Above and below the Kimbles powerhouse
The Lackawaxen is two rivers split by a pipe. Jim Kingston, who maps the river at lackawaxenriver.com, calls it primarily a warmwater stream except for the last 10 miles above Zane Grey Pool at the Delaware. The difference is the Lake Wallenpaupack powerhouse, operated by Brookfield, just above the Kimbles Road bridge: during generation it adds water drawn from the depths of the lake, cooling the lower river through summer.
That water cuts both ways. Kingston warns that below Kimbles the river is a hydropower tailwater and that wading during a power run can be very dangerous; he points anglers to Brookfield's Safe Waters release schedule. Ron Tussel, writing in The River Reporter, adds the upside: releases flush alewives and other food out of the lake and the trout gorge on them, which is why streamers and Woolly Buggers earn their place in the box.
Prompton, Honesdale and White Mills
The main stem begins in the borough of Prompton, where the West Branch meets Van Auken Creek below Prompton Lake, and runs 31.3 miles to the Delaware through a 598-square-mile basin. US Route 6 follows the upper river. Dyberry Creek enters in Honesdale, and Tussel notes a parking area and walkway down to the pool at the mouth, where he has seen trout and even crappies taken.
This upper water fishes best in spring and fall. DIY Fly Fishing and Tussel both say the reach from Honesdale to Hawley gets warm in summer, with rock bass and panfish mixing in, and DIY suggests the cooler tributaries when it does. DiscoverNEPA lists the White Mills River Access Park and Bingham Park in Hawley among the few public entry points; much of the rest of the river is posted.
The Towpath from Kimbles to Zane Grey
Below the powerhouse, Towpath Road (SR 4006) stays with the river from Molly's to the Delaware, with a short break at the Lackawaxen town buildings. Kingston's advice is to drive it first to learn the pools and parking, which has grown scarce. Posting comes in two kinds here: signs that bar everyone and signs that allow fishing only. Much of the bank is unposted, but that is the landowners' courtesy, not a right.
Wading is rough. Kingston blames rock left from the Delaware and Hudson Canal, the rail line and the dam construction, and recommends studded or felt soles, a belted chest wader and a folding staff on the belt. A paddler's account on Paddling.com describes ledges jutting from the banks just below the Kimbles bridge, a long rocky rapid above and through the Rowland bridge with boulders the size of small cars, and a take-out at the Zane Grey access, which needs a PFBC launch permit or registration.
Zane Grey's smallmouth and the mixed bag
Zane Grey spent his fishing time in the village of Lackawaxen, and his story "The Lord of Lackawaxen Creek" in the May 1909 issue of Outing was about a smallmouth, not a trout. Smallmouth are still common, Kingston says, along with rock bass, redbreast sunfish and fallfish, and Tussel reports American shad caught in the lower reaches near the confluence. DCNR named the Lackawaxen its River of the Year in 2010.
Brook trout drift in from tributaries, most notably Blooming Grove Creek, where the Blooming Grove club runs a private hatchery. Browns and rainbows are the stocked fish, and DIY notes that a few wild rainbows run up from the Delaware in spring.
Closed until opening day: the stocked trout sections
PFBC stocks two pieces of the main stem: from the confluence of Dyberry Creek and the West Branch down to 1.00 mile below the Honesdale sewage treatment plant, and from 0.60 mile above Middle Creek to the mouth, which takes in all of the Kimbles tailwater. Kingston says the state stocks once before the season and several times during it. As stocked trout water, both sections go dark on February 16 and stay closed until the 8 a.m. start on the April 4 opener; A&G Outfitters posts the closure on its river page each winter.
Keep five trout of 7 inches or better until September 7; after that the extended season cuts the creel to three, and it stays open until mid-February. Smallmouth get a spring spawning break, no harvest and no tournaments between April 11 and June 12. In summer you may keep six at 12 inches, and from October on the bar rises to four bass at 15 inches. Trout fishing needs the trout permit as well as a license.
Rowland: a gauge that follows the turbines
USGS 01432110 at Rowland drains 589 square miles and sits below the powerhouse, so it shows both rain and generation. In the last 120 days it swung between 127 and 1,960 cfs and recorded water as warm as 28.7 C, about 84 F. No shop publishes a wading number for it, so the 300 to 1,000 cfs range here runs from the October daily median (about 260 cfs) to the May median (about 970 cfs) in the USGS record since 2008. To see the river without the release, check USGS 01431500 at Hawley, above the powerhouse.
On hatches, Kingston says the bugs come from mid-April to mid-June, run smaller than the same species on the Beaverkill or the Delaware, and show 10 days to two weeks earlier. DIY names the Hendrickson as the standout mayfly. A&G lists olives in sizes 18 to 22 and midges in 20 to 24 through the cold months.