Tulpehocken Creek, Berks County, 2/8/17

[wbranch]

Arrived 12:30 at Rebers Bridge. No one else fishing. Water temperature was 37 degrees. Flow was 160 but went up to 200 cfs. Fished upstream for bridge about 250 yards. This is my 4th trip to the Tully in 2017. The first three trips the water was high, 300 cfs and higher, so I figured that may have explained my total lack of success.

Today the flow was nice but the water was cold. I fished for three hours with Squirmy Wormies in hot pink and brown, pink sucker spawn, orange Krystal Meth, a pink Lighting Bug nymph, a #16 BH Flashback PT, and a #18 silver BH Zebra midge. High sticked almost all that water and never saw a fish or got a bump. I'm 0 - 4 this year. I think I won't be making another trip to the Tully until the water temperature is at least 43 degrees. BTW there were good numbers of gray midges (really microscopic) in the water and in the air but no rising fish.

 

[geebee]

good to know, I was thinking of taking a drive up that way this weekend.

mid winter, I find it better to fish nymphs hard on the bottom with shot and/or tungsten beads.

nymphs on jig hooks are good for that.

 

[dc410]

I stopped in real quick this past week and fished for probably 20 minutes. Water was 37 degrees (too freakin' cold for my aging bones)! I was tight lining in some riffles and pocket water. I was using a size 10 tunsgsten bead jig fly as my anchor and had a size 12 standard hares ear nymph dropped off of the anchor fly. I caught one rainbow on the hares ear working tight on the bottom. Had to quit quickly with a good batch of cold feet.

 

[Mike]

Even the lure fishing gets tough in the Tully when the water is that cold. We often shift to minnows at that point and continue to do well. Perhaps food for thought for the streamer crowd, but you need a fair amount of weight to get down and stay down, even with minnows.

 

[geebee]

Interesting. That's quite a large hares ear D.C., I would normally use much smaller - 16,18 etc . What do you think they took it for - caddis ?

Also if folks are tying these bh jig nymphs themselves, I just saw a new way to the them - with a 10lb or so mono loop for a tail, so you can tye off the dropper tippet to that rather than the upturned bend of the hook !

 

[dc410]

geebee wrote:
Interesting. That's quite a large hares ear D.C., I would normally use much smaller - 16,18 etc . What do you think they took it for - caddis ?

I don't know what it took it to be. Maybe just a big buggy critter bouncing on the bottom. I usually would fish a much smaller fly on the dropper as well but my fingers were too cold to dig one of the little guys out of the box and thread it on there so I went with the bigger offering.

I actually had both flies tied off of the same small tippet ring. The heavy fly on about a 6" tag and about 24" of tippet back to the hares ear following. I like the idea of the mono loop on the jig fly. Sounds like that would work very well. Thanks for the idea.

 

[geebee]

I'm told to make sure you superglue the loop along the shank to prevent it pulling out.

 

[nomad_archer]

You guys are making me feel fortunate that I havn't taken a skunking on the tully since the beginning of the year. Water temps have been bouncing for me from a low of like 33ish to 37ish. The only things that have worked for me are size 14-16 bhpt's, gold ribbed walts worm, and gold ribbed hares ear. Last time I fished the tully was 1/27. Last Friday 2/3 I went and tried the breeches and took a solid skunking. On 1/27 I seined after fishing for an hour and not getting so much as a look. I wish I took a picture of the nymph I found as I was unsure what it was but I didnt want to pull the phone out with cold hands and the rain. It was the only one type of bug that was in the net. Closest match in my box was a #14 hares ear and it was a bit on the small side. I ran the hares were and walts worm. Both caught fish.

 

[wbranch]

Nomadarcher wrote;

You guys are making me feel fortunate that I havn't taken a skunking on the tully since the beginning of the year

Maybe you would be willing to teach me your nymphing skills some day on the Tully. I don't mind getting the skunk once in awhile but four times in a row is a bit much!

 

[nomad_archer]

wbranch wrote:
Nomadarcher wrote;

You guys are making me feel fortunate that I havn't taken a skunking on the tully since the beginning of the year

Maybe you would be willing to teach me your nymphing skills some day on the Tully. I don't mind getting the skunk once in awhile but four times in a row is a bit much!

4 in a row is certainly a bit much. I would certainly teach you if I knew what they heck I was doing and why it worked sometimes. I feel like its a joke and the fish take the fly because the drift is so awful it couldn't be bad. I have been fishing the super generic nymph patterns with the hares ear and pheasant . I wont get out again until march. Hopefully the water is warmer because its hard to keep my toes warm for more than 15 minutes as it is.

 

[wbranch]

Nomadarcher wrote;

I wont get out again until march. Hopefully the water is warmer

I too decided not to keep going back for more punishment until the water temperature is sustained at least at 45 degrees for a couple of days. Steelhead seem much more inclined to continue eating even when the water temperatures are in the low to mid 30's. Although they don't fight very well at all for their size.

 

[Mike]

As occurred for the first time last year, the stocking will be later in March than it was since the DH Area was established. Flow history and possible impact on angler usage was the consideration.

 

[afishinado]

Mike wrote:
As occurred for the first time last year, the stocking will be later in March than it was since the DH Area was established. Flow history and possible impact on angler usage was the consideration.

Before heating up the barrel of tar and plucking the feathers :-o....check out the reports from early spring last year on the Tully with the later stocking date.

Tully March '16 Report

Tully April '16 Report

 

[geebee]

I too was up there by the water works below the island last winter on a higher flow (400+) and there was risers everywhere.

a week later on 200cfs flows a not a fish was seen.

something to consider if flows are too high at rebers bridge for effective nymphing.

 

[eunanhendron]

my last trip/success on the Tully was late Dec, and i've not been back since. Fished jigs on the bottom around the dam.
Carrot Nymph (orange and peacock) was the successful fly, but i reckon any nymph presented well would have caught fish.

 

[acesedgley]

Eunan did u pull any walleye fishing like that up there by the dam?

 

[Mike]

If it's walleye you seek at the stilling basin area (and wish to keep), prime time is just after or during a big release of water from Blue Marsh in the first two weeks of March. This pattern will continue through the first ten days of April, but of course the season closes in mid-March.

 

[acesedgley]

was curious cause when I first got into fishing years ago I went to the stilling basin with a bunch of shad darts I inherited, having heard that people would catch walleyes there.

Lost em all!! No fish harmed.