Dewatering of the Tully

[wbranch]

I wonder what's going on with dropping the Tully from 260 cfs on Wednesday to just 106 cfs today? Today the air temperature was no more than 80 degrees all day and the temperature at the Water Works got up to 68 degrees. Tomorrow the forecast is high 80's and maybe hit 90 degrees. The Tully could easily hit 70 degrees, or higher, by mid day.

 

[McSneek]

106 is a trickle. Filling Blue Marsh up for the weekend? Plenty of prior discussions about this. Reality is Blue Marsh isn't that deep and doesn't have much a cold water pool to begin with. Releases are not really managed for fishing. It will hit 70.

 

[Mike]

Water elevation probably got above summer pool elevation of 290' in the lake following some storms this week so they probably dumped the excess, bringing the level back down to the 290' elevation. Once it is back to 290', the outflow is pretty typically managed to equal the inflow from the Tully and tribs, such as Spring Ck, minus evaporative losses from the lake. They typically don't pull the lake level down below 290' just to keep extra flow in the Tully below the dam. It is managed as a run-of-river facility under normal circumstances, but the water level could be lowered to provide water quality improvements in the tidal Delaware, pushing the salt line downstream from the confluence of the Schuylkill.

 

[wbranch]

Surprisingly the water temperature just broke 69 degrees. Obviously though 69 degrees is marginal water quality temperature for trout to live very comfortably.

 

[krayfish2]

Matt,
It will likely run at 74-75 degrees for 2 months straight (or longer). What kills me is the guy trico fishing when the water is 70 at daylight and reaches 76 by the time the hatch is over......it also happens to be the guy playing the fish to death (literally) on 12x.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

But Kray, they drove so far just to not fish it...but Kray the fish are rising which means they're fine...but Kray the fish swam away just fine after being released which surely means it didn't die...but Kray these are ethical C&R fly fishermen!

 

[krayfish2]

You have just scored a solid 10 out of 10 !!

You may want to add 'they are going to die anyway ' and possibly 'you can put a surprising amount of pressure on a fish with 12x'.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Oh yeah...the "they're gonna die anyway" argument only holds up if these ethical anglers are going to harvest their catch. Don't see a whole lot of that goin' on though. So come one come all! Crowd around Cacoosing and have at it.

 

[krayfish2]

F that. You fish the Rebers Bridge pool BEFORE any cool water can help cool the 75 degree temps. Then, after 2 weeks, post on a forum that the fishing has really fallen off and suspect heavy poaching.

OMG, I'm becoming gfen. Lol

 

[foxtrapper1972]

I carry a thermometer and check temps. If 70 or even close I don't fish. All these manmade tailwater places are kinda weird if you ask me. I've fished them in other states and they all have similar, quirky types of feeding etc behaviors. Even the Delaware is sort of strange when you think of it. And the fish act very different than in real trout streams. Most of the trout in Tulp will die. A few hold over. Will be interested to see if the small Rainbows that TCO stocked will last. I've heard they can tolerate warmer temps? Not sure if that is true?

 

[foxtrapper1972]

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/236814/baked-fresh-rainbow-trout/

 

[The_Sasquatch]

I have heard they were looking into a more temp tolerant strain, Fox. Didn't know they went ahead with it. It will definitely be interesting to see what happens. If people are serious about C&R regs on this stream, I still think a "closed season" would benefit it greatly. I know we don't really do that in PA (PA is not Montana?), but on streams where trout MIGHT survive the hot months by finding cooler pockets of water, such as the Tully (even stretches of Kettle or Pine), closing stream sections to fishing during the hottest months, to me, seems perfectly reasonable. The reality is, you simply cannot trust the judgment of the general angling community (either because they're genuinely ignorant, as many of us were at one point, or because they just don't care and catching trout is more important to them than anything else) when it comes to not fishing certain streams in certain conditions.

 

[foxtrapper1972]

Sasquatch- Agree. And the Delayed harvest regs really only encourage fishing during the critical period of warm water.

Those little Rainbows TCO stocked are really intense....hard fighters.