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Lehigh River Fly Fishing Guide Service
If throwing streamers is your game the Lehigh is one of the best around.
Beautiful scenery on a white water fly fishing trip.
The Lehigh River should be a part of that discussion.
If throwing streamers is your game the Lehigh is one of the best around.
The mighty Lehigh River has been coming up in a lot of conversations amongst Fly Anglers recently, and for very good reason, it is big wild trout water. In fact, some of the biggest wild brown trout in Pennsylvania reside in the Lehigh River system. It is arguably one of the best places to fly fish in Pennsylvania's Pocono Mountains.
This river will amaze you, and it’s nearly impossible to top catching wild trout in such a gorgeous setting. Wild East Outfitters guide season on the Lehigh tailwater runs from mid March until the waters warm in late June and then we resume guiding on the Lehigh in early October until its too cold out to fish the river. We give the Lehigh River a break over the summer and seek out warm-water species on the Juniata and Susquehanna Rivers or we fish the limestone spring creeks and cold freestone creeks of eastern, Pennsylvania namely in the Lehigh Valley and Cumberland Valley. Our Lehigh River float trips take place between the town of White Haven all the way to the town of Northampton.
Our guide service prides itself on knowing the waters intimately that we guide on and we spend countless hours trying to time the hatches and doing recon and scouting missions. We are on the water before everyone else launches their drift boats and we are on the water long after they take out. If you've spent any time on the water with our guides you have seen this first hand.
The Lehigh River at times can be an incredible dry fly fishery.
April 1 through June 15 is prime time for the spring season. During the spring we see hatches of Quill Gordons, a large variety of caddis, Hendricksons, Grey Fox, March Browns, Stoneflies, Sulphurs, Blue Winged Olives and many more. When we aren't seeing hatches we are either swinging wet flies, throwing streamers, nymphing or prospecting with dry flies. In the fall the main hatches are Blue Winged Olives, Isonychia, caddis, stoneflies and more.
The Lehigh boasts a very good population of wild brown trout and is supplemented with stockings throughout the river by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Lehigh River Stocking Association and the 5 Mile HIgh Club. There are wild trout all the way from White Haven down to the Delaware River which is over 50 miles fantastic trout water.
In recent years the Lehigh River has improved drastically due to acid mine mitigation, Lehigh Coldwater Fishery Alliance working closely with the Army Corps of Engineers on flow plans that help the fish hold over and reproduce along with stockings that have given the river a huge boost and provided an enhanced recreational fishery. Many people are bagging their trips for the Delaware to try the Lehigh and most come away with a positive outlook especially those that fish the river from a drift boat. The Lehigh is a great get away for anybody from the Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York City and Connecticut area. The Lehigh is located within 1 to 2 1/2 hours from major population centers but is surprisingly pristine and secluded.
The river is best fished from boat as the wade fishing is some of the toughest and quite possibly some of the most dangerous wading of any east coast trout fishery. While there are areas where you can get in and wade you must pay attention to the flows and take your time. There are rapids on the river that go up to class III which also scares some of the boating anglers away. If you are going to take a boat down the river do so with caution and make sure you know the water you are floating. We run all of our guide trips on the Lehigh from drift boats or framed out white water rafts. We use Boulder Boat Works drift boats, Stealtchcraft drift boats, Clackacraft and Hyde drift boats. For rafts we use Hyside rafts and NRS.
We love the Lehigh and we are sure you will love it too. We look forward to hearing from you! See you on the river!
