The Lehigh River has been deemed navigable, but has been the subject of court battles with landowners who would claim it for themselves, in a situation similar to another of our top trout rivers, the Little Juniata.

For more information about this area, call the Lehigh Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau at 1-800-747-0561

Or write the Bureau at 840 Hamilton Street, Suite 200, Allentown, PA 18101.

LACKAWANNA RIVER
The Lackawanna River is another river in the Olyphant and Winton areas with good trout-fishing potential. It holds brown trout to at least 20 inches, though it was last surveyed in 2000.

There is a 5.2-mile Trophy Trout Special Regulations section from the Gilmartin Street Bridge in Archbald downstream to the Lackawanna Avenue Bridge (state Route 0347) in Olyphant. Excepted is a mid-section area extending .7 miles from the Depot Street Bridge in Jessup downstream to the footbridge in Robert Mellow Park.

For details, write the Lackawanna County Convention and Visitors Bureau, 99 Glenmaura National Boulevard, Scranton, PA 18507. Or phone 1-800-22-WELCOME, or log on to www.visit nepa.org.

ALLEGHENY RIVER
Two sections of the Allegheny River are trout fisheries. The headwaters of the Allegheny River in Potter County is a stocked trout stream. At some point before the river swings north into New York the water becomes too warm to support trout through the summer.

This is a fine section of trout water, though not the section that has earned the Allegheny its reputation as one of the top trout rivers in the eastern U.S.

Not until several miles downstream, starting at the outflow of the Kinzua Dam in Warren County that it becomes a famous trout river.

The section of the Allegheny River starting at the Kinzua Dam is managed by rainbow trout fingerlings and brown trout fingerlings being stocked on a regular basis.

About 200,000 fingerlings are stocked annually.

The proportion of brown versus rainbow trout fingerlings varies. Over the past few years, it has been weighted toward rainbow fingerlings. A few brook trout also enter this fishery from tributary streams. Several tributaries in this section are stocked with adult trout; some also support wild populations of all three trout species.

The Allegheny River is the top fishery for trophy trout in Pennsylvania, though not as dominantly as it was a decade ago. This is due not to any decline in the Allegheny's trout fishery, but rather a result of successful Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission trout programs.