August 13, 2026 – Dipping my Toes Back into the (Warm) Water – NEPA

Looks like holding water.  Looks....

It’s been a while since I’ve had the desire to get out.  I don’t love the hot weather, and neither do the trouts.  With the price of gas, I have not been raring to go when it comes to the surf, and I actually had to cancel out on the annual Ward fluke trip because I was sick for a few days prior.  Besides that inconvenient week, things have been good.  I think I have been working on a few things at home and reading actual books again, like real literature!  Not a bad way to wait out the heat and humidity and thunderstorms, I suppose.  I have gotten the urge again recently and have monitored the gages a couple times, but I did not like what I saw.  Honestly, I have cringed when I’ve seen videos of dudes fishing on creeks I know are hitting 70 plus every day.  I feel like I am even more prone to give the wild fish a break the older I get, and with this new job and all the time off, it’s not like I won’t be at it again really soon.  In order to catch a few trouts today, I had to fish the dreaded (for me) Pohopoco.  Like the Tully, it is not a trout stream in my head, just a place where someone puts trout.  The Po is functioning bottom release tailwater, however, so the water is cold year-round within a couple miles of the dam.  And wild fish do exist in the main creek, not just from the tribs like the Tully, so it's closer to a trout stream?

Dry fly eats after an early start.

I got a couple holdover bows, and they were on a dry fly, a big stimulator, so that was fun.  I also landed some of the resident wild fish.  I nymphed up a few before switching gears as the sun got higher.  For some reason, most of the wild fish that I’ve encountered are sub-legal—maybe their parents retreat to posted property and/or better holding water.  I only fish the crick once a year in August because it’s the only game in town, so I am hardly a regular.  I have heard this from others I trust, though.  A lot dry fly eats from dink wild browns is a common story.  From afar, like in the pic above, places look sexy, but then you realize it’s ankle deep and wide.  I had one big hole in mind that was good to me last year and other years, but it was dead this year, so I went with the random big dry cast to cover.  I had only one blow-up that I missed.   By 10 AM, I was comfortable because I was wet wading, but I knew it was over with the sunny conditions.

Just stopped to change for the drive home, but too wadable not to try!

It was so hot where I parked that I decided to head for home along the local roads, which takes me down the Lehigh River, and look for a shady spot to change my wading boots and have my lunch.  I found a nice park above Slatington to do just that, but when I saw the River was low and wadable, I decided to catch a bass or two.  Not that I had bass stuff with me, but I did purchase a new 11’ 4 weight nymphing rod this summer.  It was in the tube in my car, and I found a couple balanced leeches and a bobber that would suspend them.  To my pleasant surprise, I was able to wade across the entire river to a shady and deep bank.  I guess that even with the rain, flows are still down.  I did not have high hopes at midday, but I was very pleased with myself when the bobber went down.  Like on the Juniata, which inspired my use of the balanced leech for bass, the bass buried the bobber when he ate.  I had a couple short hits after that, which I should have known were not bass.  I was right.  When I became vigilant about reacting to every pause and dip, I caught a couple fallguys (or bottom).  Still, mission accomplished.  I even put on Eric’s jigged bugger to see how this new rod would perform on the trouts this fall way upstream of here.  I may have shared that I broke my 10’6” this year on the River with Larry, so this was my inexpensive replacement.  I may need to work on balancing the outfit a bit, but I do like the extra reach.  It will work.

One on the balanced leech, so worth the stop.

I get busy at work until a couple days after Labor Day, but then it's game on, I hope.  I am taking the trip to Lewisburg to return the boy to college and then on to Lewistown for the Josh Jam, so more fishing for bass and maybe even trouts in August.  I like August.  Days get shorter and nights longer, which cools the creeks.  The forecast is for a below-average second half of the month, which sounds good to me.  I am done with humidity and pop up storms that flood some creeks and don't touch others.  I mean, the Delaware was too high to wade today, but I was able to have my way with the Lehigh River.  No wonder I have been sleeping in!  That should be changing very soon.

Pretty low or pretty and low, something like that.