Lil' Le-Hi Trout Nursery takes a hit from recent flooding

Not only did the recent heavy rains and flooding affect MusikFest events and Das Awk Fescht car show, but it created a deadly trout kill at the Lil’ Le-Hi Trout Nursery. 

According to Herb Gottschall, president of Lehigh County Fish & Game Association, a few hundred sizable, chunky trout in the 12-14-inch range were killed when heavy rains flooded portions of the popular Lil’ Le-Hi Trout Nursery off Fish Hatchery Road in Allentown. 

Many of the affected trout came from the raceway that is situated alongside the Little Lehigh Creek from which the raceway gets it cold water flow, while others came from the two holding tanks adjacent and closest to the creek. Dead trout were strewed about the lawn and stuck in the nets that protect the fish from predators when the flood water receded on Sunday. 

“Fortunately, said Gottschall, the newly stocked trout fingerlings in adjacent tanks were not affected.” 

While the flooding killed trout that would have been stocked next spring, the situation was predictable claims Gottschall. 

In a 2017 letter to LCF&G members, Gottschall explained that eliminating the dam upstream and a short distance from the nursery, would affect the nursery and stocking of sizable fish.  And now, flooding conditions wiped out a lot of beautiful trout. 

“I told Wildlands Conservancy that eliminating the dam would cause problems, and it did,” Gottschall believes. 

It appears the latest Mudsnail problem in the Little Lehigh, the famed stream that gets more fishing pressure than any other stream in the area, and the City of Allentown gets a portion of its water from it, didn’t need this fish kill to compound its recent ill. 
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