Lehigh this weekend?

[BeastBrown]

PhilllyFlyGuy wrote:
Yea thanks for the input. I wanna check it out but sounds like I might be going to one of the other streams I had in mind. Any other ideas for spots in that area that might be worth checking out aside from Hickory run and Mud run, only because I've fished them before.

Nescopeck State Park is pretty close to Hazleton and it does have some nice tribs to find brookies. It may be more crowded because of the weekend obviously. The western tributaries of the Lehigh are often impaired by mine affluent. The eastern tribs, besides Hickory and Mud, have fish. A lot of them are a walk and their populations fluctuate. The Lackawanna State Forest, and surrounding Sgls, down to Blakslee, and beyond, all have fish.

Everything is going to have more people, except the remote smaller streams. Broadhead, Pohopoco, Bushkill, will probably all have many more people than a Tuesday non-holiday. You don't want crowds, pull up Google Satellite view, walk 1/2 to 2 miles, and you will probably have nobody around, UNLESS there is camping close to the stream access. But it is supposed to be cold, so people will probably cancel some of their outdoor hiking and camping and opt for a B and B or stay home.

 

[SBecker]

All the fish in Bowmanstown have already moved up to Lehighton.

 

[PhilllyFlyGuy]

Yea Beast that was kinda me second thought what your talking about doing. That's why I initially planned on trying the Lehigh, I figured its big enough even if its a little crowded to fish. Nescopeck was a spot I was looking into. Is that a real small stream and looking at the map it looks like you have to hike it in unless there's dirt roads I'm not seeing.

 

[henrydavid]

I fished near White Haven on Wednesday and did well, I don't even consider fishing it during a white water release. You can still catch fish but not so easily with a fly rod.

The Nescopeck is bushy, lots of brush around but some established trails and a few spots with a little room to cast. If you fish in the park area you will walk in 1/8 to 1/4 mile, nice trails in and plenty of birds to watch. I go in at the downstream border of the DHALO stretch and fish up and below there. That is the shortest trail in.

 

[vcregular]

Today is the day to hit it. Wade friendly throughout and floatable.

 

[steliejim]

This morning fished very well with great flows.

FEW was releasing 260 when I hit the river.

Hope the OP had some luck today.

 

[henrydavid]

I fished it on Monday as well, man there was plenty of human traffic on the rail trail. Is it common for people to take their kids out to a place like this and tell them to scream out loud all day long? Don't think I'll hit anything near humanity again on a holiday.

Nice caddis hatch in the late afternoon, followed by some sulfurs.

 

[beeber2]

+1 to vcregular. Monday the Lehigh fished very well for me, I was wading. The trout were on early, then after a few hours the smallies turned on. I left early to miss the tube/raft hatch. Great outing!

 

[RyanR]

Glad some of you guys got out and enjoyed our ol' Lehigh I had plans to do so myself but then doing crap around the house got in the way.

As for WW releases, yeah the gorge is basically out on those weekends but I have always been able to fish the river from Lehighton downstream to Slatington most of the day without a problem. Unlike in the gorge the river is wider with more room for the additional water to spread out some. So that's my rule of thumb on WW relase weekends I know I can at least wade & fish the middle river rather comfortably. As for affecting the fish I find the release itself doesn't affect the fish as much as the yo-yo effect of going from a 800-1000cfs release to suddenly cutting it off to 150-200cfs does. Again though the effects of this are felt less down in the middle river as opposed to the gorge I think.