Cold December Rainbows On The Tulpehocken Creek

Watching the forecast this past week I knew it was going to be a cold weekend. On Saturday there was a good breeze going and I didn’t want to deal with it on the water. I opted to take the fly rod out on Sunday. When I headed outside to pack up my truck at 10:00am it was 28 degrees outside. I broke out the heavy long johns and headed to the Tulpehocken Creek in Berks County. I haven’t fished the Tulpehocken (“Tully”) since this past July. I knew the state had completed a fall stocking back in October. And I also knew that TCO Fly Shop had stocked a large number of small fingerlings back in November. There are problaby more trout in the Tully this time of year than any other body of water in southeastern Pennsylvania. Typically when the state stocks the Tully, they put fish in the same locations each time. I figured it was a safe bet to start fly fishing in the riffles below Rebers Bridge Road. I arrived at the Rebers Bridge parking lot around 11:00am and started getting geared up. While I was there a gentlmen who’d been out fishing stopped at my truck and offered me his hand warmers, saying they still had a couple of hours left in them and that I’d need them.

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Early Summer, Low Water And Lost Trophies

After several weekends of long road trips to chase trout in western and northern Pennsylvania, I decided to stay close to home and focus on the eastern side of the state. As the year transitions from spring to early summer, the cooler air and water temps and easily accessible creek and riverbanks slowly start to disappear. Morning drives to the water are made with the windows down, waders become an oven by 10:00am, and trying to get a fly rod through Japanese Knotweed is like trying to thread a cow through the eye of a needle.

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