Cobble

[fadeaway263]

So I'm reading a great Fly Fishing book where the author says wading over the "cobbles" was tough. Had to look it up. Round smooth stones about 2.5 inches in width. Now be truthful. How many of you knew a cobble was a stone?

 

[Maurice]

I did...

 

[geebee]

umm you've never heard of 'cobblestone' streets ?

that's what they had before Mr Macadam of Scotland had a brainwave to mix tar and gravel and gave us Tarmac.

'on the cobbles' means to be penniless.

cheers

mark.

 

[ROVERT]

Whoever thought that wading on cobbles was difficult never fished Penn's. Cobbles are a dream compared to a bunch of basketball to beach ball sized boulders.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

I did. Cobble stone houses in New York. Little ones are good in a sling shot. GG

 

[salmonoid]

In sedimentology, grain size is measured on the phi scale (logarithmic scale). There are specific terms for various sizes of clasts. Cobbles are -6 to -8 phi, or about 2.5 to 10". Hats off to now retired PSU geoscience prof Rudy Slingerland and his sedimentology course for teaching that.

 

[ryansheehan]

I am stupid, that is all.

 

[krayfish2]

Whoever thought wading Penns was difficult has never tried to cross the Lehigh, Yough or Susky in the narrows. Put on your swimmies. LOL.

Fade,
I can't believe you never heard that term before.

 

[SBecker]

My favorite stretch of the Lehigh is cobble.

 

[fadeaway263]

Cobble and Swiss Cheese my favorite Saminich

 

[krayfish2]

Your favorite stretch of the Lehigh is cobble? Only place I've seen it is in the riff near the rope swing above the gap. Other than that, I think it's extinct in the Lehigh.

 

[ROVERT]

I've not crossed thosed rivers but are they more difficult due to substrate or volume/flow/depth? Ive fished a few places and I find Penn's easily one of the most annoying to find footing for the next step. I suppose a collection of even larger boulders on the bottom would be more difficult but would rapidly approach unwadeable with any sort of depth.

 

[SBecker]

krayfish2 wrote:
Your favorite stretch of the Lehigh is cobble? Only place I've seen it is in the riff near the rope swing above the gap. Other than that, I think it's extinct in the Lehigh.

Guess you found my favorite stretch.

 

[pcray1231]

I work in a steel mill. A cobble is something entirely different. Here's an example of a very well behaved one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgxQeCcm2dg

Basically, a rolling mill involves a piece of steel going through a long series of rolling stands, each one making it longer and skinnier (to make bar, wire, strip, or whatever). You can come in with a billet that's about 7" sq. and 10 ft long and on the other end get a mile of wire.

A cobble is where, at some point on that rolling mill, you get a piece that jams, or misses a rolling stand, or whatever. Since it's still fed from behind, it flies out of the mill. Flying light sabers! And you pretty much gotta let it feed itself through and clean it up afterwards.

 

[pete41]

"he cobbled it up"
Johnny Cash's cadillac.

 

[troutbert]

The sizes of substrate, from small to big, goes:

Clay, silt, sand, gravel, cobble, boulders.

There are also many sections that flow over bedrock. In NC PA especially, it's pretty common to see sections where the stream is flowing over flat layers of sandstone bedrock. On Slate and Cedar Run, for example.

 

[RLeep2]

Additionally, when it comes to wading, there's cobble and then there's cobble. For example, some of the cobble substrate portions of Sugar Creek in Venango County can be pesky wading as a lot of the cobble is rather loose and/or a bit slime coated. More than once, I've done an imitation of an upper case K in mid-air trying to keep my footing on Sugar Creek.

On the other hand, there are many, many other stream sections of similar size across the northern tier with about the same size cobble substrate that are easy wading , even for somebody like me with pretty severely compromised balance functions. The cobble is more tightly packed or less coated or has more uniformity of size and shape than in Sugar Creek.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Some stream rock is referred to as shingle. GG

 

[dryflyguy]

Cobbles don't bother me while wading.
It's the large, flat rocks - especially ones covered with algae - that have given me problems. Very easy to lose your footing on them
When I see rocks like that coming, I change course

 

[geebee]

where do you get your shoes repaired ? - at the Cobblers.

if you are talking BS, you are talking "a bunch of old cobblers".....


the wading stones I hate are the unexpectedly high pieces of granite that you don't know are there, and you go to step forward and over the cobbles you expect, and swing your foot into the side of it, sending yourself off balance or worse, forcing your right foot in front of your left leg leaving you cross legged with your body's momentum going forward....

guaranteed soaking every time. it always happens at the end of the day when you're tired and or in fast water, even if its only a foot deep.

it happens wading backwards out of a hole too.

if I don't have a stick, I shuffle now and toe poke before committing weights.