September 22, 2017 – Breezy, Beautiful, and Barely a Handful – Tulpehocken Creek

Not a Keystone Select fish but still a fat 14 and change and feisty.

I have not fished the Tully DHALO since March of this year when I wrestled with a couple Keystone Select piggies.  I am not a fan of crowds, and it is hard to avoid them on the Tully, especially now that the new designation and the accompanying big stocked fish are in effect, so I fish it only a few times each year, sometimes only once or twice and usually on weekdays in the winter and early spring.  That said, the creek had been higher than normal for weeks, as it is a tailwater fishery that experiences releases of water from Blue Marsh Reservoir, and I was hard-pressed to find another stream within an hour of home that had both healthy temps and flows.  Even a favorite NEPA creek was borderline earlier in the week, so I know I am pushing fall expectations a bit.

I am deadly hooking leaves this time of year (a few nice weeds too).

It felt less humid today with a nice breeze stirring the leaves and sending them into the creek, but they were not impossible to fish around yet.  To that, add a bit of grass and other debris from the dam, I assume, making its way downstream, not to mention heat and sun again, and you still have a potentially challenging day to fish.  I took a relaxed pace in the morning too.  I teach on Thursday nights and am wired up when I get home sometimes, so I did not get to bed until later.  I also had to take the boy to the morning bus and take care of some work, but I arrived in a nice shaded stretch of pocket water and braided runs about 10:30 AM.  Nothing optimum, of course, except that I was fishing.

A smaller but prettier one.  It took a basic black zebra midge after I "cracked the code." 😏

As expected, there were a handful of other cars, and I spoke to one nice guy who was leaving after a less than spectacular morning, but this same guy mentioned that another fisherman had tangled with quite a few in the same general area.  Some positive and negative feedback at the same time, but while taking a pre-wadering piss, I took a peek at the creek, and it looked promising for September, so I was hopeful.  

An arty release?

A bit of color and healthy flow.

I caught only 4 trout and a little bass in about 3.5 hours of working the same stretch, which had also been worked by another fisherman before me.  I spoke to him as we were both packing it in, and he ended up being the fisherman who was part of my earlier conversation.  He had a slow afternoon, like me, but he stuck probably a dozen on the day, most in the morning.  While Czech nymphing, I caught two fish on a jigged mayfly nymph, and a bass on my wet fly dropper, before tying on a size 22 zebra midge and taking two more.  Go figure!  I learned after the fact that this was what this successful angler caught all of his fish on today.  I was seeing fall caddis, so my droppers were more like size 18 and looking caddis-like or BWO-ish, as I saw a couple of those too, but the midge was working all day long…  I guess these fish have seen a lot of flies this year, so I will be fishing small the next time I visit during this season of the year—which may be a long time, mind you.

Plenty left from the spring stockings.

One brown was pushing 15 inches and was a lot of fun to fight in fast water, but I didn’t mess with any remaining Keystone Select fish from the spring.  There are a lot of fish left in the creek, however.  With another stocking coming in October, it should be a good bet.  The water temps were in the mid-60s, but it has been hot, so that bodes well too.  A little rain would help the entire region, at this point, but the Tully is fishing pretty well, it seems, just not for me on this particular leisurely day!