Central PA Troubles Tully was 65 degrees at 3pm

[troutbert]

See also Big Pine Creek. I’ll never understand… 🤣

I love fishing Pine Creek.

Keep in mind that fishing for wild trout is not conservation. It does nothing to benefit wild trout populations. Just the opposite.

A day spent fishing for hatchery trout is better for wild trout populations than a day fishing for wild trout.

 

[Swattie87]

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.

Agree. If you like it, that’s cool. Fish it, enjoy it.

I did live in SEPA, and my solution was generally to get in my car and drive about 90 minutes in a general NW direction to fish. Not always possible when you only have a couple hours, and from that standpoint, I think that’s the Tully’s best strength. Simply its size, the fact it is heavily stocked, and its location.

I basically came to the conclusion that I’d rather not fish, and bank some fishing currency to be spent later, than spend a couple hours on the Tully. Don’t wanna pile on, but I forgot one more thing in my post above. It’s crowded. Maybe this thread will help.

 

[Swattie87]

I too don’t put Pine, I mean The Pine, in the same category as the Tully. I enjoy fishing Pine. Way better scenery, way better hatches, way more water to spread out on, and more (not saying much, I get it) wild fish presence.

I watched a YT video this week of guys fishing The Pine between Galeton and Ansonia in various spots around the opener. They caught a lot of stocked Bows, but they also caught two mid teens darn wild looking Browns. Tough to tell from the video sure, but I would’ve had no problem with anyone calling them wild from what I could see. Yeah, those fish are gonna move and not be there mid-Summer, but still.

 

[Nocktavius]

I love fishing Pine Creek.

Keep in mind that fishing for wild trout is not conservation. It does nothing to benefit wild trout populations. Just the opposite.

A day spent fishing for hatchery trout is better for wild trout populations than a day fishing for wild trout.

How do you figure? The fisheries I frequent have a healthy self-sustaining population of challenging wild fish that grow to excellent size. Many of these fish are caught 10+ times per year. Provided your fish handling skills aren’t poor, fly fishing with barbless hooks and good fighting technique is no worse for a fishery than wading through a riffle. Catch and release works. On the other hand, stocked fish are just water pollution. The interest brought to these fisheries due to their wild trout populations is the primary driver for them not getting developed or deforested in the time period since people started actually caring about the environment (80’s onward id say).

Pine creek is in a beautiful setting, with a bit better management it probably could be an excellent fishery for warm water fish and the occasional wild that drops in from a tributary. Instead it’s just bucketloads of slop that get cooked by late June.

 

[tjsingle]

The interest brought to these fisheries due to their wild trout populations is the primary driver for them not getting developed or deforested in the time period since people started actually caring about the environment (80’s onward id say).

This is a good point. I remember when I was on a trip up to Maine to an area I was new to, I asked the guide what he thought about people from all over coming to fish a particular region and his response was that people caring about a fishery and its native fish are a net benefit. His attitude was to get people he guided to care for the fishery in the same way he did.

That always stuck with me

 

[troutbert]

The interest brought to these fisheries due to their wild trout populations is the primary driver for them not getting developed or deforested in the time period since people started actually caring about the environment (80’s onward id say).

That would be nice, but it doesn't work that way. The Letort and Falling Spring are legendary wild trout streams, but that hasn't stopped development at all.

And the wild trout status of streams like Spring Creek and Penns Creek does nothing to stop development.

 

[tjsingle]

Counter point would be that advocacy groups for a lot of streams exist because of the wild trout in those streams. VFTU and Valley Creek for example. That entire watershed is developed, yet the stream persists and so do its wild trout population.

The Letort and Falling Spring are both streams that happen to flow through towns, development is inevitable.

Tulpehocken TU is no different, as those members care about the stream.

 

[rancid waders]

I'm glad I got to fish it during the good years until policy changed and the agency gave us what they thought we wanted

 

[McSneek]

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.

This is the Tully i remember from my early days of fly fishing. The fingerling stockings stopped and the caddis hatch waned. Its probably been five years since i fished it.

