Tulpehocken, Berks County, 06/12/2010

[jdaddy]

Planned on meeting sight_nymph and one of his buddies at 6:00 at the waterworks section. Flows were at 128 at water works gauging station and water was clear (for Tully). Got the standard "I am late" text from sight_nymph, however I got there at 5:45. Arriving at water works there was three guys in the water and three suiting up. I decided to go back to the paper mill area and found only one person suiting up. Fished the slick pool above the walk in and found tons of rising fish. Managed to take 4 nice browns, however I noted my catch rate was not that great given the number of risers and the frequency and consistency of risers. I saw a fair number of caddis floating around and had not looked at the surface closely. And there they were . . . tricos. I did not see any in the air, but there were a fair number on the water. I went back to the car to grab my trico box and went back in down below the refrigerator hole (thanks to the guy who swooped in on my spot when I was gone for a whole 2 minutes). There was a decent little ball of tricos in the air right around the refrigerator hole as I walked down. Sight_nymph was fishing the area with caddis, micro caddis and larva, breaking off, loosing fish and missing fish as per his standard this year (his words not mine). He was fishing the merge point of Cacoosing (58 degrees) and Tully (66 degrees) and had a ton of risers. I moved down to the pool below the refrigerator and took 5 more browns. I was fishing female and male 22 tricos in tandem and took all of the fish on the male tricos. Early on I had a bunch of refusals, so I clipped off the vast majority of wing material and had started hooking up. Had to get back home, so I waded back up to where sight_nymph was fishing and watched him continue to miss/break off/loose fish. The fish were still decently turned on at 9:30, though not as much as they were around 6:00 - 6:45. Sight's buddy got mixed up and went to water works and fished there until 9:00 or so when he came down to meet us. He said they were really turned on there as well.

Summary : Good flow, good color, good temps, nice trico volume on water. Caddis took them early, though success would likely have been greater with tricos. Sparse tricos, size 22. Lots of hits in riffles with small caddis.

 

[GreenMan]

I think someone died in the tulpehocken yesterday where it enters the schuylkill river...
http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=226905

 

[jayL]

Good report. I am not a tully fan but may have to hit it up again sometime soon. I like to fish ants during the tricos there. :-D

For what it's worth, without seeing it actually go down, I can't fault the guy that took your spot. He probably figured you left. Them's the breaks on a crowded stream.

 

[sight_nymph_17109]

j's report says it all. I was fishing caddis and didn't even look to see what was on the water. I hooked 9 fish in the first 15 minutes so I had the right fly as far as I knew. I continued my 5-8 fish hooked and lost average before I actually got one to net. jdaddy witnessed it so it's not my imagination. I'm having serious issues with keeping fish hooked. Anywho, after the rising slowed down, we changed to a nymph rig with indi. We were hooked up every 3rd or 4th cast and landed another 7 fish or so. Left close to noon. Water was around 68-69 and didn't want to stress fish. Hooked one that fought for 15 seconds before coming unhooked. He the floated, belly up, to the top. By the time I got to him, he righted himself and swam away. Bordering on too warm to C&R. Best I've seen the fishing on there in a while. NO suckers either Corey!!

 

[Fredrick]

GreenMan wrote:
I think someone died in the tulpehocken yesterday where it enters the schuylkill river...
http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=226905

Where were the kids parents ?

 

[jdaddy]

I like to fish ants during the tricos there.

For what it's worth, without seeing it actually go down, I can't fault the guy that took your spot. He probably figured you left. Them's the breaks on a crowded stream.

Interesting that you say that, as I thought I did not have my trikes with me and was going to pull the hackle off my fur ants and give them a fling.

And you are right, I am sure that he thought I was moving on. It was not his fault, it was that freaking fish that I pounded senseless with my triple caddis rig, perfect casts, perfect drifts, etc that would move around my caddis to take a trico (before I figured out what he was taking). That fish was the one that made me figure it out and I wanted to talk to him for a minute to thank him . . . . . .

