****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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Some random shots: Sunset hook-up; 40"
flats bass; silverside. Below: Grassy pond bass.
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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.
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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!!
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A solid Lehigh 'bow gets the thumbs up.
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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!!!
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