May 8, 2019 – Sweet Valley High – Valley Creek

Sweet, Valley's high!

I left the window in the bedroom open last night, so I knew for sure that it had rained overnight.  It rained hard enough to wake me up for a minute, in fact, and to make me want to fish.  Tuesday was hot, so I didn’t feel the urge to get out.  Besides reading papers, I met up with Jay for lunch, however, which was a nice diversion.  Jay read my post about the fishing teacher in Mount Airy, and he too put together some new and used stuff for the kids.  After putting together a bunch of trout lures from my garage and also picking up a couple new things on Sunday, I also took a ride to Kenny’s on Monday night to pick up a load of his donations.  I am sure Hus and his students will be very excited with the haul they are getting!  I was so happy that these guys felt the same way I did, that this was a worthwhile thing to support.  We need more kids fishing, and maybe Hus will hook a couple future anglers, even fly anglers, who want to take care of creeks! I am confident that the kids will catch a lot more fish in the future with the quality gear the guys put together for them.  I probably could!

Good stain and flows, CDC jig, Antler Club for Bucks.

Back to this morning: the gage on Valley only showed a spike that was on its way down, unlike the other local creeks that looked awfully high and turbid still, even a 9 AM.  By that time, Valley was down to 60 CFS.  Normal is 20, but 60 is okay when it is falling fast, so I decided to go for it.  I knew the continued drizzle and higher flows would keep the crowds light, and I was right.  If I didn’t have this new 10 foot 3 weight still asking to be used until it becomes part of my right arm, I would have limited myself to the streamer today, but I balked at putting a second rod rigged up to streamer fish in the car at the last minute.  I had never fished Valley with my 10’ 4 wt, opting most of the time for a 9 footer, even an 8 footer for dry and dry dropper, but I decided to give it a shot.  What better place for an accurate, fast action 3 wt. than the tight quarters of Valley Creek?

Some very decent fish, all of them eating well and beautiful.

The water was moving pretty well and was more stained than I expected, but the riffles had decent visibility, and that was where I intended to nymph, anyway.  I caught a couple fish in holes and deeper pockets, but the best fish and the majority came from slightly deeper riffles and deeper depression in the riffles.  A handful of adult caddis were around, and I watched splashy rises from one good fish that had me debating taking off my nymphing leader.  Except for my walk back to the car, I also resisted the streamer.  By then the sun was out and the creek was getting a bit clearer, so the moment had passed.  Before turning around, however, I had a very productive 3 hours on the water without another angler in sight.  Because of the flows and the location of the feeding fish, I treated a creek in a stretch I know far too well like new water at times, tucking flies under overhangs and into shallow broken water in places I don’t often fish in lower water or don’t spend much time with on my way to known fish haunts.  As a result, I caught some fish in new places too—or maybe not new places for dinks, but new places for decent-sized fish.  

Eating with reckless abandon in the heavier water, at least before the sun appeared.

All the fish are fat and healthy right now after gorging on olives, and now caddis, every day.  I only caught one true little one, probably 5 inches long, but even that fish was a porker and won’t be short for long.  I believe I landed three, maybe four that were solid Valley fish in the 11 inch range, but the average was decent too.  I quit when I counted 12 or 13 fish netted for the day.  The bite slowed considerably as the sun came out, but I did end with a good 11 inch fish and continued to have a slow, steady pick even after things quieted down.  I dropped a few small fish in the last 30 minutes on the big fly, partially because small fish can shake off those big competition hooks, sure, but partially because the fish were getting a bit more tentative in the higher sun and clearing water.  But the bigger flies did their duty early, so I am not mad at them, and I certainly had no desire to put on a midge and catch 10 more dinks after the morning I had already experienced.

Won't always be this size eating like that.

The rod performed well.  Like my experience on the Monacacy with it, the rod’s fast action allowed me to be accurate and crisp while punching the flies into productive spots near and under cover.  The length is certainly not a hindrance for this kind of fishing, especially because I keep the rod very low to the water when nymphing riffles.  Today was one of those days where I felt most of the hits, which is a lot of fun.  Because of the stain, I got away with 4x fluorocarbon too, so I lost one fly all day—the hot fly though, so time to restock.  Because the water was rather muddy, I used the same CDC jig in purple that I have had success with in other small creeks.  I had a couple take a caddis larva too, but that was only after I lost the CDC jig and needed a heavier anchor fly to replace it.  I had one left, but I wanted to save it for another day.  I had to work a little harder to get them to take a green larva, and the same was true for a straight pheasant tail, both not quite dark enough or with enough caddis pupa movement, which CDC certainly provides.

Did I mention they liked this jig in dirty water?

I am hoping I can get one more trip in this week.  Thursday’s weather looks cool and mostly cloudy, but I have so much grading to get into the registrar by Friday that I may declare Thursday a work day and aim to fish Friday, perhaps with the streamer.  I should have been working more today than I did, but those sweet Valley high flows were calling, so I will work twice as hard tomorrow.

Valley makes them pretty, for sure.