Mostly got washed out yesterday and really wanted to catch some fish dammit! This morning looked at the USGS site and saw Little Lehigh was 130 cfs and has been 100 cfs all summer, so I decided head to Little Lehigh.
Got to Heritage stretch about 9:30 AM. The water was cloudy and there were only a few small trico swarms and a large fly fisherman swarm so I headed down to first parking lot below the covered bridge in the open water. No other fishermen, better swarms of tricos (although not too great), plenty of those 7" to 11" wild browns, and beautiful weather. Those wild browns are tough, but I stung a few village idiots on midges and tricos (tricos fell around 10:30 AM). Some would spook when I was scouting away from the bank and wasn't even trying to cast and nearly every fish was under a tree branch where it was tough to cast to. Saw one large one tucked away under a jewel weed patch that was bulging for something I coudn't see. Couldn't get a drift into the spot; I guess that's how he got large. A pleasant experience - not the quantity of fish as up river, but no crowds and enough fish to be able to hunt for risers who were acting like wild trout. (saw two fly fishermen under the covered bridge - that was it downstream of the Heritage stretch)
At 11:15 headed back up to the Heritage Stretch. They must have stocked recently because the stretch for about 150 yds below the hatchery (on hatchery side) was filled with large, dumb fish. They couldn't resist small soft hackles, midge emergers and larva, small (size 20) scuds, and chamois worms. Sometimes a bunch of fish would follow the hooked fish in. Had to fish close with no indicators or weight and concentrate because they were spitting out the flies as soon as they figured out they were fake. Guys fishing indicators would have fish suck in and spit out thier flies and not even see a hit. Not wild fish, but sometimes it feels great to catch a bunch. Left about 12:15 with a smile on my face and had a pleasant drive home.
Got to Heritage stretch about 9:30 AM. The water was cloudy and there were only a few small trico swarms and a large fly fisherman swarm so I headed down to first parking lot below the covered bridge in the open water. No other fishermen, better swarms of tricos (although not too great), plenty of those 7" to 11" wild browns, and beautiful weather. Those wild browns are tough, but I stung a few village idiots on midges and tricos (tricos fell around 10:30 AM). Some would spook when I was scouting away from the bank and wasn't even trying to cast and nearly every fish was under a tree branch where it was tough to cast to. Saw one large one tucked away under a jewel weed patch that was bulging for something I coudn't see. Couldn't get a drift into the spot; I guess that's how he got large. A pleasant experience - not the quantity of fish as up river, but no crowds and enough fish to be able to hunt for risers who were acting like wild trout. (saw two fly fishermen under the covered bridge - that was it downstream of the Heritage stretch)
At 11:15 headed back up to the Heritage Stretch. They must have stocked recently because the stretch for about 150 yds below the hatchery (on hatchery side) was filled with large, dumb fish. They couldn't resist small soft hackles, midge emergers and larva, small (size 20) scuds, and chamois worms. Sometimes a bunch of fish would follow the hooked fish in. Had to fish close with no indicators or weight and concentrate because they were spitting out the flies as soon as they figured out they were fake. Guys fishing indicators would have fish suck in and spit out thier flies and not even see a hit. Not wild fish, but sometimes it feels great to catch a bunch. Left about 12:15 with a smile on my face and had a pleasant drive home.
