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Home › Waters › Pennsylvania › Lehigh River
River · Pocono Mountains · Pennsylvania

Lehigh River Fishing Guides

A Pocono tailwater below Francis E. Walter Dam running through the Lehigh Gorge to Jim Thorpe, with wild browns up top and smallmouth in the lower valley.

Mist lifting off a river between wooded Appalachian ridges

Map of the Lehigh River

35 numbered points: 11 access points, 3 campsites, 3 bait & fly shops, 1 outfitter, 3 bridges, 2 parks and conservation areas, 4 regulation section limits, 7 hazards, 1 USGS gauge. Tap a marker for details. Reviewed Sep 18, 2026.

Printable version →
  • Access / boat ramp (11)
  • Campsite (3)
  • Bait, tackle & fly shop (3)
  • Outfitter / canoe rental (1)
  • Bridge crossing (3)
  • Park / conservation area (2)
  • Regulation section limit (4)
  • Dam / hazard (7)
  • USGS gauge (1)
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Points are curated from OpenStreetMap and state agency sources; confirm access and hours before you go.

Print it. Bag it. Bring it.Phones die, screens crack, and most of this water has no signal. Print this map, fold it into a zip-top bag or dry bag with your license, and you have a backup your electronics can’t give you. Every marker is numbered so you can say exactly where you are.

