Lehigh river 5/1/19:

[AndyS]

Had the day and had many choices, stay locally, N.Y. or Pennsylvania, chose to head West.
Started at the bottom of the Lehigh gorge near Jim Thorpe. Really pretty there. Fishing this spot has been on the to-do list for a little while now. Had a few follows. Talked to a few locals and said the fish are in there, they are just being stubborn. River was running around 3000 CFS and really stained, not muddy but a pine barren water like stain to it. Put it in perspective the Raritan river gets blown out at 1500 CFS and here I am wading and fishing in a river at 3000 CFS. Fished the Glen Onoko falls area a bit then moved down to Jim Thorpe. Again had trout following but not committing. Had one trout come out of the water and go strait down on my jig, hadn't had a hit like that in quite some time, too bad the fish missed the jig completely. Talked to a few more locals and they said the LRSA put in some nice fish recently.
Moved down and fished Parryville where a nice trout stream came in, tough as it was ripping !! Tried Bowmanstown and I think I had a few follows there also. Wading was tough today with the water so high.
Here are my observations when it comes to river trout fishing in NJ, NY and Pa. In NJ it's Power Cheese, eggs, meal worms and spinners. When I go up to NY it's all fly fishermen. In Pennsylvania they chuck big globs of night crawlers and full size shiners into the river, they toss MEAT !!! (now I know where Wilson is coming from) All the fishermen I saw today had minnow buckets with them, to fish a river !!
Had fun today despite the lack of fish in the net. I did a spring float trip on the Lehigh last year and did rather well, fish were spread out through the entire river. Working with my guide to float again since I got blown out in November last year, but this never ending rain is screwing everything up.