Advice on fishing in Lehighton

[D.A.D]

Hey all.... I will be staying in Lehighton area at the end of this month for a few days and was wondering if it is worth taking my fishing equipment with me on my stay? We will be camping at the Pocono point campground for a few days then heading out rt 6 to the Coudersport area for the rest of the week. First time in Poconos so any advice on fishing the area is appreciated.

 

[Begbie]

You'll be right by the section of Pohopoco creek below the Beltzville dam. It's a wild brown stream that gets stocked with rainbows from a private club.

 

[D.A.D]

Is that fishable this time of year....

 

[Begbie]

Yes, it gets coldwater releases from the bottom of the dam...right now the water temp is a balmy 52 degrees:

Pohopoco Cr bl Beltzville Dam nr Parryville, PA

Monitoring location 01449800 is associated with a Stream in Carbon County, Pennsylvania. Current conditions of Discharge, Gage height, Stream water level elevation above NAVD 1988, and more are available. Water data back to 1967 are available online.

waterdata.usgs.gov

 

[D.A.D]

Looks like I'll be packing my fly rod thank you for the information begbie

 

[Mike]

Lots of BT, but they are generally less than 12”. I don’t know anything about the private club portion of the stream, but in the past the populations of BT were good throughout the rest of the stream based upon what I assume were two representative sampling sites during fish population surveys. You can find a biologist report for the stream under Fisheries Management Area 5 biologist reports. It’s old, and one site was sampled, but the description of the wild BT portion of the population seems pretty accurate from what I saw in other surveys. https://pfbc.pa.gov/images/fisheries/afm/2004/5_08-19poho.htm

 

[ntallen]

There are multiple USGS gauges on the Pohopoco. Watch out for the discharge, as it recently had some substantial releases. I fished recently when it was around 350-400cfs: current was a wee swift for my comfort to wade in some of the deeper pools--which are some of the most deceptively shallow looking pools that I've ever seen. There are hundreds of creeks in the region, troutroutes and Keystone fly fishing guide are great resources.

 

[Mike]

Good advice ntallen for fishing below Beltsville and Blue Marsh, both of which are flood control reservoirs. Just as an example, substantial discharges can occur from Blue Marsh in anticipation of bad storms and then again after those storms pass. I’ll also keep your advice in mind if I head up to Beltsville too.

 

[D.A.D]

Fished the pohopoco creek today in the morning around the turnpike bridge area ... fished 3 hrs in the morning got 4 wild browns on sulfur drys water was clear and cold. Ran into Scott from woods and water utube channel at a local pub he was heading out to same creek/ area this evening....don't know of I'll hit same creek or try another spot this evening