat, but I found no fish in the fast water.  As it brightened, and it became clear that I might continue to fish unproductive riffles for no fish, I made the move to the bigger crick.  The upper gage was 100 CFS, but as sometimes happens, the lower gage was a higher than normal below a major tributary.  But it was very wadable....

Mighty but not mighty enough for a drift boat.  Stockers are still healthy and hungry.

When I arrived, two front-platers with a good sense of humor were rigging up a two-man Flycraft inflatable drift boat for a trip down the creek.  I called them punk mitches for not floating the Lehigh today.  I may have added that at 300 CFS even a 56-year-old man like me can wade this sometimes-rough section of the Brodhead.  They laughed and acknowledged that it was borderline floatable, but they had already come this far.  I actually witnessed them bottom out for the first of many times, I am sure.  To their credit, they were trying to sneak behind me, already waist-deep in a prime run, not float right through my spot.  No wild browns, but this run was a hot spot for about an hour.  I caught a few bows on a streamer, which I lost in the one tree within reach for miles around, then a couple bass, more bows, and even a stocked brown and stocked brookie on deep nymphs before I dropped the thermometer and didn’t love what I saw.  Bugs were about, mostly caddis, so I even targeted a few favorite riffles with high hopes.  This time of year, I can usually count on a mess of small wild browns in a couple of these riffles.  Nada, not a touch, unfortunately.  I am confident that if I had stopped at the big water first, I may have found a few, maybe even a couple better wild fish. It wasn’t like my early change of plans was a total lost, however, so I can live with my decision.  I am not sure what the upcoming week has in store, but I am starting to hear distant opera….

I guess the detour was worth it?  Pretty fishes.