Tully - June 17 Berks County

wbranch

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Fished the Rebers Bridge area. Is 360 cfs the new 225 cfs? Just kidding. But since the record high of 2700 cfs last Tuesday the Tully was no lower than 568 day after day. Finally yesterday it was 368 cfs so this morning I hustled over. Arrived at 7:30. Probably already too late as fish were rising pretty good. The water is very stained with virtually no visibility. The rising fish must of been suspended right below the surface to have been able to see anything floating down.

I had a 4X two fly nymph rig on from a foray to Spring Creek on Friday so by the time I took off the nymphs and tied on new tippet to 6X the few rising fish pretty much petered out. I stood there about 45 minutes before I saw another rise. Waded into position and took a nice 13" brown on the 1st cast. Ate a CDC caddis. No further rises. Got bored. Waited another 45 minutes and saw another rise. Put on a longer piece of 6X, waded into position, made two casts and was rewarded with a thick 14" brown. Same fly. No further rises. Slowly waded my way down stream looking for any rises. Saw nothing. Left at 11:30. I imagine the severe turbidity of the water made it difficult for any trout to see floating insects and possibly pupa rising to emerge in the water column.
 
My son and I got tired of waiting for the Tully to drop by Friday, so we fished 2 hours. Flow was 568. We had 6X tippet on from when we were fishing dry flies this past week. The wind was terrible. Sean caught 3, including an 18" rainbow that sailed out of the water. I never saw a fish jump that high in my entire life. On my fifth or sixth cast I hooked a big fish and I thought I was screwed by not going to 5X. Well, we had a long battle royale in that heavy flow. 2 times it took me almost down to the backing. Sean did the honors of releasing it for me. A very heavy 22"+ bow. Wow did my hand and wrist hurt after that.

Prior to the water rising so high, we caught a lot of fish. That being said, it was a pretty good morning, considering there was few caddis hatching and zero surface activity. We will fish tomorrow morning.
 
I like when there is high flow. Fishing downstream from Grings Mill Dam to the Tully House is like fishing a river and it is also very productive, at least with lures.
 
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