One crappie day at the Tulpehocken (Berks Co, 4/11/11)

E

ezatnova

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My first time out in over a year. Got to Waterworks around 9-9:30. Two other gents there ahead of me. Started with a red San Juan with a dropper of a Scud 12" off of that. A small shot weight pinched 6" above the San Juan, and a football style indicator about 30" above the San Juan. Moved down stream slowly while casting and got down to near the Palisades I suppose, by around noon. In the meantime, on the way down, I changed up various flys to: generic olive bead heads, Al's Rats, and even a Greenie Weenie (by itself with a shot weight and indicator). NOT A ONE FISH.

I made my way back, around 1 pm to get some lunch. Talked to a few others packing it in as well, and all said the same thing..."Nothin!"

After lunch I headed over to Red Bridge and walked up stream about 150 yards from the park. Some VERY strong current (IMHO) there and it was about all I could do to trudge up it. I hit this area with a single rig of an olive bead head with shot weight and indicator. MORE NOTHING.

I moved the indicator up and down 15" or so to mess with the depth, during the day (since various areas were quite a bit more shallow or deep than others). Some times I knew it ws dragging because the indicator would sink and freeze very often. Sometimes I knew it was floating above bottom because it kept going along with no ticking action from the rocks/sticks.

Anyway, around 5 pm, I saw some jumping under a tree (all jumping to this point had been carp...I never even saw a trout), so I tossed my rig over there (now an olive bead head with a san juan dropper 12" off of it, weight above the bead head, indicator above that). I barely felt something and when I set the hook I thought I felt a twitch. Ended up being a little Crappie/Sunny. Nice little fish but hardly made for a successful day!

On the way out from red bridge, I spoke to a few others. One skunked and one got one trout. I'm sure most of my problem was that I am out of practice and barely know what I'm doing, but, with all these other folks having awful days too, I wonder if there was a greater issue.

The other strange thing was, there were a TON of zebra or caddis or something flying around and landing on the water and, besides the few carp and then the Crappie, NO trout were rising all day.

Anyone else have any luck yesterday (Monday)? I feel like maybe I should get a guide next time. Last time I went with a guide I caught 25+ at Red Bridge! I think he (Triple R Trout, Randy. R.) may have stopped guiding for now though.
 
I was in the waterworks area Saturday AM. Only landed three, but an older fellow was bangin' them pretty good. I finally swallowed some pride and asked him on the way out ... he was using glow bugs.

I've said this before and say it again, the Tully can be a tough stream IMHO. I have been skunked on there many times before.
 
That's the Tully for ya it sucks and unfortunately if you gave the Tully TU $1,000,000,000 it wouldn't be enough to make it a desirable fishery. But yet I will return there many time this year it does have it's moments o fun.

It's nothing more than a route to move extra water from Blue Marsh lake to where ever the hell it goes. Also be warned it's sucker to trout pop is 10:1.

I was there Sat morning until the voice of reason kicked in.
 
Tulpehocken, highly overrated, highly overfished.. yet for some reason we all fish it.
 
littlelehigh wrote:
That's the Tully for ya it sucks and unfortunately if you gave the Tully TU $1,000,000,000 it wouldn't be enough to make it a desirable fishery. But yet I will return there many time this year it does have it's moments o fun.

It's nothing more than a route to move extra water from Blue Marsh lake to where ever the hell it goes. Also be warned it's sucker to trout pop is 10:1.
Click to expand...

Oh, I think we could put something together for $1 billion. Is that an offer? 😛

It conveniently travels into this thing called the Schuykill which sucks cause I have to Google the spelling every time. Additionally, after 1 or 30 beers I cannot pronounce it.

Good thing is that it's a lot more consistent and has bigger fish the littlelehigh. Amirite?



Tulpehocken, highly overrated, highly overfished.. yet for some reason we all fish it.
Click to expand...

Ya, and half the plates are MD and NJ. Go figure.
 
ezatnova wrote:

The other strange thing was, there were a TON of zebra or caddis or something flying around and landing on the water
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Holy carp! Flying zebras? Maybe littlelehigh was right . . . we need $2 billion!

BTW, you were doing EVERYTHING right there. Don't know why you got shut out. Last year heat was brutal and holdover numbers are unknown. Additionally due to projected work on the dam the stocking was pretty about half of what it was supposed to be. There are two factors that didn't help.
 
Biggerer fish? Yeah and so does SRC via stocking what be your point?


The tully is nothing more than a government program to move raw sewage from Reading to elsewhere (Schkulkill) how else you gonna explain trout growing multiple inches in a year.

Even if I had a billion the last stream I'd help is the tully.
 
There is a love/hate relationship that many fishers feel for the Tully. I have fished it in the "glory years" and had many great days. Also during that time, I had many skunkings (new word?). Over the last five years I have fished it maybe a dozen times. Two of those trips I caught a fish or two. Some days it seems there are no trout in the water, but fish it on a day when the caddis are popping and it comes to life. While I don't fish it as much as I used to, it is more for the fact that it gets too crowded for me.

As jdaddy said, sound like you were working it right. "Some days you get the bear,...."

peace-tony c.

