Hit the Saucon this morning for a few hours and managed to fool a nice sampling of trout. The browns were the most active, with many jumping clear out of the water. Some nice bows mixed in as well. One small bow still had parr marks so it shows that they are reproducing, at least in the upper stretches of the stream.
Picked up a new plastic bait from Fish USA made by Northland Tackle. It's a small black stonefly.
It was just what the trout wanted for breakfast this morning.

We have been getting numerous questions regarding the gear we use to centerpin for trout and smallmouth bass. As much as we enjoy fly fishing and catching fish on dry flies or poppers, the truth is that fish feed below the surface 90% of the time. Therefore, centerpinning has remained the most effective method in moving waters. We’ve done well over the years nymphing and using indicator rigs, Czech nymph style fishing, 2 handed small stream switch rods… you name it. They all work, however you cannot get the offering to naturally drift into the fish’s lie any more efficiently than with a pinning outfit. We would like to offer a hands on demo at some point so send us an email and we’ll work to set something up soon.

So here we go:

9-10ft Rods built on 3-4wt fly blanks for trout. 10-11ft rods built on 5-6wt fly blanks for smallmouth. Check out Dead Drift Rod Company's website for more information on these custom rods

Centerpin reels of your choice. We use the Ross Flow for all of our centerpin fishing but there are others out there

6-8lb mainline for trout, 8-10lb mainline for bass. On pressured waters and when nymphing those waters, we use 4lb flouro leaders for the shot line.

For normal fishing, just the mainline will do.

We use Sufix Elite clear for mainlines and Berkley Vanish for leaders.

After the 8+ inches of rain this past Tuesday and Wednesday, the Lehigh was looking like it wasn’t going to be a good option. With a flow rate of 9k on Wednesday and 2K on Friday. Saturday would not have been a stellar day. We also try not to hit the same waters every weekend. We needed some supplies and planned to stop by Cabela’s so we decided to hit the Little Schuylkill River. The last time we hit this river, the water levels were very low. We only managed a few holdover rainbows, fallfish, and smallies last time we were there so our expectations were high. The river was running at 200 CFS and just a little off color which was perfect. We managed to catch a nice mixed bag and the fish were spread out very well. A few areas changed from the last storm, but the fish were not hard to find. Since the levels were up, we also decided to try a few spots that seemed fishless during low water levels and we were rewarded with some nice sized browns and some tackle busting fallfish. An 18” fallfish will make you think twice about what just took your offering. Browns, brookies, and bows all ranging from fingerlings up to  20” released to fight another day and hopefully stick around long enough for another angler to try and fool. There were a few spots that we knew held trout, but couldn’t get any of them interested in our offerings. Since these were also the most likely hit spots on the river, we assumed the bucket brigade had swept them out recently even though this is a special regs area and no trout are to be taken after Labor Day.

Since the ACE has stopped major releases from the FEW Dam for the rafters, it was time to spend a day on the Lehigh. Water levels were fairly low and the fish were concentrated. We fished a good 1.5 miles and had a blast. The recent cooler nights had the fish in an all attack mode. A few trout were located in the larger scouring holes and eddies in the upper stretch of the river and we managed to land a few nice browns. Lower in the river, where it splits and converges with a small tributary and them meets up again after the island, plant life and aquatic life became super abundant. It was there that the fish began to annihilate our offerings. Fish were taken on small plastics as well as nymphs fished under a float. When using a pink float, the trout were so aggressive they would clear the surface to attack the float. Over 50 fish landed between 2 of us.

90% were rainbows, 5% browns, and the remaining were fallfish, smallies, and other rough fish. All trout ranged from 12” up to 22” with one bow with par marks measuring 5”. All fish released to fight another day.

Hit the Saucon today. Kept away from the Trophy Trout waters in search of some less pressured fish. The browns in town have been sharing the pools with the locals looking for a place to cool down. Spend a few hours in the evening pinning with soft plastics and nymphs. Had a  few mall browns and some roughfish. Bumped into one fly angler who was nymphing. As he walked by, he muttered "pheasant tail nymps will get 'em every time. I just landed 5".  As soon as he passed by, the float went down on the edge of a log jam. Another snag I gotto go get.
But wait a minute... this snag is fighting back and with a lot of force. I though it may have been a wayward carp or a very large sucker but no, it was a trout... a very nice trout. The fly angler shouted "nice fish". After a few minutes of  gently bringing it in, I tried to grab it with one hand but that was a big mistake. I finally brought her back to my hand and tailed her. Lined her up against my rod and quickly saw that she was a few inches above the doubles wraps on the rod. The fly angler yelled "I didn't know they stock steelhead in here, How big?". I yelled over "27 inches". It was a nice guess. When I got home, I measured my rod and estimated the fish to be between 23" & 27". Big rainbow, small water.... one hell of a nice fish to remember!