I had a few hours to kill this afternoon so I fished a tributary of the Lehigh River. Now I know that they stocked a strain of steelhead a number of years ago... but could they be reproducing in the tributaries is the question that I have.

I started out nailing a mix of wild browns and smaller rainbows. And by whacking I mean really putting a hurtin' on them I fished a section of stream and the fish were in nearly every piece of holding water. I went to the last spot, which was near the big river. I landed a few small browns as I worked my way up to the head of the pool. I casted my flies up into the turbulent water and the indicator straightened out like someone hooked it to the back of a truck. I set the hook, and the fish at first fought like a sucker, until that is, it started to JUMP! This fish jumped no less than ten times! It went all over the pool and eventually after a long battle, she was in the net.

This is where the story starts to sour. I was not supposed to fish today, so my camera was home. I left the fish in the net and ran to get my iPhone. I could not have taken the fish out of the water in the cold temps. I got back down to the stream and saw mud all around the net... The fish was not there. I was deflated to say the least.

The fish was an impressive 21 inches and had no spots on its sides at all. Is it possible that the LRSA is still playing around with the steelhead fingerlings? Or have they begun to reproduce in the tributaries as a result of the plantings of long ago. There was no doubt in my mind that this fish was a steelhead of some sorts. This fish was sleek and mean. It was one of the toughest fish I have fought in a stream in quite some time. It was much tougher than the 2 foot browns in that small stream in Montana.

"I'll be back," to quote Arnold. If we have a snow day on Wednesday, I am going to go back there armed with a camera and hopefully a friend. There has to be more of them.