 
I had a good day on the tully last night from 5:30pm - whenever that thunderstorm came through. overrated, overfished, over populated, over the top whatever you want to believe. You gotta think like a trout, where would a trout be? what would a trout eat? your time is valuable, don't waste it fishing where there are no fish, go to where the fish are!
 
TimRobinsin wrote:
I had a good day on the tully last night from 5:30pm - whenever that thunderstorm came through. overrated, overfished, over populated, over the top whatever you want to believe. You gotta think like a trout, where would a trout be? what would a trout eat? your time is valuable, don't waste it fishing where there are no fish, go to where the fish are!
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So were are the fish Tim ?
 
upstream :lol:
 
Thanks for all the replies so far guys. At least it sounds like it wasn't ALL my fault, lol.

I had a guide with me a couple years ago, near red bridge, and he taught me a lot. We landed 24 that day and about 20 more came off the hook. I don't remember what time of year it was (it was warm), but I knew he kept making me wait and wait until JUST the right week, so I'm sure that had a lot to do with it. Anyway, he taught me the whole bead head + shot weight + indicator method (before that I just lobbed dry flies and the occasional muddler or woolie). I had so much success that day that I strain to venture away from the simplicity (and ease) of the nymph + indidcator.

He also taught me mending and slack management, which I have gotten a little lazy with...so that may have hurt my chances if there were any little strikes that I figured were just drags along the bottom. Frankly, I was just getting tired of it, after "setting the hook" into each rock along the bottom for the first hour or so. I did catch a few sweet twigs and branches that way, and even one good sized rock somehow!

Part of me wants to try to find a guide again to renew my faith in the Tully, but another part of me (reading all these comments) feels like I should maybe ask for a guide in waters closer to me that might be more worth my time (East Brandywine, French Creek, etc. around Chester County/West Chester).

BTW, JDaddy, this was the funniest thing I've read in a while "It conveniently travels into this thing called the Schuykill which sucks cause I have to Google the spelling every time. Additionally, after 1 or 30 beers I cannot pronounce it." Couldn't agree more.
 
Well Fredrick, I'll show you Sunday morning...(weather & wife permitting)...
 
C. Meck gave it 4 stars...🙂
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In defensive of Charlie.... when that book was published was around the demise of the Tully (IMO). The book was probably written in the Mid-90's. During the "glory days" times and earlier, the Tully could have definitely been a 4 star fishery in PA.

the "glory days" on the Tully, the trout grew big and were from fingerling stockings, so the fish had really nice coloration and fins. Plenty of solid 14-16" fish. The rainbows would rival those on the Upper D as far as power.

 
The Tully has its days. Trico fishing is alot of fun there. But like others have said, there are days that it seems there are no fish. I get skunked at this stream more than any other. To me its not really a trout stream. Its the best it can be for what it is. Im sure I'll fish it again, but not till the tricos come.
 
littlelehigh wrote:

The tully is nothing more than a government program to move raw sewage from Reading to elsewhere (Schkulkill) how else you gonna explain trout growing multiple inches in a year.
Click to expand...

Check your map.
 
The Tully definitely turns on and off like a switch, especially in the early season, and predicting it based on flows and water temp isn't always as easy as I'd like to think it is. I can usually manage a fish or two even when its off, but thats about it.

Almost never do I have an "average" day, say 5-10 fish. It's almost always 1 or 2, or 10-30.

Also, I've never had any luck in the stretch between Palisades and WaterWorks. The Tully doesn't have fish everywhere. The Waterworks is fine, and the Palisades is fine, but the short stretch in between is a lot of nothingness. Last year I actually didn't have a ton of luck at the Palisades either, and my first trip this year was poor. I was wondering if they slowed the stocking of that area or something? Not enough data to draw a conclusion for me yet, though.
 
I fish the Tully once or twice a week (sometimes more if my lunch break warrants it). I haven't fished a ton of different water...I've fished Penn's , the Little Lehigh, Saucon, and Valley a few times...so, I'm obviously not a good gauge on comparing this stretch of water to what are apparently highly superior stretches. However, I will say that my experiences on the Tully have made me a better (not good) fly fisherman. It seems to me that it's not always about matching the sub-surface activity to the extent that my friends do on Penn's. Instead, pattern and presentation adjustment seem to be the trick...granted, it doesn't hurt to be throwing something that looks like it belongs there 🙂
So, from a nymphing perspective, I'd call the Tully a "thinking man's stream." This would be one of the times my knack for over-analyzing is not a detriment, which may make me biased.
And, when the caddis are coming off, I would have to put the Tully up there for dry fly fishing against any dry fly fishing I've done...including Penn's and Valley.
So, no it's not always consistent, but if you get the jist of what's going on in the water, on any given day you can have a very good day. I was also out on sunday and got 6 in about 2 hours...one 17" holdover brown in fast current...one, I have to admit was not a trout but a 14" smally, which I would take over a 20" brown any day. Unitl I got it to the surface, I was ready to call the paper🙂
I guess my point is that the Tully is maybe not the classicaly predictable stream that it seems many others are, which makes it more difficult in my opinion, but also more rewarding...sounds like fishing to me.
 
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