February 7, 2019 – Roughly a Fish per Hour but Nary a Shower – Valley Creek

Long and skinny, like the ones at Monocacy this week.  Hard to midge in high water?

So the rain returned again last night and more is coming Friday.  Just when creeks were getting normal, they will be up over the banks again.  At least Valley, being both small and limestone influenced, always bounces back quickly.  Actually, I was hoping for higher flows, streamer flows today, but the water was cold and barely stained by 11 AM.  I was on the water for over 5 hours, walking and fishing, and I witnessed the creek drop and clear in real time.  I arrived early, just after 9 AM, and started out throwing a streamer in the Park, but I did not even get a bump, which is rare with how many small, competitive fish are in Valley.  I ended up walking back to the New(er) ‘Ru and getting my 4 weight set up to nymph because the conditions looked good enough for some close quarter fishing.  Flows were about 50 CFS and falling, and the deeper runs and holes had a stain.  With the cloud cover and minimal drizzle, it was a good day to sneak up on them.  Even with the milder days before and a rather mild start, fish were asleep until about noon, so I did not really average a fish an hour—it was more like no fish for two hours and then 6 in the last three hours.

Stained and cold.  I watched it recede in real time today...

I caught most of the fish on a black midge, sort of Sam’s version of the zebra crossed with a soft hackle.  When the water was clearer earlier in the winter, the fish would take a rainbow warrior, but they didn’t touch it today.  I did catch one fish on the deep rolling caddis larva I was using for an anchor.  I was able to euro-nymph most of the afternoon, and I even managed to stick one on the streamer that I tied on for the walk back to the car.  I was hoping to move a good fish or two, but I was happy with the size of the fish I did catch.  The best was a skinny 11 or 12 inch hen, and two others were just over 10 inches; the smallest was still 8 inches or more.  The real little ones must be tight to cover and not coming out unless the midges and BWO’s start hatching.

A pale 10 incher fooled by a caddis larva.  Four took a midge, however.

I saw 4 or 5 good fish set up in flat shallow water midging, but these are those fish, set up in a pool near the road that do this all winter and rarely get fooled.  It does not stop dozens of fellow fly guys from giving them a shot all winter, and a few artists might fool a couple, but I have learned to play to my strengths.  Besides this pod of fish, I saw few obvious signs of life.  One other fish chased the streamer, and a small fish rose in the back of one pocket while I was nymphing the seam.  Otherwise, I had the success with deep nymphs tight to wood and overhead cover.  A big blue heron was bouncing upstream ahead of me, so that might have had something to do with it too!

Pretty and better BMI than the bug eaters, but not what I was looking for on the streamer!

I had the rain gear on, but I never really needed it.  The ground around the creek is a muddy mess, and that will get worse on Friday.  All in all, it was a good day to be out, though, even if the big streamer fish eluded me again today.  It is not every day that I can nymph Valley on a tightline, and not every day that the average size fish is 9 inches or more, so I will take it.  Cold air and possible snow returns in the 7 day forecast, so I was pleased to get three trips in this week, all of them pretty successful by winter fishing standards.