Open the printable map
All 35 points on this map
#PointTypeLat, LonNotes
1JC's Live Bait & Tackle
Gouldsboro · shop=fishing in OpenStreetMap		Bait, tackle & fly shop41.24459, -75.45716The only tackle shop mapped on the headwater Lehigh, 0.43 km off the river at line-km 6.
2Great Falls of the Lehigh
Named falls on the main stem		Dam / hazard41.12923, -75.62741Sits directly on the centreline at line-km 33, above the Francis E. Walter pool.
3Francis E. Walter Dam
US Army Corps of Engineers		Dam / hazard41.11277, -75.72205Line-km 46 of 172. Everything above it is reservoir; scheduled releases set the whitewater season below.
4Stocked trout section — upper limit at the F. E. Walter Reservoir outlet
Carbon/Luzerne reach · PFBC		Regulation section limit41.11402, -75.72161Upper limit of the PFBC year-round stocked reach that runs from the reservoir outlet to the Sandy Run confluence. Placed at the dam itself. See the PFBC regulations for what applies.
5Boat launch below Francis E. Walter Dam
Unnamed in OpenStreetMap		Access / boat ramp41.11014, -75.72380First launch below the dam, 0.45 km downriver of it at line-km 46.4 and 0.04 km off the line. Named here from the dam, not from an OSM name.
6Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-476) crossing
Northeast Extension		Bridge crossing41.10419, -75.74949The only crossing between the dam and White Haven; line-km 49.
7Lehigh Gorge Campground
Private campground, White Haven		Campsite41.06649, -75.752741.4 km off the river at line-km 55, just above the White Haven launch.
8Boat launch below White Haven
Unnamed in OpenStreetMap		Access / boat ramp41.05324, -75.77042Line-km 56.5, 0.02 km off the line and 0.9 km below White Haven borough. Three OSM slipway objects sit within 80 m here and are one site, mapped once.
9Stocked trout section — lower limit at the Sandy Run confluence
Carbon/Luzerne reach · PFBC		Regulation section limit41.01785, -75.73856Lower limit of the reach that starts at the F. E. Walter Reservoir outlet. Placed where the mapped Sandy Run centreline meets the Lehigh — 0.000 km, a shared vertex.
10Rockport non-powered boat launch
Lehigh Gorge · car-top only		Access / boat ramp40.96662, -75.75469Line-km 71, 0.02 km off the line. The mid-gorge access between White Haven and Jim Thorpe.
11Lehigh Gorge State Park
DCNR		Park / conservation area40.95342, -75.74630The park follows the river through the gorge; this is its OpenStreetMap label point at line-km 81. No boundary relation is mapped.
12Stocked trout section — upper limit above the Glen Onoko railroad bridge
Carbon reach · PFBC		Regulation section limit40.88577, -75.75723The published upper limit is 0.33 mile upriver of the railroad bridge at Glen Onoko. The bridge is mapped at line-km 91.9; walking 0.53 km up the chained centreline lands here, at line-km 91.3.
13Glen Onoko railroad bridge
CNJ line · also the D&L Trail crossing		Bridge crossing40.88289, -75.76065Line-km 91.9, 0.01 km off the line. The anchor the section limit above it is measured from.
14PA 903 bridge at Jim Thorpe
North Street		Bridge crossing40.86993, -75.73764Line-km 95.5. The town crossing at the gorge take-out.
15Stocked trout section — lower limit at the Mauch Chunk Creek confluence
Carbon reach · PFBC		Regulation section limit40.86195, -75.73739Lower limit of the reach that begins above the Glen Onoko railroad bridge. Placed where the mapped Mauch Chunk Creek centreline meets the Lehigh — 0.000 km, a shared vertex.
16Lehighton Outdoor Center
Boat rental and outfitter		Outfitter / canoe rental40.83252, -75.70639Line-km 103, 0.16 km off the river. Tagged shop=outdoor plus amenity=boat_rental in OpenStreetMap.
17Emerald Hollow Campground
Private campground		Campsite40.82541, -75.687670.5 km off the river at line-km 105.
18East Penn Boat Ramp
Line-km 110		Access / boat ramp40.79233, -75.656330.10 km off the line, sharing a riverbank with the Riverview Park primitive campsites.
19Primitive Camping at Riverview Park
East Penn Township		Campsite40.79137, -75.65561Beside the East Penn ramp at line-km 110, 0.13 km off the line.
20Lehigh Gap Boat Ramp
Line-km 115 · PA 248 crossing		Access / boat ramp40.78213, -75.606940.06 km off the line at the Lehigh Gap water gap.
21USGS 01451000 — Lehigh River at Walnutport
USGS streamgage		USGS gauge40.75704, -75.60296Coordinates taken from the water's own roster record. It falls 0.048 km from the chained centreline at line-km 118, which is what confirms both.
22Walnutport Boat Ramp
Line-km 118		Access / boat ramp40.75265, -75.601990.04 km off the line, 0.5 km below the gauge.
23Three Mile Dam
Low-head dam on the main stem		Dam / hazard40.72605, -75.54327Line-km 126, directly on the centreline. First of the old industrial dams on the lower river.
24Treichlers Bridge Boat Ramp
Line-km 127		Access / boat ramp40.73370, -75.540440.05 km off the line, just below Three Mile Dam.
25Willie Marx's Bait & Tackle
Northampton · shop=fishing in OpenStreetMap		Bait, tackle & fly shop40.69011, -75.505290.10 km off the river at line-km 134, immediately above Northampton Dam.
26Northampton Dam
Low-head dam on the main stem		Dam / hazard40.68921, -75.50269Line-km 134, 0.004 km off the centreline.
27Number Seven Dam
Low-head dam on the main stem		Dam / hazard40.60674, -75.45466Line-km 145, directly on the centreline above Allentown.
28Sand Island Boat Launch
Bethlehem · Sand Island Park		Access / boat ramp40.61504, -75.38624Line-km 152, 0.12 km off the line.
29Boat launch at Saucon
Unnamed in OpenStreetMap		Access / boat ramp40.61980, -75.33654Line-km 157, 0.07 km off the line. Named from the Saucon hamlet node 0.09 km away; no other place name is within a kilometre of it.
30Freeman's Island
Nature reserve, mid-river		Park / conservation area40.63124, -75.33173A mapped river island at line-km 158.
31PFBC Route 33 Access
Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission		Access / boat ramp40.64488, -75.27178Line-km 164, 0.24 km off the line. Three OSM objects describe this one site.
32Glendon Dam
Low-head dam on the main stem		Dam / hazard40.65894, -75.24465Line-km 167, on the centreline.
33Lehigh River Easton Access
Easton · line-km 172		Access / boat ramp40.68892, -75.206640.05 km off the line, immediately above Easton Dam and the Delaware confluence.
34Easton Dam
Low-head dam at the mouth		Dam / hazard40.68906, -75.20497The last dam on the Lehigh, 0.1 km above the Delaware confluence.
35The Shad Den Bait & Tackle
Easton · shop=fishing in OpenStreetMap		Bait, tackle & fly shop40.69596, -75.206850.77 km off the river near the mouth at line-km 172.

