****NOTICE****

Our limited allotment of full- and half-day Prime Time dates for the Lehigh is filling-up quickly.

We also have Evening Float opportunies. Open dates are listed below.

July 1, 3

If interested in a trip - email now!





June 2008 Report

2003-2008 Reports
^^Please check out our archives^^


June 30, 2008 - Salt - NJ

Note: This write-up is from last weekend. Since then there are still fish around, but the crazyness of daytime activities, ie., boats, skis, and otherwise, is making for an even more of a lo-lite bite.

Sure the fish are small, but the action was hot! Look for this fishery to continue during the low-light hours. Otherwise you'll be flailing with the pleasure crafts and those damn jet skis.

During the transition into dark, aka, the magic hour, the fish were rolling through the inlet at a steady clip, with a lot of whacks and tugs, that never did stick to the hook. Over the course of the eve, one larger fish was stuck, but acted extremely weird. Maybe it was a weakie? They are still around. What it did not do was wallow on the surface like a blue, nor make a hard head shake like bass would.

Also, had a nicer 3-4# blue hooked, which smacked the fly 20’ from the tip of the rod, but managed to razor off. It jumped multiple times, within 5’ of me. The blue hit a pink estaz cone head bugger type of fly. Prior to this one herring was landed on a pink over white sparse clouser. There were also a couple of other herring that were hooked, but came un-buttoned. Also had another smaller blue on besides the one landed.

All the 'magic hour' hits came on an all black #2 clouser.

Fished from 5:30pm - - 9:15pm. High tide was at 10:30pm, and when I left the water was in big time. The wind wind started to honk SW at 7pm. It picked up out of nowhere. Not too bad though for casting since the wind was over your left shoulder. Water was cold, and i was cold. Not sure what I was thinking, not taking warmer gear.

Not many other cats out fishing - - only saw 7-9 fisherman. There was a couple of angler bailing sharks - - dogfish. Otherwise nothing else was scene caught.


June 27, 2008 - Tully Temps

Down by the covered bridge - the bottom end of the delayed stretch - the Tully was running in the mid-to-high-70s Wednesday afternoon. This is according to a friend of FFPA who happened to be passing by the stream. At this temp the trout should be left alone in the pm hours.

Best bet - - - as is the case every year when we get to the summer - - - is to fish the extremely early a.m. hours. Early bird gets the worm when it comes to 'dog days' trout fishing in SE PA. Then go take a nap.


June 24, 2008 - Tully - Trikes and lots of them...

We had out Gary and Tim again - - repeat customers from last year. Just like last year, the trip was a birthday present for Tim. Last year Tim put a hurting on them, this year, it was Gary's turn! And boy did he spank them.

The Tricos were on and heavy. Definitely one of the better blanket trico hatches since the glory days of the mid-80s. With all the duns, you'd think the fish would be rising with reckless abandon...but that was not the case. It turns out they were keying on the sunken or drowned duns. The perfect match in this case, was a zebra midge and/or the black nitro - - both of which put the smack down on the Tully trout this outing.

Tim would go on to landed at least 1/2 dozen with at least that many LDRs (long distance releases). Now, Gary was in the zone, landing fish after fish. Total was a dozen plus!! **We've got no pics, due to guide error.


June 19, 2008 - Lehigh Report

Going into last weekend our spies were reporting solid fishing. Well, if that was the case, we did not find it over the weekend while on the river for a handful of father/son trips. Most notable items that may have contributed to the lack of success - lack of bugs, and a plethora of rubber rafts. Even though last sa/su was not a whitewater release weekend - - the rafting companies treat the lower water - - below the gorge like it is one. 'Til 6pm we had pod after pod rolling, and splashing and walking thru a good portion of our best fishing water. No worries though - - the thought process at the time was the evening hatch will come thru and provide good action...nope. Not to be. We only saw a few sulphurs, cahills and olives - - and even less rising fish. One of the worse June days we've had on the water in a long time.

Now with the cooler weather the past few days the fishing has probably picked up again. If you are on the water, keep an eye out for the Isos. They should be starting up. Remember, there is a whitewater release this weekend - - either fish the pm up by the dam, or the am downriver.



Some random shots: Sunset hook-up; 40" flats bass; silverside. Below: Grassy pond bass.

June 14, 2008 - MV 08

We are back, and as is normally the case with MV - - it does not disappoint. Though this year, the fishing was let's say...odd. No consistency at all to the bite.

Scenario - - We'd get one here, and one there, then no hits for hours, then all of a sudden we bang a few bass, then it would shut down for a while. We'd then relocate to a new piece of water, and members of the party would flail for a while, with nothing, then someone would step in the water between the guys who were throwing...and proceed to pull out a couple of bass. Odd.

