Lehigh River, Carbon County PA - March 24 2012

I fished the Lehigh River near Mud Run this past Saturday. I biked in from Leslie Run DCNR parking area. I fished near the Mud Run trib down for about 2 miles. Outside air temp was about the same as the water, mid to high 50's. The Lehigh is very low right now so it is very wadeable. This was my first time fishing it so I can't compare the current but I can't imagine wading it over 500 cfs. I didn't know what to expect from the river. I started off with a BH Wooly Bugger and had a hit and a miss on the first cast. I fished approximately from 9 am to 2 pm. I ended up landing 2 brown trout. The one was quite nice, 16-17 inches. Both were caught on the bugger. I found various slow pools where I anticipated some rises but the only rise I got on the day was to a big bright pink indicator. Why would a trout hit it but not the real fly imitations I threw at it? Crazy. All in all, I enjoyed the Lehigh a lot. It makes me want to buy a drift boat and start fishing it more often. The colors on the trout were beautiful as well. I would assume that they are holdover or wild.

 Leslie Run

Bike with gear

Lehigh River

 1st Brown

2nd Brown



McMichael's Creek Delayed Harvest, March 15-16 2012

I fished March 15 and 16 on the McMichaels Creek DHALO section again as it is the only nearby stream open to fishing until the mid April opener. Weather has still been crazy. High's in the 60's. Water temp is mid 40's. I fished both days in the mid afternoon to late afternoon. Fishing is still excellent. I'm not sure if this excellent March fishing is going to make the season go by fast but at the moment, I can't imagine the pocono's have had a better March for fly fishing in years.

I landed over 20 fish in the 2 day period. Hot fly was a bh green wolly bugger. They kept hammering it like it was a roostertail every 2-3 casts. Also caught trout on sucker spawn, bhpt, black caddis, gg, and adams parachute. Fish were rising fairly consistently and even if they were concentrating on emergers, they still would take a dry if drifted properly. Like always, I had a lot of fish put their noses right on the fly and then reject it  but I'll take rejection over no interest at all. Most of the trout were bows with some browns but I finally caught a couple of the brookies. I hope this great fishing continues all the way through June at the least. We definately need some rain.

McMichael's Creek Delayed Harvest - MAR 7-10 2012

7 Mar - Fished BHPT (bead head pheasant tail) and BHHE (bead head hares ear) in slower runs. Creek level is down but still easily fishable. Only landed 1 trout and missed a couple of others. Trout hit the fly when I lifted the rod to recast (emerging). Outside air temp was nice. 50-60 degrees. I fished from 3-530 pm.

8 Mar - Fished further downstream from previous day. I found a nice fast run that held multiple trout. Landed 4-5, mostly rainbows. Missed 1/2 dozen as well. Fished BHPT and BHHE again. Most were caught on BHPT, size 16-18. Fished from 3-5 pm. Air temp was warmer with 60 + temps. Water measured 58 degrees but that was the top of the water where the sun was beating. I'm sure the bottom of the creek was still in the 40's. I used my laser temp meter.

10 Mar - Fished the same ten foot section for 3 hours, 3-6 pm. Landed over 12 trout. Most trout were pretty small with majority bows. Missed another 20 +. I started fishing a BHPT. Switched to an orange micro egg with no luck but I didn't add weight to it. The section I was fishing was around 3 feet deep with a swift current. I switched to a sucker spawn with a small split shot and my day got fun! After about 1 1/2 hours of educating the fish, I switched to a griffiths gnat because I kept seeing fish work the bank eating midges. Repeatedly taking trout on a dry fly in early March is a real treat! Early black stoneflies have been around in abundance during the afternoon the past week as well. Trout were rising to them occasionally but not with any consistency.

 Trout taken on BHPT - 8 March

Larger brown taken on griffiths gnat - 10 March