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Little
Lehigh in the Cold Little
Lehigh REDUX Little
Lehigh Heritage
H2O Brookies fishing
buddy unbelievable a
couple of hours
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Little
Lehigh in the Cold November 26, 2004 Ethan, Joy's dad, and I took a drive up to the "Lil Le Hi" Trout Nursery to feed the fish and to just get out of the house. As always, I brought my gear "just in case" there was an opportunity to wet a line. As per usual, Ethan fell asleep within five minutes of leaving the house, but it we were there within the hour anyway. We had a little bit of fish food from the last tim we were here, so I left him with Gene as I ran up to the Nursery House to buy another bag. Near the gazebo, right on the creek, there were at least a half-dozen anglers nymphing, or at least attempting to, in a relatively deep hole, right in the middle of the Heritage section. I took a couple of shots and did see a guy bring one in, but, as it turns out, it was foul-hooked anyway—I figured as much. One thing for certain, with my experience on this stream, the trout was to see a nymph on the swing, coming off the bottom. It's always a blast watching Ethan toss fistful after fistful of trout chow to the ravenous hordes in their cold water holding pens. I bought a big bag of food, but, it didn't take too long to mow through it. Food gone, we hopped in the truck to head down to the fly shop, which is where I got rigged up. I wasn't sure how the fish would be acting, but there was some evident activity in the form of splashing trout. It was only about 43 degrees, so nothing was obviously hatching—time being a factor, it was straight to the Rat. I started casting into a swift section of the creek, right below the fly shop. After about a dozen or so casts, I wanted to head a little further upstream to the last large slick in the special regs area. Ethan was stuck to my side as was starting to complain that the cold was getting to him. "Just a couple of casts, Buddy," I said. Which was about all I needed. I worked out a technique of drifting the fly, without drag, in the middle of the stream, and letting it swing right in front of a bunch of holding trout where they probably didn't get a presentation like that all day. On the third cast and swing, the line tightened up with a wild brown at the end of it. The fish fought hard at first, but tired very quickly. I have to assume that it was post-spawn fatigue, which is a theory that I believe to be true as the fish was bigger than I would have imagined, given the lack of fight. I was able to bring her in quickly, take a couple of quick shots, and get her back into slow-moving water no worse for wear. "I like this stream," I exclaimed to my father-in-law. It's not my home water, but it's still fun. See ya 'round. |
