Reports w/pics(PA & NJ)

[sstasiak]

As I was organizing and transfering some fishing pics, I realized I forgot to post reports from some recent trips. So here are a few reports and pics(some pics were taken with a cellphone camera so the quality isn't great, but better than nothing):

1. Little Lehigh(11/30)

I decided to fish the Heritage stretch near the fly shop, and arrived at around 8am to an empty parking lot. I thought I might have the place to myself for a while, but that didn't happen. Within the next half hour, about 7 other anglers joined me. Luckily, most of them decided to move farther upstream than I was(I suspect this was due to the monster brown that was caught upstream just a few days before).

It was an unseasonably warm, overcast day and I was hoping for some hatching insects. Unfortunately, the only bugs I saw were midges, which were in pretty good abundance. I stayed upstream of the bridge and fly shop in the morning as I was seeing fish breaking the surface(nothing steady, just sporadic but aggressive rises). I had a couple of fish spit the hook after being on for a few seconds. All hookups came on hares ears nymphs with a midge larva dropper.

I hadn't seen anyone fishing below the bridge since I got there, so after lunch, I walked downstream and fished back up. I worked this one run pretty methodically and hooked a nice rainbow that wound up spitting the fly a few seconds later. A few casts later and I finally got the skunk off with a little brownie taken out of Hares Ear Run on a hares ear nymph. I left around 2pm with many anglers still looking for fish.

Little Lehigh Brownie


#2 NJ WTS(12/9)

There is a particular pool on this stream that has some interresting subsurface structure, which usually holds some nicer wild fish. On the way up, I couldn't resist trying my luck on some of the smaller pools and runs. These all yielded nothing. So I finally get to my intended location and begin fishing the tailout. I wasn't there more than 15 minutes when I get a phonecall which forces me to leave

I will be visiting this stream again soon, and I WILL fish the head of that pool(I usually catch my biggest fish there when I fish that stream)

Upstream shot of the pool


#3 NJ WTS(12/17)

With the somewhat warm weather predicted, I thought the fish might be a little more active. Well....I was right. I brought many wild fish to hand, and lost a lot more. All were taken on a #12 black wooly bugger with silver tinsel ribbing. I fished for about 2.5 hours, and every minute of it was awesome.

The highlight of this trip was landing my biggest wild NJ rainbow to date. He wasn't a monster, but my biggest either way. The weather, scenery, and fish were beautiful. I have a great time any time I fish, but today was special. I don't remember having that much fun fishing in a while. Enjoy the pics.

Stream shot


Wild Rainbow


My biggest wild NJ rainbow(the pic does it no justice)