To give my two cents on the Tully; I’ve fished it quite a bit going back to sometime in the 80’s. In the past, most times it fished well, and I was very satisfied with the numbers and certainly the quality of the grown up fingerling bows in the stream….not wild, but a cut above the adult stocked trout found in many streams.
I was against the halting of fingerling stocking and gave Mike heck at the time (he gave heck right back to me).
I look at the USGS site every day and the Tully is one of the streams I check. It does warm over 70* every season, usually starting in late July through sometime in September. The pool of cool water is not adequate to keep the temps below that level through the summer. I have no idea if the water quality has declined. I have no idea if the habitat has degraded. It does seem to have a lot more predators like blue herons. As time went on, I realized the stream is not what it was in the past, and maybe adult stocking was the way to go.
Fast forward to today. There are guys that care about the Tully and are willing to try something to improve the fishing. Tully TU and TCO have raised funds to stock fingerling rainbow trout. These trout are supposed to be a little more high temperature tolerant. Also, they are looking into making habitat improvements to give the trout a better chance. They are putting in their money and efforts for every angler. Why not support them? It may work…it may not work.
I don’t want it to be so, but I believe Mike may very well be correct. Not to put words in his mouth, but reading his posts, he believes most of the fingerlings end up being a bite-sized morsel for the herons since they tend to pod up in the shallow waters of the Tully.
I have no standing, but I can make a suggestion. Mike, why not stock brown trout only this fall and next spring? It will become apparent in short order if the rainbow fingerlings are surviving in decent numbers and stocking them is worth the effort and cost.
I was against the halting of fingerling stocking and gave Mike heck at the time (he gave heck right back to me).
I look at the USGS site every day and the Tully is one of the streams I check. It does warm over 70* every season, usually starting in late July through sometime in September. The pool of cool water is not adequate to keep the temps below that level through the summer. I have no idea if the water quality has declined. I have no idea if the habitat has degraded. It does seem to have a lot more predators like blue herons. As time went on, I realized the stream is not what it was in the past, and maybe adult stocking was the way to go.
Fast forward to today. There are guys that care about the Tully and are willing to try something to improve the fishing. Tully TU and TCO have raised funds to stock fingerling rainbow trout. These trout are supposed to be a little more high temperature tolerant. Also, they are looking into making habitat improvements to give the trout a better chance. They are putting in their money and efforts for every angler. Why not support them? It may work…it may not work.
I don’t want it to be so, but I believe Mike may very well be correct. Not to put words in his mouth, but reading his posts, he believes most of the fingerlings end up being a bite-sized morsel for the herons since they tend to pod up in the shallow waters of the Tully.
I have no standing, but I can make a suggestion. Mike, why not stock brown trout only this fall and next spring? It will become apparent in short order if the rainbow fingerlings are surviving in decent numbers and stocking them is worth the effort and cost.
