Tulpehocken Creek - Berks County - 12/15/19

[Nymph-wristed]

CFS = 300 and stained
Temp. = 40-ish
Air in the low 40's with rain and drizzle

I took a break from the surf fishing yesterday, and I fished the Tully for about three hours and found 8 to cooperate, an even mix of bow and brown. The weather provided the rare opportunity for solitude on the popular DHALO stretch. I actually pick days like yesterday to visit because I am a fishing agoraphobe ;-)

I started out with a streamer, and had many more bumps than fish landed, par for the course, I suppose. I don't fish the Tully enough to know if the three 10 inch browns I landed on the olive bugger and one on an SJ worm are the fingerling stockers or wild.

I worked my way back upstream, first with an SJ worm and then with a big soft hackle pt jig under a bobber, and I landed one more brown and the 4 rainbows. Fish were in soft water behind obstructions and in eddies, winter fishing in late fall. Tully sharpies feel free to let me know about these pretty browns. I only fish it a few times per year (the aforementioned fishing agoraphobia). Thanks!

 

[Mike]

The Tully DH area holds an extremely low density of wild brown trout. They most likely spill out of Plum and Cacoosing Cks. There may be a few more when the dam is removed from near the Cacoosing’s mouth probably within a year. Ten inches and less are the wild browns’ typical lengths.

To my knowledge all fingerling stockings continue to be RT if they are still occurring, but they are stocked in Section 06, which is above Rebers Bridge Rd.

Fall stocking in Section 07, the lower DH section, is adult RT and they grow quite well and get very heavy for their lengths by the following June.

I have no knowledge of how well the Keystone Select 14-20 inch trout hold over from year to year. They are stocked in both sections mentioned above.

 

[Maurice]

I’d say #1 is wild and put strong money on #2 as well. Without seeing the tail. Dorsal has great clarity.

 

[Dave_W]

Maurice wrote:
I’d say #1 is wild and put strong money on #2 as well. Without seeing the tail. Dorsal has great clarity.

Okay, here we go. . . 😎

Def could be wild, but I'm not seeing blue spots. Tough call.

 

[Dave_W]

By the way...

This is a great report with some good info about flies, conditions, fish caught, etc. We're getting into the time of year when fishing reports are pretty sparse. Good to see this.

 

[marcq]

I think they are wild. The Tully hold more wild fish then people think. I was there last weekend and caught a small wild brown bellow the red bridge. I’ve even pulled rainbows that are in perfect condition and fought wild fish. I think tco still puts fingerlings in as well and I assume that’s where the rainbows came from that. I just started fishing the Tully this past winter. I had a really good spring and continued to watch the Usgs and most of the river stayed bellow 72 degree for the summer.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I assumed wild but I didn't know if TCO fingerlings were grade A or something. All 4 little browns were caught downstream of one of the aforementioned tribs that have wild reproduction. I hadn't heard about the dam coming down, Mike, but that is good news. Not sure fish can reproduce in the water downstream of Papermill but there is definitely enough cover and habitat to live much of the year.

Thanks again, fellas.

 

[Mike]

But it stayed above 68 deg from Early July through much if Sept. That is the critical temperature for stress that leads to eventual mortality depending upon the number of 15 minute periods per month that the trout are exposed to that temp.

 

[jifigz]

Mike wrote:
But it stayed above 68 deg from Early July through much if Sept. That is the critical temperature for stress that leads to eventual mortality depending upon the number of 15 minute periods per month that the trout are exposed to that temp.

Are we sure about this? I don't totally buy into this theory. I know of some streams that consistently stay over 70° that are packed with wild browns. Given the number of fish in these streams I see no way that there are enough spring seeps for all of them to congregate around. One stream basically has 0 feeder tribs adding cold water either yet wild brown trout are everywhere.