Quitty or other options for tomorrow

J

JeffP

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Joined
Nov 21, 2007
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1,033
Location
Lititz, Pa
Has anyone fished the Quitty this year? There have been zero reports or chat about it this year. There have actually been few reports from anywhere this year despite a lot of fishing going on. I was up for some brookie fishing but creeks in Lancaster and surrounding areas are pretty low. I was thinking about Quitty, Middle, Clarke's, upper Tully, Muddy, or maybe a Berks county native creek. I haven't fished the Northkill for a while. If I get the urge I may drive farther. Any thoughts? Always up for some new water.
 
I haven't fished it this year, but I did read on another site someone was complaining that it had been poached out already. Since there has been no school since March, I would believe that to be the case.
 
Muddy Creek is still fishing well. I was there today. The WT was 65F at 1P. I saw no surface activity/hatches.
 
If the brookie creeks are low here expect the northkill to be low.

I would go east limestoners in allentown or west to CV.

Actually id probably go after smallmouth
 
I've never fished the upper tully but the USGS gauge near Bernville has the water temp at 62*. I've been meaning to give it a try. If you make it up there let me know how you do.
 
There's a lot of limestone water in the upper Tully watershed in Lebanon Co., unfortunately most of it is on private and posted land. There's a short stocked section, with some wild Browns mixed in, in and around Myerstown. A couple small parks with access, but frankly, there isn't much open water to fish. Country Fare restaurant in Myerstown has the best hot turkey sandwich w/mashed potatoes I've ever tasted. They roast several turkeys a day for them. I go for the hot turkey, not for the fishing so much when I'm up there.

Might be more access down close to Bernville, I don't know that area as well. Bigger water I'm sure, but it seems like there's enough limestone to keep it cold from the gauge...I looked at the gauge over a 365 day period, and a couple brief Summer spikes to 70-72, but nothing higher. No clue on what it holds.
 
Thanks for the ideas. I went to Middle Creek and I'll post a report later. On the Tully, I have a friend that owns some of that private water. I feel guilty but he lets me fish it. They have had a lot of problems lately so I haven't even asked yet this year.
 
The reason landowners have "problems" is caused by the increase in people fishing on their properties illegally. So fellows....put two and two together....IF you continue blabbing about these places on these public forums there will inevitably be MORE of this same problem. I know this falls on deaf ears but I will keep trying. Easy enough to use PMs.
 
What places? I said nothing about the upper Tully other than that I fish private water there. Middle Creek is a stocked trout stream with virtually 100% access. What illegal fishing are you talking about?
 
Uncle owns a meadow downstream from fee fishing place. Has
had nothing but trouble with people coming on his place. Breaking fences etc. He had it open for yrs but a while back after flood some big escaped hatchery fish got everyone coming down trying to get them. He posted it. He says this year more than ever he had people on there again. Trespassing. And a lot are fly fishing. A lot of landowners up there are sick of it. Not only the people littering and destroying things but just the general day to day constant people on their land.
 
Jeff -Also he was allowing a guy to fish and the guy brought friends who then came without the original guy. No respect shown. Now no one can fish. Promoting any of these small streams on a public forum brings more problems. Miles of unposted water turns into a few public areas that get pounded because of this crap.
 
lark - Sounds like your uncle did the right thing then. Post it. Enforce it. Pursue charges against violators. If you don’t want people on your land, and/or people aren’t respecting it, that’s your legal means to prevent it. Nothing wrong with that and I fully support your uncle in his decision to post it.

I assume the trespassers learned of the escaped hatchery fish that led to the posting on an online forum? While there is the occasional “what is trespassing” discussion on this forum, I don’t ever recall anyone outright endorsing trespassing on posted lands. The ruffians must have picked that up somewhere else.

If I read the discussion about the upper Tully here, it would discourage me from going there. There is little open water to fish, which is a fact your post supports too. What little open water there is, is in public parks with kids playing soccer right along the stream. If a lurker is looking for a trespassing citation, outside of those parks, it’s Class A habitat for one of those though.
 
Swattie-To be honest I don't know how they learned about the escapees. This was a few yrs back after flood. I didn't know anything about it until he told me he was posting. He said within a very short time loads of people were after them. Word does spread fast with the online people. I hate to think fly fishermen are part of the problem but that is starting to be the case. By the way, so far he hasn't had anyone prosecuted but they have all been warned.
 
I used to live 5 minutes from it. Like I said, I miss the hot turkey more than the fishing. I’d go over to those parks a couple times/year, usually in the middle of Winter when no one was outside. Even if you were fishing slowly, you’d cover the water in less than an hour as there wasn’t much great holding water, and only a couple hundred yards of stream to start with. Plus, the stream is tiny up there. Just enough time to start getting cold and a hankering for one of those sandwiches.
 
I revealed nothing. And as I said, I haven't been there this year knowing the problems. Every time I have been there (not much) I have had permission.
 
larkmark = foxtrapper??
 
Escapement from Tully system hatcheries is nothing new. There have been a few events over the years when large losses have occurred. It did not require the internet for word to spread.

Perhaps around 8-10 yrs ago there was a major escapement event and shortly thereafter PFBC fisheries mgmt personnel were doing parking availability and posting surveys on the now two stocked sections in the upper Tully, which involve considerable stream length. They also inquired about the posting with some landowners to determine whether the general no trespassing signs pertained to fishing as well. That led to a discussion with one landowner who had recently posted because of the number of anglers who had showed up to fish for the escaped trout. That specific stretch had lousy parking; an exceptional number of trout had escaped; and the anglers came in higher numbers than the owner(s) desired, possibly for an extended period. Anyway, regardless of the specific details, it became a pain for the landowner so he posted (permanently).

As for the Lebanon Co state stocked section, which is Section 02, it supports a small wild brown trout population and probably holds some stocked trout year around. It is only stocked by the state with RT in deference to the wild BT population. Various attempts to keep cold water flowing in section 01 through pumping, grouting of sink holes, and channel relocation have been made over the years both to enhance the stocked section below and to extend a much better wild trout population in a downstream direction. It was the PFBC that negotiated the continued pumping with a power company in order to maintain better average daily flows of cold water. Unfortunately, periodically developing downstream sink holes were a confounding factor, although efforts were being made by other agencies at least until 2019 to develop a permanent solution.
 
IIRC, the hatchery undertook active efforts to recapture some of those fish. September 2011, Tropical Storm Lee, floods I believe.

I do remember hearing about that, and it being a zoo. Can understand why someone would post in response to that.
 
larkmark you do realize there is a section of the Keystone Fly Fishing guide dedicated to the Upper Tully including access points etc. So discussing the upper tully here may have some impact but I bet print items and local knowledge impact the pressure much more. Now social media is a huge problem with spot burning and I kringe anytime someone announces where and what stream they where fishing as they show of a picture of their catch.

I learned about the upper tully from the KFF book no Jeff mentioning here. I understand there is limited access but it could be work an evening adventure to fish something different.
 
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