November 20, 2020 – Jay and Me and Nearly Everyone Else in SEPA – Tulpehocken Creek

Ice in the puddles at sunrise.

By the time I did a drive-by of the creek before 7 AM and before I met Jay at the Wawa up the hill, there were already cars and trucks in the lots along the Tully DHALO.  Probably equal parts fresh stockie chasers and those like us giving the wild browns a break to spawn, 70/30 fly fisherman to gear guys, I was not surprised at the numbers, just surprised at how early folks got out on a Friday.  I don’t fish the Tully often because it is a freakin destination, and for friggin stocked fish, but it does provide a niche a couple times per year—in late fall and winter when I leave the browns alone for the most part, and in the early spring when they put those Keystone Select pigs in there and I’ve grown tired of watching a zebra midge under a tiny bobber. It is also pretty easy to find room because so much of the creek is stocked.  Jay had only fished the creek once before, so I offered to show him a few more spots here.  I am a terrible fishing guide, but a good tour guide.  The first hour of daylight has not been good, especially when it is cold, so I suggested meeting at 7, but we may have had first crack at a couple hot spots had I just manned up and suggested earlier—it is not like Jay is averse to early meet-ups!  We bounced around a couple times, and we ended up finding room at two different spots.  Fish were caught too.  The morning started out decent with some action on fresh stockies right away, but it took me three hours after that to catch 6 or 7 fish and drop a couple.  Jay landed one, plus a sucker, and he messed with a couple others in the same time frame.

Mostly fresh stockers to start.

Our second stop around noon was much kinder, even warm enough to drop layers, and a midge hatch brought out the fish—and hordes of dry fly guys.  No matter, because this dirty nympher kind of cleaned up in the second half, easily landing 10 or more in the last 3 hours we fished, even finding two decent wild browns before quitting time.  I began the morning fishing Eric’s blue collar caddis larva with an 18 hares ear grub on the dropper, and I landed three on the anchor before hanging in a tree when a fish came off mid-tussle.  In the afternoon, with small bugs hatching, I put a size 18 pheasant tail on the dropper and changed between a 16 frenchie on the point for skinnier water and a bomb walts in size 16 in heavier and deeper water, often within the same run.  Jay got at least one more at the second stop, but he was fishing larger bugs and learning the odd, decidedly not trout streamy, layout of the Tully.  While I could beeline right to the spots I knew would hold fish and point him in the right direction, he was also doing what most guys would do on a new stretch of water this wide—fish anything that looked remotely fishy and try to figure stuff out on his own, maybe compare notes on bugs once in a while.

Some pretty holdovers, though.

I was glad that I made a concerted effort this year to euro nymph with really small bugs (Sam would be proud) as that skill has paid dividends many times this season.  Instead of a dry dropper or swinging soft hackles during hatches of small olives, midges and micro caddis, I can just scale down to 6X, make longer casts, and deliver small bugs into flat water and shallow riffles without spooking fish.  I am also confident that I can get small bugs down deep too, and not just perdigons.  I have been working on Eric this year too, urging him to expand that tiny nymph section of his boxes, and I get to test ride his new creations along with him.  Not unlike when I committed to learning euro nymphing in general, this small bug thing has also been a game changer.  I pulled some fish out of shallow pocket water and dug a couple really nice, hot holdovers out of deep water using small bugs and light tippet.

Pretty day, Jay hooked up and working hard, not shy blue heron.

Perhaps the best justification for the success of this technique was landing two wild browns in the middle of a crowded park in a bouncy, deep riffle—well, it is mid-November, so more like adjacent to- or deep beneath a- bouncy deep riffle.  The first one took the tiny pt on the dropper and had me all excited when I saw the blue eye spot and sparsely spotted flanks.  We were a long way from where I usually encounter wild fish here, so that was cool.   I urged Jay to give the top of the run a shot, while I now worked the back.  When I hooked a bulldog rainbow a couple minutes later, I thought I had another wild brown, but this solid male bow did a tail walk and other rainbow-ish moves after that first wrestling match.  I was convinced there was another decent fish or two in the head of the pool, so when Jay moved back to try another seam on the other side of the creek, I returned to the top and hooked a second, even better wild brown.

First wild brown of the afternoon.

After catching stocked fish all day, this fight felt so different.  Because he stayed deep at first, I thought maybe large sucker, but this was just a 13 inch fish using the current like he was born here.  He eventually turned out of the current and came to the net.  Now I was really psyched.  Most if not all of the wild fish I have landed in the Tully have been 8 to 10 inchers, likely small stream fish from the tribs that roam the larger creek when conditions are right, but I would have been happy with this fish on any wild trout stream.  I even waded down to Jay to show the fish off and get a second set of eyes on the colors, the fins, and that telltale eye spot.  In the bright, low sun of 3 PM in the afternoon, I took a few bad back-lit pictures, but the shots in the net hopefully show the true beauty of both of the fish.

A pretty good fish anywhere.

So, even while trying to give them a break, the wild browns still haunt me, I guess.  I am not complaining.  It was an objective zoo out there for a Friday, with people jockeying for parking spots and then fishing spots, so I was very happy to have a decent day and not leave pissed at crowds and tough conditions.  Hopefully, Jay also had a day and learned a new spot or two.  He is good company, and I would not have braved the crowds today without a partner in crime.  I have to work on my guiding, as I admitted.  I am a far better tour guide than fishing guide, but I hope I share what I know along the way without being preachy or too opinionated.  I have had some teachers far more patient than me, and I marvel at how they can watch.  I have a ways to go before I can watch fishing happen without taking matters into my own hands!

Pretty fishy.