Guides on the Lehigh River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

About the Lehigh River

The Lehigh drops out of the Poconos through the Lehigh Gorge, past Jim Thorpe, and down the valley through Allentown and Bethlehem to the Delaware at Easton. Two rivers live inside that description. Above and through the gorge it is a cold, boulder-filled trout river fed by releases from Francis E. Walter Dam, with wild brown trout that have come back strongly in recent decades. Below Jim Thorpe it warms and widens into a very good smallmouth and walleye river.

The gorge reach is the guided trout water, and it shares the river with one of the busiest whitewater rafting operations in the East. Scheduled dam releases drive the raft season, and those same releases determine when the trout water is wadeable and when it is not. On low-release days the gorge wades well and fishes beautifully with caddis, sulphurs and terrestrials; on release days the river belongs to the rafts. That schedule is published in advance, which makes planning easier here than on many tailwaters.

Below the gorge the smallmouth fishing from Walnutport down toward Allentown is underrated and easy to reach, with good numbers of fish and enough current to make wading productive. Shad run up from the Delaware in spring as far as the fish passage allows.

The Walnutport gauge sits well below the gorge and reads the whole upper basin. Look at it alongside the published release schedule rather than on its own. Jim Thorpe is the hub for outfitters, lodging and the rail trail that follows the gorge and reaches much of the upper river on foot or by bike.

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Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

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  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
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  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Lehigh River cfs

Now: 1,220 cfs, read 4:30 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 01451000, Lehigh River at Walnutport, PA).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Francis E. Walter Dam and White Haven: top of the gorge, rail trail access.
Lehigh Gorge State Park: trail access along the gorge with numerous walk-in points.
Rockport: mid-gorge access and raft launch.
Jim Thorpe: town access at the bottom of the gorge, outfitters and shuttles.
Bowmanstown, Palmerton and Walnutport: valley accesses in the smallmouth reach near the gauge.
Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton: lower river access toward the Delaware.

Seasons

April through June: stocked and wild trout in the gorge, sulphurs and caddis, shad in the lower river.
July and August: whitewater release season; fish the gorge on non-release days and the valley for smallmouth.
September and October: the best trout month up top and prime smallmouth below Jim Thorpe.
November through March: cold, low and quiet; the gorge fishes on mild days.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Lehigh River?

As of Oct 19, 4:30 am, the USGS gauge Lehigh River at Walnutport, PA reads 1,220 cfs, the 74th percentile for this date. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Lehigh River?

Anglers target American Shad, Brown Trout, Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass, Walleye on the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania.

Are there fishing guides on the Lehigh River?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the Lehigh River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the Lehigh River?

Francis E. Walter Dam and White Haven: top of the gorge, rail trail access. Lehigh Gorge State Park: trail access along the gorge with numerous walk-in points. Rockport: mid-gorge access and raft launch. Jim Thorpe: town access at the bottom of the gorge, outfitters and shuttles. Bowmanstown, Palmerton and Walnutport: valley accesses in the smallmouth reach near the gauge. Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton: lower river access toward the Delaware.

When is the best time to fish the Lehigh River?

April through June: stocked and wild trout in the gorge, sulphurs and caddis, shad in the lower river. July and August: whitewater release season; fish the gorge on non-release days and the valley for smallmouth. September and October: the best trout month up top and prime smallmouth below Jim Thorpe. November through March: cold, low and quiet; the gorge fishes on mild days.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Lehigh River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Pennsylvania agency site: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/fishandboat/fishing/regulations