September 27, 2018 – I Nymphed Up a Good One, and Some of Her Offspring, Before and/or After the Rains – Valley Creek

A couple shots of the same pretty fish.

It has been harder than normal to select creeks to fish and on what days with all this seemingly endless wet weather.  I have gotten so many flood advisory notices on my phone this summer that they have become meaningless, although I did drive to Center City Philadelphia in a true gulley-washer on Tuesday that was not fun and worth the warnings.  The gauge for Valley Creek, however, often looks like an EKG rhythm; it often dips back down as quickly as it spikes.  Even after rain last night, it was back down to a slightly higher than normal flow late yesterday morning when I arrived at the park.  The pools were stained, but the riffles and runs had good visibility, so instead of a streamer, I decided to use the opportunity to do some tightline nymphing on Valley, not something I can do every day.  I was rewarded for the effort too.

To streamer or not to streamer.... Muddy in the pools, but some decent visibility in the riffles and runs.

I have had luck in stained water with purple flies or purple hot spots, so my point fly was a purple prince in size 16 with a caddis dropper until I lost those in a tree limb (don’t ask).  I then put on a soft hackle jig, a bit smaller, also with a purple hot spot, along with a frenchie with a pop of bright color to cover my chances of being seen in stained water.  It didn’t take long to land my first of the day, which is a good sign. It was a pretty little Valley average of eight inches, but he was enough to put a bend in my light 9 footer.  Not long after, I lost one that put a much more significant bend in the rod, and that may have been how I lost my first set of flies when a long distance release ended up just out of reach in the branches above me.  With all the pressure on Valley, some arborist’s tools, along with a metal detector, would discover a treasure trove of lost beads and feathers and dubbing.  The upside, at least, is that I became confident that a better fish might come out to play, and I even reconsidered swinging a streamer.  I stuck with the second set of nymphs, however, and I caught four or five fish in the first set of runs.  I was disappointed that a spot that usually holds a decent fish or two came up empty, but the next spot upstream did produce the best of the morning, a pale and pretty one that was close to 15 inches and fat, a Valley lil’ piggy, not the biggest I've landed but an exceptional fish.

Purple seems to work well in stained water, just like bass fishing....

There were other fisherman out today, maybe 4 that I saw or spoke to, but I began to have the feeling that there was one ahead of me that I could not see, as a few usually productive spots came up dry or only produced one fish.  In the case of one favorite run, I did fight and then drop an 11-incher before I got a photo, but other spots were not productive at all.  It was good to land of few young of the year, though.  There was a chlorine spill above the park, which I have discussed before, right in one of the tributaries that often serves as spawning and nursery grounds, so at least the fish in the park also did their part to propagate the species.  The spill has forced me to re-learn and concentrate on different areas of the creek, which has been a benefit, for me at least. I have not fished the park this much in a while, and it is good to catch good fish cleverly hidden in plain sight.  I will poke around the affected area at some point, however, perhaps before the spawn to look for redds, even if I don’t fish it.

The future.

I had a meeting at 2 PM, so I had to quit before 1 PM today, which to be honest means I quit around 1:15 PM and double-timed it back to the parking spot, cutting it close, of course!  It was a rather productive 3 hours on the creek, I would say, but not as good as it could be in these conditions.  I teach tonight, and then I am meeting my buddy Dave to see some live music in Northern Liberties, so I will be tired on Friday, but if the next rounds of storms don’t mess things up too badly, I may sneak one more in for the month of September, a month that has been much kinder to me on the fishing front, at least.  I will be watching the forecasts and the USGS site for signs to stay or go or grade papers or take a nap.  It has just been one of those summers, so I was grateful to be able to sneak in a solid short trip close to home today.

A little blurry, but you get the picture...