Photo: Adam Nidoh. Once summer settles in, the larger fish hunker down for much of the day, returning in the evening to cruise and chase baitfish. It starts in north Wayne County, Pennsylvania and ends in east Luzerne County, Pennsylvania in Duryea, Pennsylvania. The lowest reaches of the river, through the towns of Taylor, Moosic, and Old Forge, differ greatly from the rest, nearly doubling in size after the three largest tributaries—Leggetts Creek, Roaring Brook, and Spring Brook—flow into the river. I spend about half the year fishing from our fly shop in Dickson City downstream through Scranton and into Old Forge, when the temperatures and flows are of no issue. To get started, click the link below to visit mymagnow.com and learn how to access your digital magazine. The river today is one of Pennsylvania’s best wild trout fisheries. Current fly fishing reports and conditions for Clarion River in Pennsylvania! Many of our coldwater fisheries suffered mightily from it, and still do to this day. Landon Mayer | Illustrations by Joe Mahler - August 11, 2020. You can encounter rising fish at any time, in any stretch. The Lackawanna contains more fish-filled public water than almost any river in Pennsylvania. I have never fished that section of the river but plan on trying to hit it a couple times this year. By 1866, the year Scranton became a city, the Lackawanna was declared unfit for consumption due to wastewater from improper sewage disposal, mining, and other industries. Lackawanna River Conservation Association. Fall is a great time to fish this water. Fishing upstream is a must. *Adam Nidoh and his father Greg own A&G Outfitters (agoutfitters.com) in Dickson City, Pennsylvania. The next 100 years showed little improvement. While this period generally shows off the many smaller fish in the river, catching a 20-plus-inch brown on 6X to 8X tippet is still a possibility. __CONFIG_colors_palette__{"active_palette":0,"config":{"colors":{"62516":{"name":"Main Accent","parent":-1}},"gradients":[]},"palettes":[{"name":"Default Palette","value":{"colors":{"62516":{"val":"var(--tcb-skin-color-0)"}},"gradients":[]}}]}__CONFIG_colors_palette__, DIY Guide to Fly Fishing Sixteenmile Creek in Pennsylvania, DIY Guide to Fly Fishing Twentymile Creek in Pennsylvania, DIY Guide to Fly Fishing Crooked Creek in Pennsylvania, DIY Guide to Fly Fishing Cascade Creek in Pennsylvania, DIY Guide to Fly Fishing Elk Creek in Pennsylvania, DIY Guide to Fly Fishing Little Mahoning Creek in Southwest Pennsylvania, Lackawanna River Fly Fishing for Wild Brown Trout, Lackawanna River - Trophy Trout Artificial Lures Only - 5.2 miles, Trophy Trout Artificial Lures Only regulations, Guide to the Best Fly Fishing in Pennsylvania. Late summer provides more dependable surface opportunity with morning Trico spinner falls. Your best bet to find Tricos will be on the upper stretches of the river, north of I-81. lackawanna Lackawanna River – 4.9 miles; from the Gilmartin Street Bridge in Archbald downstream to the Lackawanna Avenue Bridge (SR 0347) in Olyphant. Specializing in fishing the Lackawanna River, Northeastern PA’S best wild brown trout fishery. check it … Growing populations of eagles, hawks, herons, mallards, mergansers, geese, turtles, frogs, beavers, otters, minks, and more have all made the Lackawanna their home. For me, the Lackawanna stands as the blueprint for how a river heals. While this section is wonderful and plenty of trailheads and neighborhood parks allow for easy access, there is a lot of great water downstream as well. Summer nights are great times for streamers. Plan your next fishing and boating adventure here. Get the latest up to date fly fishing report for Trout fishing in Clarion River with the top producing flies and recommended equipment to get you into fish. These tips can save you heartache when fishing is hot. The lower 40 miles of river running through Lackawanna County provide the setting for a truly remarkable comeback story. The Lackawanna River begins in the southeast corner of Susquehanna County, where its east and west branches flow into Stillwater Reservoir, just south of Union Dale and about 4 miles north of Forest City. While transformed into something previous generations would have never imagined, the river is still facing potential threats. But for the most part, the river benefited greatly by being undisturbed. Areas that run through the city can fish just as well as any of the Class A or Trophy sections upstream. The Lackawanna River is a shinning example of a trout stream restored to days of past, better actually. 