March 7, 2019 – Half a Frigid Finger Short of a Handful – Valley Creek

The warmest day in a while still looked and felt cold.

It has been a very cold week, with overnight lows in the teens a few nights, so today’s forecast for 32 degrees sounded potentially balmy.  I had already postponed my trip to Central PA until next week, which is my spring break, anyway, and I actually worked full days this week to put a dent in the grading for my courses.  Final grades are due on March 10, and then I get some time off. Still, after working half a day today, I needed to get out somewhere.  It would have to be local, but the local special regs creeks that received a fresh batch of stocked fish last week would probably be too cold for me to do any real damage.  I decided on Valley Creek in the Park for the limestone influence, but I didn’t factor in the lack of cover from the cold breeze.  Besides being a bit too windy to Czech nymph, the conditions were not too bad, though.  Flows are still good, albeit mostly clear again, so that remains the upside of all the precipitation this year.  No other fishermen, and the only other soul I saw was an older gentleman out for his constitutional.  I remarked that he was tougher than most.  He echoed my sentiment that after the beginning of the week, today was not so bad.  Fishing started out slow, but I had an hour, I would say, where the temps spiked a couple degrees, maybe to 32, and I caught 4 fish and hooked another that came off—so nearly a handful in a couple hours on the water.  Just happy to get out at least once this frigid week, I will take it and wish for a tad warmer and cloudier weather Friday—and milder, buggier days next week when I hopefully take the longer drive west to State College.

A good first fish, just like last Friday, although this one a skinnier female.

Like last Friday, my first fish today was my best fish, a solid 11 inch Valley wild brown in good shape.  She, like 3 of the 4 fish I landed, took a sexy walts worm in size 14, so maybe cranefly nymphs are crawling around already?  The fish were not right in the riffles like last week, but they were not hiding in soft water, either, so they must be actively feeding at times each day, even cold days.  They looked okay, most of them, a little too skinny, but like their cousins upstream, they must be eating olives and other bugs that are getting active on a more consistent basis.  The first one nearly buried the indicator (by pressured wild fish standards, that is) and fought well before coming to the net.  She had great, darker colors too, unlike the others who were still pale. 

A second (of three) that took the walts worm deep in moving water.

After an average Valley fish, I landed another respectable one about 9 inches on the walts worm, and another smaller fish on the size 18 pheasant tail on the dropper.  I was doubling down on midges and small BWO’s being present, though I only saw a few midges.  No shoals of fish rising, either, but I spooked one very good one with the crunching snow sounds of my approach to a hole further downstream earlier in the afternoon.  He was out in a flat where fish often set up for midges, but unlike other days he was alone, unless you count the white suckers hanging back deeper in the same hole.  Back at the honey hole, I eventually broke off the hot fly inching too close the undercut bank, looking for a good fish, which has thus far eluded me this winter.  It was about time to go, anyway, as I had to take the boy to one of his friend’s houses after school.  I was compelled to tie a streamer on for the walk back, though.  There is always hope!  I actually moved a much better fish on a small, perhaps size 8 bugger, too.  He even followed long enough to open wide and nip nothing but marabou.  At least I saw two today, I guess, so that is progress.

One landed on a size 18 pt, and one dropped on the same small nymph.