Tully

[wbranch]

It always pays to spend five minutes and look at the USGS page for the stream you intend to fish. I neglected to do that today and boy was I shocked. Just a couple of days ago the gage below the dam was reading around 200 cfs. Today I left York about 6:00 a.m. and drove straight to the Paper Mill Pool. Wow, was I surprised when I saw the stream backed way up onto that creek that comes in at the paper mill. The Tully was racing by and it appeared to be at least 3', maybe 4', above the level it was just a few days ago.

I pulled over and checked the dam gage and the glow at that time was 2700 CFS! Amazingly high for a stream that in many places is no more than 60 feet wide. I floated the Delaware in early May at 2500 CFS and that is a lot of water. In the Tully it is hard to imagine unless you see it. I wasted two hours and about $10 in gas because U didn't check the flow before I left.

To get an idea of the flow the gage was at 3' when the flow was 200 cfs and the gage was at 7' when the flow was 2700 cfs. An increase of 4.0 feet.

 

[outsider]

I spoke with the park ranger approximately 3 weeks ago about the severe flow fluctuations. He told me the COE mandate is this: Even if the pool elevation in the lake is 2" above the elevation where they want it to be, they will release water.

 

[TYoung]

Berks County got up to 4 inches of rain on Sunday.

 

[outsider]

The NWS rain gauge at the Reading Airport recorded a little more than 2" of rain. I live about 5 miles south and I recorded about 2.5" of rain.

 

[afishinado]

Flash flood in the area. Lake facilities and trails were flooded and boat launch closed.

New release below

 

[sarce]

That same line of heavy rain hit Valley and the stream gage there recorded over 4" of rain. My parents house 15 miles away got half that much. Easy to not realize sometimes that these localized storms can really mess with your fishing spots!

 

[outsider]

As much as I depend on the Tully to fish for trout (I don't travel well anymore), too much water is OK with me. 2 years ago we had a drought in Berks County, and the Tully was stagnant and barely flowing. Not many trout survived. Probably affected the insects as well. Last year was good for the fishes and hopefully this year will be.

 

[Jessed]

The slow water above paper mill where cacoosing enters is always a weird spot for me. I always see people fishing the flat water but it doesn’t seem like there’s any structure, just 3 feet of flat water? No clue where fish would be holding

 

[outsider]

There's no structure in a lot of the placid pools in the Tully. But the fish are there, always were.

 

[outsider]

I didn't completely answer your question. For the most part, there seemingly is no rhyme or reason why and where they take position in a pool like the one you mentioned. If you fish there, fish could be rising all around you, sometimes at your feet.