The Lehigh River is a 109-mile-long (175 km) tributary of the Delaware River in eastern Pennsylvania.
The river flows in a generally southward pattern from the Pocono Mountains in Northeastern Pennsylvania through Allentown and much of the Lehigh Valley before joining the Delaware River in Easton.
Part of the Lehigh River and a number of its tributaries are designated Pennsylvania Scenic Rivers.The Lehigh River holds many species of fish, including rainbow trout, brown trout, brook trout, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, pickerel, panfish, carp, catfish, eel, and muskie.
There are both pure and tiger muskie, the usually sterile, hybrid offspring of the true muskellunge (Esox masquinongy) and the northern pike (Esox lucius) being caught in the river.
Over the years since 2005 various groups such as the Lehigh Coldwater Fishery Alliance and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission have worked with the Army Corps of Engineers to design annual flow plans from the Frances Walter Dam (F.E.W.) to maximize the cold water discharge through the spring and summer. This has helped enhance the population of coldwater species like brown trout to gain a growing naturally reproducing population within the river below F.E.W. dam all the way to Northampton.