00. Big Brown Trout landed by Zeus Of Trout Outfitters while fishing the Lackawanna River. Essential nymphs for me include #14-18 natural Soft Hackles, #16-18 Biot/Quill Body BWOs (Fulling Mill), #12-16 Holy Grails (Fulling Mill), #14-18 Rainbow Warriors (Lance Egan), #16-20 black, red, and olive Zebra Midges, #8-10 Golden Nemec Stones (Fulling Mill), #12-16 orange and pink Frenchies, #12-14 Sexy Walt’s Worm (Loren Williams), and my own designs: #8-14 black, brown, and golden Adam Bombs, #12-16 tan and olive Cloud Cover Caddis, #12-16 Hare’s Ear 2.0, #12-14 caddis green Case Closed Caddis, and #14-18 Slanted Pheasant Tails. Fly fishing the Lackawanna River in Pennsylvania. Lackawanna Brown. Ironically, the valley mine drainages and sewer plant discharges are what make the Lackawanna the year-round fishery it is. Summer terrestrial action can be good, with beetles (#12-16 Orvis Flash Beetle), ants, and inchworms dropping in on a regular basis. However, with its bustling Main Avenue and long stretches of stone walls channelizing the water, most anglers don’t fish until the towns of Mayfield and Jermyn, where deeper holes and longer riffles begin to form, providing better habitat for the river’s larger fish, and numerous mine discharge sites inject cold water into the river. Efforts of a number of conservation groups have lead to the treatment of a number of the major AMD sources and restoration of the river. https://diyflyfishing.com/lackawanna-river-fly-fishing-guide Any reasonably warm and sunny winter day, I guarantee there’s a fish somewhere sipping midges in the film. The Lackawanna Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited was originally chartered in 1983, and is focused on Youth Education, Women Inclusion, partnerships, new and interesting speakers for meetings. Find out where the action is, what the water conditions are and everything you need for a successful day on the water! Due to mine outflows and sewage plant discharges, the Lackawanna remains ice free, except during the coldest of winters. Aside from the 8 miles of Stocked Trout Water that are closed from March 1 to the opening day of trout season, the rest of the river is open year-round. |   Biologists were well pleased with the number of young-of-the-year captured at both stations, insuring that the wild brown trout population in the Lackawanna River will continue to thrive for years to come. Today, the Lackawanna has become a haven for more than just trout. Just 50 short years ago, the river was left for dead. Upstream of the reservoir, there are decent numbers of small wild browns and brookies. Figure 3. This label has created a lopsided amount of pressure on this area. Rising fish can even be found on the river in winter. Length-frequency distribution of wild brown trout captured in Section 07 of the Lackawanna River in July 2010. Endless efforts by the Lackawanna Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited and the Lackawanna River Conservation Association keep these factors at bay and preserve this magnificent natural resource. Wild trout naturally reproduce in the river from 6.70 miles (10.78 km) upriver of its mouth all the way downstream to its confluence with the Lackawanna River. The Lackawanna has a fair number of hatches, but the most important are midges, BWOs, Sulphurs, Tricos, and assorted caddis. I think that due to the less-than-stellar insect life, fish in the Lack turn piscivorous earlier in their lives than most trout generally would, leading to rapid growth rates. I’ve had wonderful days of nonstop dry-fly action on the Lackawanna, rivaling any stream I’ve fished in the state, but if you want to catch fish with any consistency, your flies need to be in the water. Scenery on the river can be hit or miss, and the hatches even less reliable. Figure 2. Our journey took place somewhere within the 4.9 mile Special Regulation Area listed as Class “A” Trophy Trout Artificial Lures Only water, located in Northeast PA’s Lackawanna County. The USGS Lackawanna River stream gauge in Archbald, PA provides real-time stream flow data and is useful in determining when to fish. Lower-riding CDC caddis patterns such as tan and olive Orvis Low Rider CDC and Elk-hair Caddis (#14-18) tend to fool more fish in lower summer flows. Caddis definitely outnumber the mayflies here. The Kamikaze Sculpin is easy to tie, versatile, and smartly designed to get the job done. Sulphurs are perhaps the marquee mayfly hatch and bring fish to the surface between mid-May and mid-June that are unseen the other eleven months of the year. Hobie 360 Drive Kayak Propulsion Technology: Power and Control in Any Direction, Temps for Trout: How to Catch Fish that Behave Hot n Cold, How to Remove Wind Knots and Snarls from Leaders and Tippet, How to Mend, Set the Hook, and Strip Line, Iliamna's Hidden Treasures: Big Dreams in Alaska's Small Streams, Fly Fishing New Jersey's Island Beach State Park, Lake Almanor: Seasonal Strategies for Trophy Trout and Bass, Pennsylvania's Waking Giant: The Lackawanna River, Hobie MirageDrive 360 Kayak Propulsion: Amazing