Tulpehocken Creek Report

This week I've been on the Tully just about every day. The caddis are still coming off, not in the numbers they were before the rain, but fish are still keyed on them. Midges have also been none stop, fish are up eating them as well. If you don't see many fish up and working the surface, go under with a midge and or a caddis pupa.

Lenny and I fished last night and had great action; CDC caddis with a pupa dropper. Lenny landed this nice brown just before calling it for the night.

Friday and Sunday and Monday (today), I had 1/2 day trips on the Tully, fish were nymphing very well. We took most of our fish on small Peasant tails, Bird of Prey Caddis, and Z-Wing Caddis. Mid morning the fish started eating Caddis emergers, slowly transitioning to adults. Here are a couple photos from my trips:

Hot Flies: Bird of Prey Caddis, Z-Wing Caddis, Sugar Daddy, Pheasant Tail, Wooly Bugger, CDC Caddis, X-Wing Caddis

The Little J, Cold and Wet

Monday, the plan was to head up to the Delaware for the day, with the rain it was no surprise that we were detoured by a large water release. So on the whim we decided to head the other direction, State College.

Lenny, Jared and I were about 3/4 the way there when it started snowing (in April????!!!). But we had trout on the brain. We arrived at the Little J to no snow, but lots of rain and wind. The fishing was slow, but we all managed a few fish. Mostly on nymphs, with Jared getting one on a black streamer.

Towards the end, I noticed small sailboats on the water, yup Sulphurs! The water was muddy and rising slowly, this was just enough to keep the fish from coming up for them. So most of the sulphurs just floated down the river till they flew off the water, heading to the trees.

Here are some pics from the trip:

Hot Flies: Bird of Prey Caddis, Pheasant Tail, Caddis Larva, Black Bunny Leech

1st Edit - West Branch

Here is the first edit from our new GoPro. We are still figuring it all out (water spots). Anyway it was a great day on the water and an even better day to have a video camera to document it.

Enjoy

Tulpehocken Creek Report 04/22

I have been on the Tully the past 3 days, the water is low (as you all know), the fishing pressure is high, and caddis are flying high.

Friday was a great day to be on the water, caddis were on the water and the fish knew it, fishing a caddis dry with a pupa suspended in the film seemed to work the best for me. Yesterday I had a half day trip, finding a place to fish was easy at first light, but as the morning progressed the fishing pressure picked up drastically.

This morning, Steve (the mailman), and I hit the river around 8:30am, it was a very productive day yet again. With all the talk of rain and storms, the fishing pressure was manageable, caddis were emerging all morning and the fishing was really good. I stuck with the same rig I've used the past couple days; CDC Caddis with a Z-Wing under. It was about 50-50 on the dropper or dry. Steve was fishing an emerger he came up with; also having great success.

Hot Flies: CDC Caddis (Tan & Green), Bird of Prey Caddis, Pop Caddis, Z-Wing Caddis

1st West Branch Trip

Its officially Spring, after about 2 weeks of reading reports and looking at fish pictures, we decided it was about time to head to the Delaware for the first time this year. About 3 years ago I fell in love with that place; Steve from our Bryn Mawr store showed me around, hooking the largest trout of my life that day.

So a few years, and many coffee filled late night drives later, we were at it again. Joey headed up on Saturday for the West Branch Angler’s "Hell or High Water" event. The report was good. Here are 2 he got Saturday night:



Joey's largest brown trout to date. He was pumped!



Hendricksons, and Apple Caddis were everywhere, it seemed that the fish were keyed in on the Hendricksons, so that’s what we gave them. The fishing was spotty where we were, but that’s the Delaware for ya. We all managed a couple fish, and are hoping to head back this weekend if weather permits.

Leland's 1st Delaware Brown.(He really was happy)

Featured Fly - Mixed Up Emerger

This is a fly that I came up with last year. It is a combination of Weamer's Berks Emerger and Henry's Half and Half Emerger. The first time I used it was last year on the West Branch of the Delaware during a high water Hendrickson hatch. It was a fast tie that I did after talking to Paul from our State College store, he said "have emergers; and lots of them", and so I stated tying. Then later that year I tied the same style fly for Sulphurs, Olives, and PMDs, all worked well. So here it is...

Materials

Hook: TMC 2487 sz. 12-18

Thread: UNI Thread 8/0 - (color to match dubbing)

Shuck: Antron - Gold or Brown

Rib: Ultra Wire - Copper, Red, Gold

Abdomen: Pheasant Tail - Natural

Wing: CDC - Drk. Dun or Med. Dun

Thorax: East Coast Dubbing - Hendrickson Pink, Sulphor Yellow

Step 1: Tie in the Antron shuck, tying about 2/3rds down the hook bend.

Step 2: Move the thread back to the top, tie in 4-5 Pheasent tail fibers. Tying down to the start of the Antron.

Step 3: Move thread back to top, tie in Ultra Wire.

Step 4: Wrap the Pheasant Tail fibers 3/4s the way up the hook.

Step 5: Wrap the Ultra Wire forward, making a rib trough the Pheasant Tail.

Step 6: Make 1 wrap of dubbing in front of the Pheasant Tail. Stack 2 or 3 CDC feathers, tying in front of the dubbing wrap.

Step 7:  Cut CDC feathers, Dub a head, wrapping the dubbing forward to the back of the hook eye.

Step 8: Whip finish, and trim Antron tail.

Finished: Here are 2 other variations of the fly, PMD & Sulphur

This Brown fell to a Mixed Up Sulphur last August on the West Branch

This guys fell to a Mixed Up Hendrickson a couple weeks ago on Penn's Creek

Caddis are Here!!!

We have been seeing caddis for a couple weeks now, nothing in big numbers, maybe one or two here and there. Yesterday was the first day we had seen fish keying in on them, so what else was there to do but put a CDC Caddis on and float it over their noses.

Mornings have been a little slow with caddis, however midges are still all over the water and fish are keyed on them as well. Around 8:30am, caddis really start to pop up, by 10:00am fish are eating anything that looks like these little bugs.

Enjoy!

 Hot Flies: CDC Caddis

Tully Report

The Tully has been fishing awesome the past few days. We have seen a few caddis flying around, but nothing that has gotten the fishes attention. Midges seem to be the best bet both subsurface and on top. Fish have been eating midges pretty much all day long, we have noticed that they are eating emergers more that the actual adults. So if you see fish rising don’t go changing your rig up, drift your nymphs over them and they should eat.

Caddis pupa have also been working well subsurface, this is leading us to believe that they are not fare off.

Hot Flies: Zebra Midge, Bird of Prey Caddis, Blood Midge