Lehigh River - White Haven

[henrydavid]

I fished the Lehigh about a mile or less below the dam on Friday, the water was stained brown and there was brown algae on the rocks. I haven't been at this spot for over a year and hadn't fished the Lehigh at all since June so I don't have much to compare it to.

Any ideas? Fishing stunk, saw 2 small black bears

 

[Dcap240]

The water is always "stained brown" in the gorge. It's that tannic Pocono's water. Brown algae? I don't know, never seen it. Lehigh has been fishing good for me the past couple weeks about 10 miles or so downstream. Lots of nice browns. The lehigh can be tough at times, I've never really liked that spot you're talking about right below the dam even though I know a lot of people fish there and that pool at the bottom of the dam looks so nice. I don't know what time of day you were there but in my opinion late afternoon, evening is much more productive than the morning. I was out on Sunday night and hammered them. But the lehigh is pretty big river and sometimes it's hit or miss. I believe that the river is colder and more stable temps/flows further downstream from the dam. There is a lot of cold tribs between the dam and Jim Thorpe.

 

[LehighRegular]

I haven't been up in that stretch in a while. Could be the algae is dying due to lower sunlight levels. I've seen that on other streams during the fall.

Fishing should be pretty good throughout the river. The Corps is releasing a constant 300 cfs until there is only enough water in the reservoir for the WW release on Oct 11th weekend.

 

[Millsertime]

I fished the Lehigh on Friday as well until about 430 pm. I fished the Gorge below Rockport. No browns but a handful of the below SMB. I spotted some trout rising on the opposite bank in the slow stretch picture below but failed to get a good drift and/or present the right match. I'm waiting for an overcast day to try it again. I've never had luck on the Lehigh on blue bird days. The flow, temps, and changing colors are perfect right now. I saw a lot of bugs on Friday as well. Small BWO's, midge, lots of caddis, and some sporadic mayflies.

 

[henrydavid]

Thanks Mills, I'm gonna have to make a trip down to Rockport, at least I might get into a couple smallies. I saw trout rising along the banks toward evening as well, did all I could to reach them but only had one take and missed it.