Time: 7:00PM – 9:00PM

Location: Allentown Park above the rose garden

Fish Landed: 0

I was convinced there would be no fishing on Sunday, and that I would be catching up on my reading at Jeff and Joanie’s house. I got up at around 7:15AM and went for a 50 minute run on the Ironton rail trail which I could access within two blocks of the Shafer house. We had a nice breakfast, and I watched Jeff as he changed the shank on his golf club and then made a temporary repair to his broken rod tip.

I spent some time chatting with Joanie and checked out her herb garden as she clipped Italian parsley to make a batch of tabouli for dinner. After lunch Jeff remembered Cedar Creek as a stream that we might fish as it springs from the ground near Dorney Park and runs to the Little Lehigh over a short distance with minimal tributaries to affect the clarity. There is no USGS stream gauge for Cedar Creek, so we decided to take a drive without our rods and gear to assess if we could fish there.

We arrived at the parking lot by the barn above the rose garden and tip toed through the muck and debris left behind by Friday’s storm to the bank. From the parking lot I thought the stream looked brown, but as we got closer we realized the brown was the stream bottom. Cedar Creek was perfectly clear and fishable! We continued up the road to Cetronia and then looped past Dorney Park and walked to the stretch that Jeff called the hog trough. Apparently some locals purchased some large trout and dumped them in Cedar Creek. We could see them beneath the surface and they did get the juices flowing as they moved about in the pool. Jeff called Joanie and asked if she could move dinner up to 5PM to allow for some evening fishing.

As Jeff started the gas grill and Joanie prepared dinner, some huge dark clouds appeared in the western sky and the sound of rumbling thunder came to our ears. Eventually the rain began, and it came down in sheets again. We bunched my fishing gear toward the center of the porch so it wouldn’t get wet again. We enjoyed a wonderful pork tenderloin dinner in the dining room while the rain came down outside. After dinner we debated whether to wait out the storm or drive to Cedar Creek. I suggested we go to the stream and worst case we’d return without fishing, but best case we’d be there when the rain stopped. That was the plan we followed.

We arrived at the same parking lot as earlier in the day while it continued to rain, however, at a slower pace. It didn’t take long before the rain stopped and we walked over to check out the stream. My spirits sank as I noticed the water had risen to the top of the bank and was now quite murky. Jeff on the other hand was undeterred and suggested that we strip streamers along the bank. That’s exactly what we did. I pulled an olive woolly bugger with a black tail from my fleece book and clipped a split shot above the fly and began casting across and allowing the bugger to swing to the bank and then stripped it back toward me. I actually had one momentary hook up but then couldn’t coax any more action.

I met up with Jeff and he had caught two while fishing the foot or two of slack water between the bank and faster current. He showed me the stripping and twitching technique he was using and I attempted to emulate it. Jeff also exchanged rods with me and gave me his black woolly bugger with a body made with flashy chenille. I managed another temporary connection with Jeff’s rod while he looked on but couldn’t achieve the ultimate accomplishment of a fish in my net.

We fished the streamers until dark, and Jeff landed three or four fish, but I grew weary of the lack of success and we quit at 9PM and returned to Whitehall.