October 27, 2019 – Yeah, Maybe the Beach Ball Was a Sign – Valley Creek

An Italian or French cinematic moment and a sign to quit.

El Zorro Plateado (Tom H.) and I texted back and forth on Friday about sneaking out today after the Eagles' game, especially if some rain made it even more worth our while.  I don’t think either of us were fully aware of our afternoon commitments, nor were we fully briefed on the timing and impact of this fast-moving and precipitation-heavy storm.  I had to drive the boy to something at four and pick him up later, and Tom had a viewing or funeral or something in the afternoon as well.  I decided to tempt fate and say meet me at my house at 7 AM this morning, so we could head to Valley.  I was hoping we might take advantage of the cloudy conditions early even in low water, and then maybe we would have a magic window later in the morning when the rain brought up the flows. 

Swinging in one of the first of a few dink dinks before the rain arrived in force.

Things were calm in low, clear water for the first hour, when Tom landed a couple uber-dinks, but it did not take long for wind and rain to arrive with purpose.  As the stream stained and flows improved, so did the leaf hatch, made worse by the gusts of wind.  We did have a sweet spot around 9:30 to 10:30 AM when some fish were caught, including one over ten inches, but it did not take long before we started noticing the flash floods rising.  First a couple branches washed by, then I noticed it got a bit harder to wade, then the creek turned an ugly color, and then the big beach ball with an octopus printed on the side floated downstream.  It was game over long before that point, I reckon.  Valley went from 20 CFS to 200 CFS in no time, and it peaked at close to 500 before it started coming back down around 3 PM.  Tom and I were peeling off wet cloths and waders in my garage by noon, so we could only watch the true impact on the gages during Bud Light Platinum commercials (Eagles win, though!).

Teamwork makes the dream work. My only decent fish of the morning in Tom's hand.

We had a nice, swampy walk back to the car, marveling at all the gulleys awash in fresh rainwater and all the flooded lowlands and trails.  This is what the sharp, upside down V of a USGS WaterWatch graph looks like in real life (or at least the first incline to 500 CFS)!  I have fished Valley many, many times, too many times perhaps.  I rarely fish it in rising water, mainly because it is very hard to time it right, although I have had some success in those conditions, however short-lived the productive window.  This is the first time that I decided, with Tom’s urging—he in waist-high waders no less—to cross at a bridge instead of wading back across to my car like I normally would do.  As if we had just finished blue-lining in the mountains or something, at some point Tom and I had to hoof it back along the road, hugging the guardrail and ducking cars while in low light and wearing drab rain gear, so that was certainly a new experience for me on Valley, at least.  Fish were caught and no one died?

Just before the game was called due to a muddy leaf hatch and 300+ CFS.