January 11, 2019 – Barely Avoided the Skunk on a Cold One, the Last Fishing Day of My Winter Vacation – Tulpehocken Creek

Cold air, high water, and windy, but it was a nice day and a fishing day.

It was only 28 degrees and breezy when I arrived at the Tully this morning before 11:30 AM, and it only got up to 35, even with high sun, so I was not expecting much magic to happen.  I just wanted to see it this year, I guess, since I don’t think I fished this creek in 2018 at all.  In fact, I have not been to the creek since November of 2017, according to this here blog, which is pretty accurate (unless a post is buried in a two-fer post, which can happen during the meh… months of the year—sort of like now).  Since it is a tailwater, and the lake can only hold so much water, the Tully had been running high all of 2018 and the beginning of this year, and it was still about 400 CFS today, but I just needed a little adventure on my last day of vacation.  I haven’t taken this particular ride in a while, so I figured what the heck.  I was dressed well, so warm enough, even in the wind, and cold days like this seem to cut down the crowds—this can be for good reasons, but it can also mean a few more fish that have not been otherwise disturbed by a parade of anglers.

One of each, and no size.

I thought about tossing a streamer, but instead I started out nymphing with a couple bigger bugs.  They got no love, and when I lost them on a nice deep snag, I decided to practice my dropshot midging.  Before literally dropshotting, I had three flies going, a rainbow warrior on the dropper tag, a deep sinking caddis larva as the anchor, and a zebra midge tied off the bend of the anchor fly’s hook.  I hooked, fought, and managed not to net successfully a small brown, who took the top midge, the rainbow warrior.  I didn’t want to get my hands wet anyway, and my phone was buried in a pocket under a couple layers of clothing, but this seems to be a theme this month.  Even with barbs, it is not uncommon to lose a fish on a size 20 or 22 midge, but when the hits are few and far between, it still sucks.  After losing my tungsten anchor fly, I decided to rig up to dropshot for real, with two midges on dropper tags and a split shot or two rolling along the bottom.  I experimented a little this spring on the Wissy, and had some success fishing this way.  I have also watched others do it in the winter, even with an indicator and eggs instead of midges.  I certainly lost no more flies, and only a few split shot, so I was getting to the bottom okay, but it was not the magic formula.  I did land one small rainbow on this rig, however, so I logged two fish in over 3 hours of fishing.  Not a great day, even by winter standards, but it was a fishing day, and with the cold weather, I had the creek to myself, which as I mentioned above rarely happens on the Tully.  Back to work next week, and it is supposed to remain cold, but I am sure I will chase some more stockies or sneak around Valley if I have the opportunity.