January 3, 2017 - On the Board for 2017 - A Valley Creek Mission in the Rain

First of 2017

It was not the best day to fly fish, but it was over 40 degrees, so today was the day I set my sights on catching my first fish of the new year.  It was raining steadily for a couple days, the good kind of rain that takes its time flooding the creeks, but the accumulation of rain finally did spike the gauges.  Tomorrow will be a better day, I hope, but Valley was fishable today for a couple hours before it began to get muddy.  I started with midges, but the water was not clean enough to bother, so I tried a few different color buggers.  Eventually, I caught two fish on a green/chartreuse beadhead about size 10.  Both fish hit in faster but clearer water above a deep hole.  Last year, it took until January 7th or 8th to get on the board, so I will call today a success.  I will be back at it tomorrow somewhere....

A better shot of my first of the new year.