Anyway, the final tally - - two fish over 40"; a handful in the mid-30" range; and quite a few in the high 20"'s and less in four days of fishing. Overall the avg size of the fish was bigger than we've seen the past few years. Highlight was getting into some mid-day flats action. Now this is some killer stuff - - watching enormous bass wolf pack across a flat and turning on a dime to smoke your fly! This is like dry fly fishing on steroids! Sick!!

Hot flies were smaller and sparse patterns. At night go-to ties were the tried and true all black clouser as well as black bunnies. Daytime, white clousers. Baitfish was plentiful with massive schools of sand eels here and there along the outer beaches, and in the ponds there were silversides. We had one squid hit a fly, so we knew they were around. Some scup too since they were hitting our flies regularly one eve. As was the case last year, the blues were nowhere to be found. And for the first time we ran into quite a few plover induced beach closures. Word is the plovers are early this year. Makes sense. The oyster crackers were also nesting - we saw some eggs and chicks during our travels.


The tail of the tape don't lie. No BS here at FFPA!

The Lehigh...We have a couple of trips this weekend so look for an update in the near future. Word is the river is still fishing well despite the high heat from earlier this week, although we would like to see a bit more in the way of low-flow augmentation. Releasing more water though will deplete the coldwater pool quicker - - so we need to find that happy medium. Water temps coming out of Francis E Walter continue to hold in the mid-to-high-50s, which is great for this time of year. The Upper Gorge should have some hot fishing! Olives are on the water as well as Sulphurs. Dry/dropper rigs with a beadhead hanging under a big, bushy high-floater should move fish during the day when not much is looking up. Low light should produce good dry fly action. Long range weather looks fish-friendly - - with not much in the way of heat, so maybe good trout fishing will continue until the Fourth. We will see. No whitewater release this weekend - - so get out there and hit it.

By the way FFPA a few weeks back had the pleasure of rowing a handful of dignitaries for the Lehigh River Work Day hosted by the Lehigh Coldwater Fishery Alliance. Check out the pics at the LCFA site to see how everyone made out.


June 5, 2008 - The Heat!

It is about to start! Hopefully this is not the pre-cursor to a long, hot summer. Whatever the case, this is some damn hot weather moving in, for early-June, and not to mention, all the recent liquid the ground has received. It is gonna be oppressive!

If you are brave enough to get out there and hit it, the low-light hours will provide the best action. As they (FFPA) say, the best time to fish for trout in the summer is when it is most comfortable for us to be out there flailing away. That means either, the bleary-eyed, mega-early a.m. session or the p.m., into the dark outing. A.M. though provides the coolest water temps, due to the overnight - - as well as somewhat rested fish.

Lehigh tid-bit...The Lehigh has a whitewater release this weekend - - consider yourself warned. However, this could not be better timed due to the fact that FE Walter is full of mid-to-high-50F water at the bottom - - with most likely a bit more to spare. Therefore a 750cfs release of cold water is going to occur most of the weekend - - specifically during the daylight hours. Now, coldwater pool depletion from the Walter pool is an issue, but with such hot temps coming, the positives will most likely offset this negative. What will be interesting is to see how this slug of cold water influences the LRSA (LRSA does more than just stock fish!) data probe located in Jim Thorpe. So just how far downstream does a mid-50F, 750cfs release influence water temps, when air temps are in the 90s?? We shall soon find out.

FFPA is MV bound. We will catch ya late next week. Stay cool!!



A solid Lehigh 'bow gets the thumbs up.
June 3, 2008 - Lehigh River

The Lehigh continues to fish very well. The sulphurs are on, and so are the olives. The march browns, and the grey fox appear to be winding down, but the trout and smallies continue to chase our emerger imitation. We will continue to fish it until it does not produce.

Water temps have been ranging in the high-50's to the high-60's during the course of the heating and cooling period - - which is perfect for hatching insects, but look for cloudy days to be your best bet for mid-day hatching. We are at the point in the season when that first overcast/cool/rainy day will cause the river to flat-out explode. Waters levels are wade conducive throughout.

Website fyi...as is the case each and every year - - our annual MV trip is upon us. Starting sometime late this week there will be a suspension of reports and updates, due lack of computer access.

This year looks to be shaping up to a good one - - the squid have finally arrived, delayed due to that cool stretch of weather we had. With this being the case, it appears that the bulk of the migration is just now arriving to the outer islands. Blues are around in big numbers too! In 2005 the blues were every....repeat? Can't wait!!!