June 10, 2019 – Opportunity Sandwiched between the Green, Amorphous Digital Blobs – Valley Creek

Light rain and showers eventually improved streamer conditions.

The title is a reference to the radar on my weather app, which was showing rain in the area once again.  It did not rain overnight much, so the gage on the creek was barely starting to climb, but I assumed it would continue to rise and even get stained before the noticeable spike.  For what it was worth (not much in the end) according to the future radar feature on my phone, it appeared that I might get a two hour break before the heavy rain.  I donned the waders and rain gear in the garage and arrived at the creek around 9:30 AM.  The holes were already somewhat stained, but the riffles were nymph-able.  Unfortunately, I chose to bring one rod, my 5/6 streamer rod, so I would bide my time and make it work.  I started out chunking a big streamer, and I had no hits at the first spot, a miss and a follow at the second, and then a string of small fish missing or coming off the hook after one leap or head shake. 

At least one on the Roberdeau before I treed it trying too hard to draw them out of cover.  

Having moved close to 6 fish, I only landed one decent 11 inch fish on the bigger streamer.  But I was looking for the one or the other one, so I kept on moving at a good pace.  With only a t-shirt on under the raincoat, which is supposed to breath, I was still swampy and getting frustrated with my glasses constantly fogging up, but I guess I was covering water quickly.  I had the foresight to bring a cloth to clean my glasses periodically (constantly).  I tried to keep them off, and go on feel alone, but if you have tried to streamer fish without some decent polarized lenses, you may know that it is a loser’s game, so I kept walking, casting, and wiping.  I was casting aggressively, too, really trying to hit the structure until the water got more stained and helped bring the fish out of cover, so I eventually lost the bigger roberdeau I was throwing in a spot I could not get at, a branch hanging over a deep hole.

A smaller bugger with some custom weighting accounted for the longest streak of fish.

To get a little mojo going, I tied on a smaller bugger and added a small split shot just above the beadhead. It had now been raining for a while (so much for the predicted break late in the morning) and so I did begin to notice more of a stain coming on.  I also started fishing upstream more.   Sometimes I drop into a spot and fish it down with a streamer, which I can get away with in already high water.  If I am the one creating the stain, this is far less effective, dig?  The combination of the smaller bug and the new approach, paid off with a handful of fish, including a couple good ones in the 12 inch range.

Now we were getting somewhere!

One good fish just bumped it once, and I got a good strip to set, but another in the next hole upstream clobbered it and went airborne two or three times after trying just to hold in the heavy current like I would forget he was there or something. That fish made me forget that I was hot, humid, and fogged up, so after another couple of small fish that may or may not have come off, and one more beautiful 11 inch fish, I decided to put a bigger bugger on and go for it again. Because the water was getting dirtier and higher now, I went with a bulky black jig.  I continued to get a few bumps and follows on the bigger bugger, not unlike when I started in the morning, but I did connect with probably the best fish of the day on this larger streamer.  This was a good 13 incher with gorgeous colors.   With rain, fog, and dark skies a lot of the day, it was not a great day for photos, but I did my best to take a few shots of most of the better fish or really pretty ones when conditions allowed.  It was not a numbers day, even though I did move over a dozen fish and land maybe 7 or 8.  Of that half a dozen+, however, five of them were pretty quality fish for Valley Creek.

Back to a bigger bugger (and black this time) to give the one (or the other) one last shot.

I covered three times the real estate I would have with the nymphing rod, so it was cool to catch some fish or at least move some fish in places I don’t frequent all that often.  I did see two other guys out around 1:30 PM when the actual break in the rain happened.  By then I had my rain jacket tied in a knot around my pack.  It was still humid, so there was no chance my t-shirt was going to dry out, but it did feel a lot more comfortable without the hood up.  Letting that heat out also helps alleviate the effects that contribute to the fogged glasses, but then one must mess with rain drops on the lenses, so there is no way to win, really.  Once I turned back, I only stopped at two other spots.  One was the place I caught the huge brown earlier this spring, and the other was a spot I have moved a good one a couple times.  It was worth a second shot.  As I write this, we are experiencing torrential downpours, so even though the radar forecast was a tad off today, I should be grateful that I went out and found a window during which to fish.  Tomorrow looks like a good day to catch up on work.