salvelinusfontinalis
Active member
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2006
- Messages
- 7,267
I recieved my new rod on Tuesday and could not wait to try it out.
The Orvis Rod Repair people were great and the service was pretty good. Although eventually I did have to drive to Downingtown to get the rod.....thats ok, I have it now :-D
Anyways, I had plans to fish the Wild Trout section of the Tully with a buddy of mine who lives in Myerstown. I was meeting him at 3 p.m. so I decided to fish the approved trout water section right below the Limestone Springs fish hatchery.
I was pleasently suprised. As some of you know or remember in the past....about 20,000 trout had escaped the hatchery and made thier way to the stream. Well today most of those fish either got creeled, swam farther downstream, swam back into the preserve or swam upstream into the private fishing club water. But today there are a enough trout to at least make 1 angler have a good day. The water was a cool 65 degrees and nothing was rising or hatching.
I saw a bruiser fish underneath the bridge which I did hook. It was a rainbow in the 20 inch range and he fought very hard on my new superfine. I did get him in quick though. He took a purple crystal flash woolly bugger. When i got him in and reach down for him he strongly shook his head and broke off my 5X tippet. He swam away with the bugger ....im sure the barbless hook came out shortly there after :-D Big fish got me again 😎 I did have another purple bugger and caught about 4 more trout under that bridge.
I then worked my way upstream but saw nothing but carp up to the private fishing club water. That section is ugly and featureless anyways.
Downstream of Riley Road I was again impressed. Have you ever noticed that in some Limestone Spring Creeks the aquatic vegatation can be brown or dark green? I think this may be due to silt or poor water quailty. That is the way 90 percent of this section looks but there are small patches of nice flush light green water cress in spots. There is a place where the water rushes up against the stream bank and the vegatation is very healthy. Making nice deep riffles and clean gravel. Here is where I caught 3 wild rainbows in the 6-11 inch range. They were very beautiful and a nice change of pace. Fast aggresive fish that fight hard for thier relatively small size. They took a size 20 cress bug dead drifted. Another interesting note about this spot : just a random thought. As I fished this long riffle...first ducks scattered out of the riffle and then walnuts came flying and crashing down hard into the water as the wind blew. None of these factors scared the wild rainbows. Infact, Right after a walnut slammed into the water i had cast to that spot...instantly hooking a wild bow. Why didnt these factors sppok the fish? Is it possible that any or at least most "natural disturbances" dont scare wild trout? I would think if deer jumped in the stream they would scatter. Very very unusual, at least in my book.
Then I went farther downstream to the next bridge. There is an enormous hole down there . In the days of when the "hatchery escapes" were swimming strong and in good I numbers had landed a very large (25 inch) rainbow trout. The hole has now changed and is basically gone. It is very weedfilled and choked down in this section. Like in the Letort, there were a few feeding lanes between the weeds in the slow still water. I did manage a few more stockers on shrimp.
When 3 pm hit my buddy couldnt go fishing with me (work obligations) however I went to the Wild Trout section of the Tully myself and only fished for 30 minutes in the first 2 holes. I caught about 5 wild browns in the 10-13 inch range on a flashback bh pheasent tail nymph tandemed with a bright green epoxy back scud. Most took the scud.
It was a good day of fishing and i absolutely love my 3wt. Towmorrow morning Stevie-B is meeting me to try the wild trout section of the upper Tully. I know hes gonna have a blast......weather permitting :-D
Im always studying Wild Trout behavior and the thought of those "unspookable rainbows" still eludes me. Any comments?
The Orvis Rod Repair people were great and the service was pretty good. Although eventually I did have to drive to Downingtown to get the rod.....thats ok, I have it now :-D
Anyways, I had plans to fish the Wild Trout section of the Tully with a buddy of mine who lives in Myerstown. I was meeting him at 3 p.m. so I decided to fish the approved trout water section right below the Limestone Springs fish hatchery.
I was pleasently suprised. As some of you know or remember in the past....about 20,000 trout had escaped the hatchery and made thier way to the stream. Well today most of those fish either got creeled, swam farther downstream, swam back into the preserve or swam upstream into the private fishing club water. But today there are a enough trout to at least make 1 angler have a good day. The water was a cool 65 degrees and nothing was rising or hatching.
I saw a bruiser fish underneath the bridge which I did hook. It was a rainbow in the 20 inch range and he fought very hard on my new superfine. I did get him in quick though. He took a purple crystal flash woolly bugger. When i got him in and reach down for him he strongly shook his head and broke off my 5X tippet. He swam away with the bugger ....im sure the barbless hook came out shortly there after :-D Big fish got me again 😎 I did have another purple bugger and caught about 4 more trout under that bridge.
I then worked my way upstream but saw nothing but carp up to the private fishing club water. That section is ugly and featureless anyways.
Downstream of Riley Road I was again impressed. Have you ever noticed that in some Limestone Spring Creeks the aquatic vegatation can be brown or dark green? I think this may be due to silt or poor water quailty. That is the way 90 percent of this section looks but there are small patches of nice flush light green water cress in spots. There is a place where the water rushes up against the stream bank and the vegatation is very healthy. Making nice deep riffles and clean gravel. Here is where I caught 3 wild rainbows in the 6-11 inch range. They were very beautiful and a nice change of pace. Fast aggresive fish that fight hard for thier relatively small size. They took a size 20 cress bug dead drifted. Another interesting note about this spot : just a random thought. As I fished this long riffle...first ducks scattered out of the riffle and then walnuts came flying and crashing down hard into the water as the wind blew. None of these factors scared the wild rainbows. Infact, Right after a walnut slammed into the water i had cast to that spot...instantly hooking a wild bow. Why didnt these factors sppok the fish? Is it possible that any or at least most "natural disturbances" dont scare wild trout? I would think if deer jumped in the stream they would scatter. Very very unusual, at least in my book.
Then I went farther downstream to the next bridge. There is an enormous hole down there . In the days of when the "hatchery escapes" were swimming strong and in good I numbers had landed a very large (25 inch) rainbow trout. The hole has now changed and is basically gone. It is very weedfilled and choked down in this section. Like in the Letort, there were a few feeding lanes between the weeds in the slow still water. I did manage a few more stockers on shrimp.
When 3 pm hit my buddy couldnt go fishing with me (work obligations) however I went to the Wild Trout section of the Tully myself and only fished for 30 minutes in the first 2 holes. I caught about 5 wild browns in the 10-13 inch range on a flashback bh pheasent tail nymph tandemed with a bright green epoxy back scud. Most took the scud.
It was a good day of fishing and i absolutely love my 3wt. Towmorrow morning Stevie-B is meeting me to try the wild trout section of the upper Tully. I know hes gonna have a blast......weather permitting :-D
Im always studying Wild Trout behavior and the thought of those "unspookable rainbows" still eludes me. Any comments?
