Barely any fish, but still a nice weekend

I spent Friday afternoon alternating between weather.com and the USGS online water gauge for the Little Lehigh. There was a 40% chance of Thunderstorms/Flash Flooding, and of course, it happened. The stream was running around 68 all day, and then between 7 and 9pm it jumped up to 130. The last time I tried for tricos during high waters was a pointless trip, so I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.

I decided that I was going to hit up a tailwater in the Poconos that's only about 20 minutes north of the Little Lehigh that I knew wouldn't be washed out. Luckily, Becker, one of the guys over on the PAFF forum that I met once on the LL lives right near the tailwater and offered to help put me on some fish. I wasn't going to say no to some top secret fishing holes!

Well, he did show me some nice water. We fish a deep pool with some braided water and a nice smooth tailout. I came across a giant swarm of tricos while I was waiting to meet up with him around 7am so I was hoping it would be a good day. When we got there, we saw all kinds of mayflies, even some blue quills, which I've never actually seen up close before. We fished for about 4 hours to some sporadic risers. Unfortunately, I got the skunk. I had quite a few takes, and had a couple on for a few seconds, but it just wasn't my morning. Becker brought in two, including a nice wild brown. All I've ever caught on that stream were 8 inch rainbows, so I was surprised at the bulk on this fish. My apologies in advance for the picture quality. I forgot my camera in the car and only had the i-phone with me.




Although I didn't land any fish, it was still a beautiful day on the water. I'll definitely be back to that stretch again. We also hiked downstream about half a mile and found some really nice holes that I can't wait to go back and hit again. I might try for next weekend.

Since I was out for a good part of the day yesterday, I decided to get some father and son time in this morning. I took Michael on his first trip to Cabelas. He had a blast. He got his first encounter with the toothy monster in the aquarium and couldn't stop looking at him.




We walked around for a while, and I picked up like $40 worth of tying material, but unfortunately, no grizzly hackle. I did manage to find some really nice dun colored elk hair. Expect some BWO comparaduns shortly! He had a good time and told me he wants to go back again to see the elephant :)

Speaking of grizzly hackle, if you want to know what to get me for Christmas, you can start with this:


This evening, I spent two hours organizing all my tying stuff. It looked like a flock of birds exploded at my desk. It was a total mess. I now have everything nice and organized. This will probably only last a week, but for now, I'll enjoy it.