March 28, 2016 – A Few Productive Stolen Hours on the Ridley Creek FFO

A very good looking stocked brown.

Even though I had to work today, anticipating a morning fishing trip on Tuesday (weather permitting) I threw my waders, boots, 4 weight, and pack in the Subaru today, just so I was ready.  As luck would have it, what was supposed to be an all-day professional development meeting knocked off at about 1:30 PM instead of 4:30 PM.  Can you blame me for taking a short ride to Ridley Creek’s Fly Fishing Only section, tucking my khakis into my "business socks," and suiting up to give it a go for a couple hours?

The creek was pretty muddy when I arrived, but it was fishable, especially with a streamer, so I rigged up a short leader and a tungsten muddler minnow.  I figured if the fish didn’t cooperate here, I could fish Valley Creek near the headwaters, which were probably pretty clear even before noon today.  I had a trout chase the streamer to the surface on my second or third cast, so I was encouraged.  I let the next cast swing closer to the bottom before slowly stripping it back and, bam, first fish of the afternoon.

A couple on the streamer and at least one miss, too.

I picked up one more on the streamer and lost another, and then I decided to try my luck nymphing slow and low in a few holes I knew downstream.  With the visibility next to nothing, I figured a dark fly would be the ticket, but I had little luck with a stonefly or a mayfly nymph, so I went in the completely opposite direction and tied on a bright tungsten beadhead green weenie.  It wasn’t long before I started getting into fish with the weenie.   The first that I caught with this fly, the one that opens this post, was a very pretty stockie, maybe a holdover from last year based on the good fins and good colors. 

Green weenie caught his eye in the muddy flow.

For whatever reason, I stopped taking pictures of fish—all stocked browns, anyway—after the first few, so it looks like they all hit a green weenie, but I had success on a variety of nymphs as the afternoon progressed and the water started clearing up a little bit (but not much!).  

All weenie shots...

I think I counted 10 trout in the roughly 3 hours I was on the water, and they hit the muddler, the weenie, a dark pheasant tail, a tungsten mayfly nymph, and even a jigged pt in the last very deep hole I targeted before quitting to go get the boy at school.   The wind began picking up around 4 PM too, and it was howling pretty strongly by 5 PM when I arrived at the school.  Tonight, it feels like the cold front is here, so I don’t know what I will do tomorrow morning.  I am grateful I got out this afternoon and had success, whatever happens.