 

[littlelehigh]

sight_nymph_17109 wrote:
j's report says it all. I was fishing caddis and didn't even look to see what was on the water. I hooked 9 fish in the first 15 minutes so I had the right fly as far as I knew. I continued my 5-8 fish hooked and lost average before I actually got one to net. jdaddy witnessed it so it's not my imagination. I'm having serious issues with keeping fish hooked. Anywho, after the rising slowed down, we changed to a nymph rig with indi. We were hooked up every 3rd or 4th cast and landed another 7 fish or so. Left close to noon. Water was around 68-69 and didn't want to stress fish. Hooked one that fought for 15 seconds before coming unhooked. He the floated, belly up, to the top. By the time I got to him, he righted himself and swam away. Bordering on too warm to C&R. Best I've seen the fishing on there in a while. [color=990000]NO suckers either Corey!![/color]

Gee I missed the invite thanks alot you know how BAD I wanna fish that stream.

All kidding aside, I'm heading there this week I swear! Prob monday mornin.

 

[PaulG]

sight_nymph_17109 wrote:
j's report says it all. I was fishing caddis and didn't even look to see what was on the water. I hooked 9 fish in the first 15 minutes so I had the right fly as far as I knew. I continued my 5-8 fish hooked and lost average before I actually got one to net. jdaddy witnessed it so it's not my imagination. I'm having serious issues with keeping fish hooked. Anywho, after the rising slowed down, we changed to a nymph rig with indi. We were hooked up every 3rd or 4th cast and landed another 7 fish or so. Left close to noon. Water was around 68-69 and didn't want to stress fish. Hooked one that fought for 15 seconds before coming unhooked. He the floated, belly up, to the top. By the time I got to him, he righted himself and swam away. Bordering on too warm to C&R. Best I've seen the fishing on there in a while. NO suckers either Corey!!

Nine fish in 15 minutes!

Now thats the way to start a day of fishing, I would say you had the right fly!

PaulG

 

[jdaddy]

Went out again this morning, 06/13/2010 from 6:00 am to 8:30 am. More of the same. There was already someone in the Cacoosing confluence riffle, so I went up stream a bit and was welcomed by tons of risers. 22 poly spent wing female trico with a 22 male trico sparkle dun dropper. Caught a few on the sparkle dun. Took black sharpie to the 22 female for a sex change and began taking fish on the poly spent wing spinner. I again had to pull some of the poly out to thin the wing. I think I am going to tie some up with pearl crystal flash wings as I had quite a few refusals and am thinking the wing can be the only thing turning them off.

 

[PALongbow]

I fished the Palisades yesterday morning and landed several fish on dry tan caddis. The fish are getting wise to any type of caddis imitations and there were many refusals. Didn't see many Trico's up there while fishing.

Ron

 

[sight_nymph_17109]

It's official, this stream has been spot burned due to this glowing report.

Delayed harvest guys.....you may begin your harvest on Tuesday!!

 

[afishinado]

sight_nymph_17109 wrote:
It's official, this stream has been spot burned due to this glowing report.

Delayed harvest guys.....you may begin your harvest on Tuesday!!

Yup, this secret stream has been outted. Grease up your silk lines and have at it!... ;-)

 

[sight_nymph_17109]

afish,

I'm through with silk line. I'm now using a line that's made from the tears of the poor. Doesn't float very well but it is soooo satisfying to use. Noisy like sharkskin except is a crying sound when it goes through the guides.

I used to be able to fish the tully and see only 20-30 other fisherman. Now there's so many guys standing in the creek, it's raising the water temps!

 

[afishinado]

sight_nymph_17109 wrote:
afish,

I'm through with silk line. I'm now using a line that's made from the tears of the poor. Doesn't float very well but it is soooo satisfying to use. Noisy like sharkskin except is a crying sound when it goes through the guides.

I used to be able to fish the tully and see only 20-30 other fisherman. Now there's so many guys standing in the creek, it's raising the water temps!

