Saturday, May 4, 2013

Lehigh River and unnamed brookie stream, Carbon County, May 3 2013


My day started off with turkey hunting. After an unsuccessful morning hunt, I strung up my fly pole and tied on a royal wulf. My first catch resulted in the below brookie.  Not even 2 minutes after the brookie, I heard a gobbler close range. I only  had half my camo on, no decoys set up, and my shotgun was 20 feet away! I crawled to my gun and backed up to the tree it was resting against. After I called once, the gobbler showed himself at 50 yards. I turned the safety off and waited. He got within 40 yards but wouldn't give me a clean shot with all the mountain laurel. Eventually he took a 90 degree turn and went out of range. I'm not sure why he didn't continue my way. Possibly, he saw the sun reflection off my fly pole as it was still leaning  against the tree by the stream.
Next I headed to the Lehigh River after a quick stop at the Evening Hatch fly shop. The Lehigh flows were perfect for wading at right around 350 cfs. I fished below Rockport in the Gorge. There were tons of caddis performing touch and go's on the water but no rises. I didn't see 1 mayfly while fishing from 11-4. Skies were clear and water temperature showed high 50's on the surface with an infrared thermometer.
I fished streamers 90% of the day. I had 3-4 fish roll up on my streamer but only 1 committed. I hooked in to a beautiful brown in some slower water with a #4 olive slumpbuster. The brown measured just under 18" and flopped out of my hand when measuring it so a picture wasn't an option. One of the few days I wish I carried a net with me. I saw numerous bikers on the Gorge trail but not one other fisherman! I ran out of drinking water at about 3 pm and knew I had a good hike back to the car so I stopped early. All in all, a good day minus my sunburn and the snake sunning himself on the rocks that scared the crap out of me!
 



 

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