Control and Power. Excepted is a mid-section area extending 0.7 mile from the Depot Street Bridge in Jessup downstream to the foot bridge in Robert Mellow Park However most fish in this section are stocked. Nevertheless, wild brown trout continue to thrive. Stillwater Reservoir is a long, narrow, relatively shallow and weedy lake, where temperatures reach well into the upper 70s, if not the lower 80s, by late summer. Fish must be at least 14" to keep in the Trophy Trout section with a creel limit of two fish. How to deliver meat & potatoes to hungry trout, Ross Purnell | Photography by Pat Ford & Ross Purnell - February 05, 2020. In 1937, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a Clean Stream Law, unfortunately allowing an exemption for the coal mining industry. When choosing streamer patterns, keep in mind that the river has plenty of brown trout, suckers, dace, sculpins, crayfish, and leeches. Copyright 2021 DIY Fly Fishing, all rights reserved. Although the gates can be controlled to release more or less water, the river below receives water primarily through a spillway, providing no coldwater relief for the trout downstream until cold water enters the river from the first of four sewage treatment plants in Forest City, and the coldwater mine drainages beginning in Jermyn. The final 3 miles of river, beginning at the Connell Street bridge in Old Forge, have been too severely scarred by abandoned mine drainage (AMD) from the Old Forge borehole to support trout or any aquatic life. The Lackawanna River is a 42-mile-long (68 km) tributary of the Susquehanna River in northeastern Pennsylvania in the United States.It flows through a region of the northern Pocono Mountains that was once a center of anthracite coal mining in the United States. Today, wild brown trout thrive in the Lackawanna and 11 miles of the river are designated as a PA Class A Wild Trout Stream. By 1900, the river was devoid of its native brook trout and other inhabitants, except for the occasional rat. Running through former coal country in Northeast PA the Lackawanna suffered from the effects of acid mine drainage (AMD). Lackawanna River Specializing in fishing the Lackawanna River, Northeastern PA’S best wild brown trout fishery. As the river flows into Dickson City and the city limits of Scranton, shopping centers, busy intersections, and denser neighborhoods begin to line the stream. Streamers are my go-to winter patterns, simply because indicator nymphing a deep slow pool with 6X tippet and two tiny midges has never been my favorite thing (although effective). I caught nearly a dozen fish on a Griffith’s Gnat before my fingers became too numb to tie another knot. Access is also limited, as many major roads and neighborhoods veer off from the river for several miles. But the wild brown trout grow big and the fishing is excellent. Nonprofit Organization. [16] The West Branch Lackawanna River has a small population of wild brook trout and brown trout . Fish numbers remain strong throughout the city, with only the insect life apparently affected by the urban conditions. Location: Northeastern Pennsylvania Type of stream: FreestoneAngling methods: All tackleSpecies: Brown, BrookAccess: ModerateSeason: Year-roundSupporting Services: Scranton Short take: Ugly urban river with great wild brownsHandicapped Access: LimitedClosest TU Chapter: Lackawanna Valley You … On the downside, much of the debris and locally discarded trash begins to collect in the lower stretches of the river. I prefer a 10-foot, 3- or 4-weight rod for nymphing, a 9-foot, 4- or 5-weight for drys, and a 9-foot, 6- or 7-weight for streamers. Catch brown trout in excess of twenty inches with great hatches all season long. This line control is one of the unique aspects of fly fishing. That characteristic is certainly welcoming, compared to some waterways, such as the Delaware. Lackawanna River → Susquehanna River → Chesapeake Bay: ... is also considered by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission to be Class A Wild Trout Waters for both brook trout and brown trout from its headwaters to the Hollister Dam, a distance of 3.9 miles (6.3 km). Spring Brook (also known as Spring Brook Creek) is a tributary of the Lackawanna River in Lackawanna County and Luzerne County, in Pennsylvania, in the United States.It is approximately 17 miles (27 km) long and flows through Covington Township, Spring Brook Township, and Moosic in Lackawanna County and Pittston Township in Luzerne County. LACKAWANNA RIVER The Lackawanna River is another river in the Olyphant and Winton areas with good trout-fishing potential. As Dr. Ian Malcolm said in Jurassic Park, “Life finds a way.” Yes, some initial aid was needed, just as every toddler needs a helping hand to make their first steps. 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