 

[McSneek]

^this. I remember getting into fly fishing and being told about epic hatches etc, like they are still stockers, haha

Charlie Meck declared it the finest tailwater in the East.

 

[rustbeltwilds]

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.

Pine is wayyyyy wayyyyy overrated

 

[tjsingle]

Charlie Meck declared it the finest tailwater in the East.

East, like all of the east coast or PA?

 

[jifigz]

Charlie Meck declared it the finest tailwater in the East.

I don't easily trust others' opinions, and these are the reasons why.

People love to regurgitate garbage.

 

[jifigz]

Pine is wayyyyy wayyyyy overrated

I'll be camping at Little Pine in 2 weeks. Maybe I'll drive up and fish "the stretch" on Pine.

I'm having about as lousy of a spring trout fishing start as I've ever had this year.

 

[Letort]

Local TU chapter just had a speaker present the Tully at our monthly meeting. Most members are about an hour from the stream.

He said that the bottom discharge on the dam is inoperable, therefore the only water is coming from the top, which is warmest due to rain and sun. Since the water being discharged is many degrees warmer, it has had a big impact on the trout. He was saying downstream is a great fishery for carp and bass.

 

[KELORGO]

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....

You’re not piling on. I don’t consider the Tulpehocken a great stream or a destination fishery.

Perspective: Until recently I lived in Delco, just recently moved (temporarily) to Chesco. All streams down here that I know of are put and take (though I always c&r so others can catch ‘em to keep). Our creeks are running really low, so the Tulley being artificially kept at 150 cfs was really nice for a while. If the streams in my area weren’t stocked, there wouldn’t be any trout at all. Stocking streams down here doesn’t invoke the same ethical dilemmas it does elsewhere.

The Tulley is within about 35 minutes of where I live for now. As far as I know, it’s the best stream in the area. Everyone, please feel free to DM me to fill me in if I’m ignorant to better streams. I’m not as plugg’ed in as many on this forum. I realize the limitations of the Tulley (top release, silted, hatches but not tremendous hatches).

I drove 2 hours 45 minutes to central PA to fish a natural reproduction stream today, then back. I’d rather catch one wild brown than twenty stocked bows, but that’s not always an option.

I’m recently retired, and my wife and I are trying to decide where in PA to move. I want to fish for trout and river smallies, but need to make sure she is “near civilization and there’s things to do” (her words) 😎

 

[JG63]

I’d just be happy to get out and fish - stocked trout /wild trout/panfish/bass - with all the changes and degradation of our once productive streams I’m leaning into panfish on light tackle more and more -

 

[KELORGO]

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.

Why would you never fish the Tulpehocken, but you do fish Pine? Both are stocked and both warm up to where trout stack up at cooler tributaries by early summer?

Pine, BTW, is much better below Galeton (Gaines to Ansonia, and farther downstream). It’s a beautiful stream with room to spread out. It’s too bad the flood control pond in Galeton promotes warming. I like the area above the canyon much better than near Slate Run, because to me it is more “wild” away from the roads and crowds.

Between the two, I’d pick Pine over the Tulley every day, and twice on Sunday 👍.

 

[Nocktavius]

East, like all of the east coast or PA?

Either way he’s wrong. He must’ve been smokin something pretty good to think that about the Tully.

 

[jifigz]

Why would you never fish the Tulpehocken, but you do fish Pine? Both are stocked and both warm up to where trout stack up at cooler tributaries by early summer?

Pine, BTW, is much better below Galeton (Gaines to Ansonia, and farther downstream). It’s a beautiful stream with room to spread out. It’s too bad the flood control pond in Galeton promotes warming. I like the area above the canyon much better than near Slate Run, because to me it is more “wild” away from the roads and crowds.

Between the two, I’d pick Pine over the Tulley every day, and twice on Sunday 👍.

I fished Pine because I was at someone's cabin and they wanted to go fish there, so I went. And it was a lousy trout fishing experience.

I'm not against catching stockies, but I prefer wild fish. I liked nothing about that part of Pine, though. Now, WB Pine is good.