Sight,

I'll take your word on the crowds. I used to fish the Tully quite a bit, but haven't made a trip there even once this year. When it was stocked with fingerlings the fish and fishing were decent. Now it's just another stocked stream and way too crowded to bother. There are many other streams closer or the same distance for me to fish that are not nearly so crowded, including many that have some wild fish.

If I do make it up there and hear some crying on the stream, I'll know it's either you....or your line. Either way I'll stop by and say hey. :lol:

 

[jdaddy]

I'm through with silk line. I'm now using a line that's made from the tears of the poor. Doesn't float very well but it is soooo satisfying to use.

Where do you come up with this crap? Your mind is twisted. LOL.

Good news is that you should be self sufficient in the tears department with all the fish you break off and the ensuing sob story . . . . BLAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[jdaddy]

I'll take your word on the crowds. I used to fish the Tully quite a bit, but haven't made a trip there even once this year. When it was stocked with fingerlings the fish and fishing were decent. Now it's just another stocked stream and way too crowded to bother. There are many other streams closer or the same distance for me to fish that are not nearly so crowded, including many that have some wild fish.

Just remember that there is another 3 miles of (imo) better looking water below the DHALO section. Once you get below the Grings Mill park area you are very unlikely to see another fisherman. As Mr. Kauffman points out in his 06/13/2010 report, there are plenty of fish in the ATW that are willing to play. Only issue I see with the lower section is that it is a couple degrees warmer and thus will get marginal much earlier. Let me know if you would like to get out there some time this year.

 

[afishinado]

jdaddy wrote:

I'll take your word on the crowds. I used to fish the Tully quite a bit, but haven't made a trip there even once this year. When it was stocked with fingerlings the fish and fishing were decent. Now it's just another stocked stream and way too crowded to bother. There are many other streams closer or the same distance for me to fish that are not nearly so crowded, including many that have some wild fish.

Just remember that there is another 3 miles of (imo) better looking water below the DHALO section. Once you get below the Grings Mill park area you are very unlikely to see another fisherman. As Mr. Kauffman points out in his 06/13/2010 report, there are plenty of fish in the ATW that are willing to play. Only issue I see with the lower section is that it is a couple degrees warmer and thus will get marginal much earlier. Let me know if you would like to get out there some time this year.

Mr. Kaufmann (Mike) sure knows where the fish are no doubt. The one thing I've learned is the the SR areas are usually crowded and many times do not have the best fishing. I fished a stream in open water last week, and caught more than 30 trout in a few hours of fishing. Most were stocked, but a few were wild. This stream fished hard by the "chain gang", but most have given up on the stream because it's "fished out".

I saw one other angler fishing on this stream. He told me he was some kind of fishing guide and began name dropping (I didn't recognize any of the names). He was fishing with wax worms I believe....lol. Anyway, he saw me pull out a few trout from the pool he just fished and ran up asking what fly I was using. He literally fell down running to his truck to get his fly rod. I worked my way up and turned around and saw him fishing right in my boot tracks where I caught those fish. I guess he thought I found the magic spot, and was using the magic fly...lol.

Anyway, plenty of streams still have a lot of trout outside the SR areas as Mike frequently posts. Check the temps this time of year though. I generally stop fishing the freestone streams in the warmer weather and stick to spring/limestoners, tailwaters, or I fish for SMB, LMB or panfish.

 

[dave1432]

very sad to hear about that kid that drowned

 

[NedZeppelin]

Hey would any of you guys be willing to share specific patterns and sizes for the Tully right now?

I'd head in with Trikes, size 22-24, crystal flash or ploy wings, males and females (even have a few Bob Miller styles); Sunken Tricos (John Barr style); CDC microcaddis from size 18 down, in tan and olive; and throw some assorted midge nymphs.

Anything else? Oh, and 7X tippet a must.

 

[jdaddy]

Nope Ned, you got it nailed bro. I my experience crystal flash wing > poly wing and male > female. Have fun and get there early. My kids are down in NC with the grandparents so I will be fishing tricos somewhere most mornings for the next couple weeks. PM if you'd like to get together.