Fly Fishing Float Trip
Down the Lehigh River   

I originally saw the posting of The Float Trip on the Lehigh River in the DVWFFA newsletter. The trip sounded idyllic. It was May 17, 2003. I had plenty of time to plan for it. 

All of a sudden in was May and the trip was upon me. The weather did not look like it was going to be good. I was not anxious to spend a day huddled in a boat casting in a cold, wet rain. It was very cool when I pulled out of Philadelphia. As I got to Judith Palmer's house to pick her up it started to rain. I was not happy. We got on the turnpike and started out. 

We got to the fly shop at about 8:30 a.m. and everyone was already there. It was overcast, but not raining. The members were Bonnie, Mary, Judith, Judy and Vicky. We were all excited about the trip and we were nervous too. Some of us were nervous because we were newbies, some of us were nervous about our casting, and some of us were nervous about the unexpected. We bought flies and other stuff and got ready to go. We went to our cars and followed the guides with the boats. We got into the boats about 9:30 a.m. There were 3 guides, Brent, Chris and Joe. Vicky went with Brent on a raft, Mary and Bonnie went with Chris on a float boat, and Judith and I went with Joe on a float boat. 

The guides took us right out into the Lehigh River and got us fixed up with the right rods and flies. We started with 8 weights we tied on an emerger with a wet fly dropper and a streamer with a wet fly dropper. I was feeling really bad about my casting. Joe was simply fabulous. He figured out in about 3 minutes what I was doing wrong. He demonstrated what I needed to do. I corrected the problem and that was that. My casting continued to get better as I fished throughout the day. 

It was cool and overcast and there were not any bugs on the water. Then all of a sudden, I had a fish on. I brought in a small brown trout, we released it and I was feeling very satisfied. The next strike was a little more pronounced and I brought in a really nice brown trout. Joe took a picture of me holding it, but I didn't get a copy of it. I was feeling bad that Judith had not caught a fish and said so. Joe said he really liked guiding women. He said no guy would ever say that. A guy would razz his buddy about not catching anything. I thought that was really cool. Then Judith caught a couple of fish. Joe was great about finding fish for us. He was also great about doing anything we needed. He undid knots and tangles happily. He put into shore when we had to pee. (That was a relief; no pun intended.) There were fish around and we were catching them. We stayed in one place for a long time. We didn't get all the fish in the boat, but we had our share. About 1 p.m. we stopped for lunch at an Island in the middle of the river. The guides brought a great spread. I don't eat as well at home! They really went all out for us. 

Right after lunch, Mary pulled out her lighter rod, tied on a dry fly and waded into the river. She caught 2 while we were finishing lunch. We finished up our lunch and loaded ourselves back onto the boats. As the afternoon heated up and the sun peaked out a little bit, the fishing drastically improved. All of a sudden, there were bugs everywhere. There were Caddis Flies, March Brown Flies and later on Sulfurs. It was pretty amazing. I never had thought that bugs were beautiful, but they were. You could really see how different they all were. The colors of the bugs were very subtle. Some were brown, some were pinkish and some were yellow. The scenery was great too. We saw a bit of wildlife, deer, ducks and lots of birds.

It was great to go down to a lighter weight rod and dry flies. We cast to the risers and they took the flies, it was just great. We caught lots of fish. Again, we did not get them all into the boat, but we caught a lot. The day simply flew by. We tried all different kinds of dry flies. We started with Elk Hair Caddis and went on to March Browns. Later in the afternoon we tried some parachute flies as the light dwindled.. We had great fishing until about 5:00 p.m. It was hard to see the flies in the glare of the afternoon and the chop of the water. It got cooler and cloudier and there weren't as many bugs. The fish were almost gone. They didn't rise anymore. We still tried to cast for more fish. Judith and I both wanted that last fish. It didn't happen. We put in about 6:30p.m. I couldn't believe it was so late already. We were all exhausted. It was a great day of camaraderie and fishing. I would do the trip again in a heartbeat! I really look forward to next year. My fingers were cold. 
--Judy Wilson--