Tully - too warm to fish?

[wbranch]

I am kind of curious about whether anyone has been fishing the Tully or have anglers been staying away due to the typically 70 and over water temperatures. To be frank I would like to fish but don't want to be condemned for subjecting stocked trout to thermal stressing.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Just harvest. Of course it's too warm. You know that. But if you harvest, what's the big deal? It's w/in the regs, and you'll kill the fish quicker than if you "thermally stress" them.

 

[wbranch]

Hmm, so since I have no desire to harvest them I suppose I should wait until the water temperature is below 68 degrees.

 

[krayfish2]

Matt,

Might be mid October before the release drops to 67-68 degrees.

 

[wbranch]

By that time I will be deep into chasing, and catching, chrome.

 

[wbranch]

Since the Tully warms up quickly and Blue Marsh Lake is relatively shallow what is the point of making the Tully a Keystone Select fishery when the window for optimum temperatures is quite short. Not discussing winter angling here since I think far fewer fly fishers are into the cold water November- February game.

 

[wbranch]

I just checked the Tully USGS gage just below the dam. The water temperature has been 70 degrees, or more, since the week of July 06. So for a bit more than two months no ethical fly angler has, or should of, fished there?

 

[Fredrick]

I thought harvest stops after labor day in the Keystone area ?

 

[Bamboozle]

Fredrick wrote:
I thought harvest stops after labor day in the Keystone area ?

Yes it does, by virtue of being a Delayed Harvest Artificials Only section. No harvest from Labor Day until June 15th, NOT Opening Day.

Keystone Select Waters do not have their own harvest regulations, they fall under Delayed Harvest and I believe all of them are in Delayed Harvest Artificials Only sections.

 

[The_Sasquatch]

Bamboozle wrote:

Fredrick wrote:
I thought harvest stops after labor day in the Keystone area ?

Yes it does, by virtue of being a Delayed Harvest Artificials Only section. No harvest from Labor Day until June 15th, NOT Opening Day.

Keystone Select Waters do not have their own harvest regulations, they fall under Delayed Harvest and I believe all of them are in Delayed Harvest Artificials Only sections.

Whoops sorry, I knew it was DHALO, I couldn't remember when the harvest period ended.

It's a fantastic smallmout/carp fishery if you want to get into that. I do not know why it's managed as a "trout stream". It's a fair question.

 

[Mike]

Wbranch,
Keystone Select is just a DHALO area that receives more fish 14 inches and longer than does a non-Keystone Select DHALO Area. Those that were chosen for the KS Program were picked based on geography, avg width, temperature characteristics (the cooler DH Areas were preferred), and landowner approval. Harvest starts on June 15.

Anglers who don't like that the streams get warm of course have the option to harvest, which is why the original guidance for DH Areas was that they be less than 70 (as I recall) or less deg F until July 1. The temperature requirement was established to make harvest possible at least for two weeks. Other waters were added as the program gained popularity and it is my understanding that some of those did not meet the temperature requirement. Given the temperature problems on some waters and the tendancy for few anglers to harvest, I at times proposed that the harvest period be pushed forward to June 1.

 

[dryflyguy]

Yeah - even though the weather has cooled down some, it takes a while for temps to drop on the larger streams

I was hoping to fish the youghiogheny last weekend.
But most of it is still over 70 degrees

 

[Jessed]

Last year at this time it was around 67 degrees and high water 400-500 cfs.