October 31, 2019 – No Monsters, But It Was Spooky Good Today – Valley Creek

Lucky enough to time it just right today.

I fished Valley today at about 60 CFS, and it was just silly fishing.  In under three hours of nymphing, I landed at least 30 trout, probably more.  I have had numbers days before at Valley, as there are loads of little fish, but today I also landed 10 or more fish in the 10 to 13 inch range, at least 3 of them at that longer mark on the measure net.  I was nearly having the game of my life.  Had I hooked and lost an 18 incher, shouted rat farts! to the heavens, and been struck by lightning, right out of Caddyshack, I would not have been surprised.  To be honest, I was a bit gun shy leaving the house after the experience Tom and I had with rising water over the weekend, and when it started to pour around 10:30 AM when I was almost to the creek, I really had my doubts.  Thankfully, I could see that there was plenty of visibility in the riffles, and not nearly the amount of leaf litter as Sunday.  My only regret was not bringing a streamer rod for a chance at a true giant, but to have any really honest regrets about a day like today would be sacrilege. 

Males and females are nearly ready to spawn, but today they ate.

All day I threw two bugs.  On the anchor I had a purple hot spot jig in size 18.  It also has some movement from CDC, so I even caught fish on the swing.  In fact, I caught a dozen, mostly smaller fish, on the swing.  On the dropper, I had a size 18 or 20 hare’s ear, ratty from serving as my dropper all afternoon on Tuesday too.  Several fish took that fly as well.  Fish were pretty much anywhere that looked fishy, but larger fish came when I let the small bugs get down deeper in pocket water, those prime spots.  A few times, however, I was shocked to catch 3 and 4 fish one after the other right out in the open in shallow runs, perhaps in a just barely perceptible depressions or behind one unseen rock breaking the current.  The feed was on.  A couple females were fat with eggs and bugs, and a few of the males were colored up big time, so this may be the last hurrah before they get down to the business of making babies.  I also caught plenty of those, from at least 2 year classes.  The YOY are about 3 inches, but there are 5 inchers aplenty in the secondary lies and softer water.  I guess the majority of the sexually mature fish are mostly 11 to 13 inches, so I don’t know how old that would make them by Valley growing season standards, maybe 5 years old?  Some days a couple 10 inch fish that stand out from the 6 to 8 inchers makes me happy (see Sunday) so today was a bit charmed.

Double digits in double digits.

It rained off and on, so I kept the rain gear on and the hood up most of the time.  It was so warm I was okay with just a t-shirt under my breathable jacket.  Unlike Sunday, when it poured and got darker, I was able to adjust to keeping my polarized lenses on, and they made a difference in getting, quick, good hooksets.  I only lost one decent fish on a jump and, unfortunately, had to actually land and remove the hooks from a dozen dinks, even two chubs and one sunfish.  I gave up on using the net and taking pictures after a while.  Besides the two little porkers above, the rest of the photos here are early shots or representative of a size class.  Hope you enjoy.  I certainly did.