Central PA Troubles Tully was 65 degrees at 3pm

mtelesha

mtelesha

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Joined
May 30, 2020
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65
Tully CFS was 50 and the temp was 65 at. The Covered Bridge.

Allenberry has stolen half the catch and release on Yellow Breeches.

Big Springs Development.

LeTort is still not what it use to be....
 
Have you seen the Lehigh Valley lately? At least we can get our Amazon Essentials underpants ordered and delivered in under 4 hours.....

I am 56, so I can only imagine the changes the real old heads on the forum have seen!
 
mtelesha said:
Tully CFS was 50 and the temp was 65 at. The Covered Bridge.

Allenberry has stolen half the catch and release on Yellow Breech.

Big Springs Development.
T
LeTort is still not what it use to be....
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The flow was 58 cfs at the waterworks and 78 cfs at the covered bridge. The extra 20 cfs comes from Plum Ck and Cacoosing Ck. Flow is most likely low in the Tully just below the dam because the ACOE is probably holding water back while in the process of raising Blue Marsh’s water level from the 285’ winter pool to the 290’ summer pool elevation.
 
They were running 2000 cfs earlier this year, now running the Tully at 50 cfs during prime time. How about running it at a steady 250? I was there the other day when I was running 150 and they dropped it down to 50 CFS. You could actually see the water dropping on the rocks. Quite a shame for one of the best creeks in the area.
 
Mike said:
The flow was 58 cfs at the waterworks and 78 cfs at the covered bridge. The extra 20 cfs comes from Plum Ck and Cacoosing Ck. Flow is most likely low in the Tully just below the dam because the ACOE is probably holding water back while in the process of raising Blue Marsh’s water level from the 285’ winter pool to the 290’ summer pool elevation.
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You're saying on an artificial tailwater fishery, fishing conditions are at the mercy of regular dam operations? Who'd have guessed.
 
sarce said:
You're saying on an artificial tailwater fishery, fishing conditions are at the mercy of regular dam operations? Who'd have guessed.
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SO is the East and West Branch of the Delaware. There was a huge fight to fix the flows and the fish won that fight. We could also do the same for the Tully.
 
mtelesha said:
SO is the East and West Branch of the Delaware. There was a huge fight to fix the flows and the fish won that fight. We could also do the same for the Tully.
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The Delaware branches originate out of MASSIVE reservoirs with 200’ tall dams that are already located at 1000’ elevation.

Blue marsh is full of silt, the dam is fairly small, and the downstream fishery is stocked with a bunch of hideous mushmouth trash fish. There are some wilds in the limestone tributaries but they’re being forced out by the 24” fugazi pellet head browns that get stocked in there. If those fish die the entire system would be better off.

I will never understand the hype around the Tully.
 
KELORGO said:
Quite a shame for one of the best creeks in the area.
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Not to pile on, but this was a talking point over 15 years ago, and I don't think it was even true then. The hopes it would be a tailwater fishery were just hopes. It's a put and take, stocked trout stream that has some wild fish that spawn in two coldwater tributaries. The warmer and drier it gets in SEPA over the years, the less it becomes a trout stream, let alone one of the best in the area.

That said, it sucks to see anyone's home waters go to shite....
 
tjsingle said:
^this. I remember getting into fly fishing and being told about epic hatches etc, like they are still stockers, haha
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The stream’s reputation was built in the first decade of fall ‘fingerling” trout stockings into one of the first DH Areas in Pa, a stocking plan/program developed by the then AFM. They were quite successful for a while and the RT in particular were quite colorful and good fighters by spring. They also grew rapidly, hitting 11 inches by Memorial Day. Add to that a grand caddis hatch for weeks at a time followed by a good trico hatch and you had a fishery on public land in SE Pa that extended into the first half of July before temps really went south. This was unusual for SE Pa all of these factors added to the good reputation.
 
I have never fished Pine anywhere other than up near Galeton. I was less than impressed in that stretch. I was there in June. The banks were nothing other than knotweed, and the water temperature was like 74 degrees.

I have never fished and will never fish the Tully.
 
Mike said:
The stream’s reputation was built in the first decade of fall ‘fingerling” trout stockings into one of the first DH Areas in Pa, a stocking plan/program developed by the then AFM. They were quite successful for a while and the RT in particular were quite colorful and good fighters by spring. They also grew rapidly, hitting 11 inches by Memorial Day. Add to that a grand caddis hatch for weeks at a time followed by a good trico hatch and you had a fishery on public land in SE Pa that extended into the first half of July before temps really went south. This was unusual for SE Pa all of these factors added to the good reputation.
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I can understand why this would be a popular fishery, regardless of its location.
 
The lower Tully IMO is the most overrated “Trout” stream in PA.

Junky, boring to fish habitat below the dam, a marginal (at best) cold water supply, meh (at best) hatches, and a general lack of wild fish. It is nothing more than a large stocked Trout stream in southeastern PA. Yeah, the bottom release buys you ethical fishing a little bit longer into Summer than if the dam wasn’t there, but that’s really the only thing it has going for it.

Short version, the Tully sucks. I lived 20 minutes from it for 10 years and fished it probably two or three times total in that span, and only when I was desperate to get out, and only had a limited time window to do so.
 
The Gunpowder here in Baltimore County seems similarly overrated. There are obviously some advantages, including some beautiful scenery and consistently cold water. However the flows have been minimal for the past few years (as expected with lack of rain).

That said, it’s convenient for me and is a nice option for winter and summer trout fishing.
 
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Sorry to interrupt the pile on from the Tully snobs.....
I'm sure you all know that a huge portion of the population lives in SEPA.
If you lived in SEPA, what are the alternatives?
Valley Creek is wild but also very small and incredibly pressured.
Brandywine, French, White Clay, Perkiomen, Ridley, Chester, Ithan, Wissahickon, et al. are all small, put and take streams with nothing but stockers and a brief cold water window.
Tully is less than perfect, but what is has is access, plenty of river, and a location close to where people actually live.
If I have a free day to fish, I'm not going to the Tully. But if I can sneak out of work a little early to fish for just a few hours, Tully is at least as good as any of the other options in this part of the state.
 
Dear Board,

I for one am grateful that the Tully exists. If it hadn't been for a trip almost 40 years ago where my brother Terry and I stood at Rebers Bridge with two old guys who were pointing and laughing at the "fat Dutchmen" swimming below we would have never said, "Screw it, lets go to the Lehigh River and Hickory Run State Park." Those fat Dutchmen were a pod of 20# carp, and the hood from the old Ford below the bridge was a turn off too.

That was probably 1988 and I've been back to the Tully once since then. I'll never return.

Regards,

Tim Murphy 🙂
 
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