Tulpehocken Creek, Berks Co. 05/22/2012

The_Sasquatch

The_Sasquatch

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Malden, WV
Due to a surprise "guess what? You have to work this Saturday" at work, I had the afternoon off yesterday. I decided I really wanted to test out that new Allen ATS 2wt I won at the JAM, so I headed up to the Tully in Berks Co. where I knew I'd be able to bomb some casts and get to play with some fat stockies.

When I left Ephrata, I thought I'd be fishing in the rain. By the time I was on the creek, the skies were bright blue. The water seemed average depth and temp, but it was CLEAR. I'm not used to being able to see the bottom of a lot of the pools like that.

There were lots of risers. I got there around 3pm and fish were rising everywhere. I caught them on light cahills, sulfers, and of course caddis of all sorts of variety. I landed probably at least 10 trout, all of them nice heafty brownies. One was pushing 18". I always like fishing the "Big Tully". Stocked fish as it may be, the trout seem healthy and strong, and to be honest I don't have a lot of places near me with that kind of bigger water with rising trout like that.

I only saw 3 other anglers. One left as I was getting there, and then two others came in around 5pm or so. I took off around 6:30pm, trout still rising everywhere.

Carp EVERYWHERE too. Whenever I hooked into a trout, it would send dozens of carp scattering. Kind of got a kick out of it. There are some real pigs in there and it got me excited for mid summer carp fishing! I won't bring the 2wt for that one...;-)

Oh...concerning that new 2wt, it did great! I never felt under gunned (well...the 18"er pushed it a bit), and I was laying down great casts whether they were 10' or 40'. I'm very happy with it.
 
What section did u fish? It's funny how much changes on that river from day to day. Friday, all the trout would take were tan caddis and the occasional apple caddis. Saturday night, all they would eat were baetis. I only saw a handful of sulphurs.
 
Paper Mill. I drove around to a few sections. There were actually MORE people at the Palesades, which surprised me.

I didn't see many sulphurs coming off, but at one point they weren't taking caddis at all. I put on a sulphur emerger and got a few. They shut down on that then, put a light cahill parachute on and picked up a few more. That got shut down then, and I went back to caddis.
 
Oh, and several deer came down to the stream to get a drink. That surprised me! I never saw them there before. Very nice.
 
I was there on sunday, all the fish wanted was caddis and they had to be the right size, 16, as dark approached the sulfurs became very plentiful but the fish wanted nothing to do with them. I watched countless big fat sulfurs float right through feeding lanes untouched while the fish continued to feed on caddis until it was too dark to see
 
The_Sasquatch wrote:
Oh, and several deer came down to the stream to get a drink. That surprised me! I never saw them there before. Very nice.
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i almost pissed myself one day when a huge deer plundered through the papermill flats. huge rack. (deer spot burn?)
 
They were a pair of doe; maybe the bucks thought they had nice racks ;-)

Same spot though. Is that stream a TCTU project, jdaddy? It really is a great stream, especially considering the location.
 
Tks for report. Hoping to hit Tully this w/end. Love fishing caddis when it's in fully swing.
 
Being an alum of PSU Berks, there's a decent herd of deer in that immediate area. While involved with the SAE Baja club on campus we became friendly with the police. Turns out he was a good guy, and "one of us." Some buddies and I caught him a few times with the spot light shining on a certain patch of woods. Then that deer season, he managed a real nice 7 but couldn't say where he harvested it. Pointless story? Yup. Nice trip down memory lane while I'm at work. Yup. Cheers, men.
 
Too slow!

Seriously, I do like the Tully, it's close, has rising fish, and the fish are easy. Nuthin wrong with that, I enjoy myself when I go.

Though I wouldn't consider it a destination stream if I got a whole day to work with. Slow, featureless, full of stockers in an area that has some pretty good wild trout streams in nicer surroundings.
 
Sometimes I like to go the whole day. Fish for risers in the morning and PM, and target carp in the afternoon. I haven't done that in a long time...this summer though before the cold water is exhausted, I'm gonna do it at least once. The carp are so much fun in there.
 
The_Sasquatch wrote:
They were a pair of doe; maybe the bucks thought they had nice racks ;-)

Same spot though. Is that stream a TCTU project, jdaddy? It really is a great stream, especially considering the location.
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Absolutely, but more so in the past. Back when the stream was impounded and the dam was created TCTU lead a huge project installing deflectors from the stilling basin down the the waterworks gauging station area. Additionally there has been a lot of work done in the ATW below the covered red bridge. Access for heavy machinery, etc is much easier on that section than the DHALO section. I am currently working on approval for a project to create a staircase and "boardwalk" from the parking lot down to the big shoal access area. The wetland area there gets severely trampled by anglers as it gets so messy in there and people try alternate routes, thus creating a bigger problem. We hope to be able to use reclaimed lumber from deck projects that landscapers are tearing out to replace with polymer products. We'd really like to redress those deflectors due to years of high water events having reduced their effectiveness, however the average age of our chapter does not lend to moving boulders by hand and its tough to get proper equipment in there.
We should get the Cacoosing Creek dam at the papermill taken out this year, however it is a legacy sediment nightmare.
 
The_Sasquatch wrote:
Sometimes I like to go the whole day. Fish for risers in the morning and PM, and target carp in the afternoon. I haven't done that in a long time...this summer though before the cold water is exhausted, I'm gonna do it at least once. The carp are so much fun in there.
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While the entire stream is littered with "golden salmon", I really enjoy fishing for them way down low below the dam where the parks office is located. There are some really nice SMB down that was as well.
 
i love the tully, as a 16 year old who doesnt have his license yet, its one of the best stream i have acces to. I will be there 2maro and monday. I have been getting them on grey caddis 16-20. I have seen sulphurs also but only a few taken by the fish......
 
when do you guys find the carp feeding, i have alwasy seen them at rebers bridge, but there loafing and not feeding. Is the morning or evenings better for carp there?
 
they'll eat a small nymph any time if you drift it into their mouth haha! I usually fish for them in the dead of the afternoon when the trout become less active.
 
When the Tricos peak in a month or so, I like to catch my carp of the season on #24s and 8X. Yes, I lose a lot of flies, but then, I get to stretch my backing.

tl
les
 
I've had good luck using a small glo bug for them or a really tiny crayfish. Find a pod in the shallows, get your stuff well ahead of them and don't be afraid to let it get Hung up on the bottom. They'll suck it up as they pass by. When the caddis are thick, you can find them rising to them too
 
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