January 27, 2020 – Embrace the Bobber, Stream Etiquette in Decline, Fishing Not So Much – Valley Creek

A survivor.  Might have made the Valley top 5 too!

I was lucky enough to land another good fish this morning, not 18 inches like last Friday, but a good 16 incher, which for Valley might put it in the top five on the all-time list.  It was not a streamer fish.  Despite heavy rain this weekend, that streamer window had mostly closed on this quickly recovering creek.  I was throwing two small bugs, a size 18 olive nothing on the anchor and a purple perdigon on the dropper, in a deep wintering hole, so my first fish of the morning was a bobber fish.  I am sometimes bobber-averse to my own detriment.  Fishermen are like that.  They decide they are fishing dries only today.  Or they will only throw a pencil popper for bass in the surf even though an Ava with a green tube would be the correct choice to match the hatch.  I told myself this morning as I rigged up at the car, “It is January 27, winter, so don’t be afraid of the bobber.”  I caught between 12 and 15 fish today during a 3 hour tour, and plenty of them were caught tightline nymphing when that was the right choice, but I kept the bobber handy in my pocket and had a lot of success suspending my bugs too, even ended with a few on that grubby caddis, a single larger fly, under a small float.  Besides the first little piggie, two of the best fish, one a fat 11 inch hen, came this way.  The water was still stained, so the bobber was not going to spook much in the deep holes.  In other words, it was a good day to embrace the bobber.

Grubby caddis + bobber = yay.

On to the other reference in my title.  Stream etiquette.  It has come up a bit this year because the Silver Fox got high-holed once this fall, also at Valley.  I am more surprised that it does not happen more often not less often at Valley.  We city folks are dicks who don’t say hello to each other while out for a walk in Fairmount Park.  Valley runs through the Main Line, which is synonymous with privilege, so folks are entitled to the hole they want on the day they want it, even if someone else is there already.  Me, I sometimes see another car in a pull-off and drive to another spot.  I have been with Sam where he is crossing his fingers that no one else is parked at a particular spot—the subtext that we would go elsewhere and give the person who arrived first his space.  Today, I had two very different encounters.  I actually landed my first fish, the Valley beauty that opens this post, with an audience.  Two guys a bit older than me had just arrived, apparently, and were making there way down the opposite bank to their destinations.  I got some kudos, had a brief, friendly conversations, and then we ended by establishing that I was working upstream, while they were headed down.  End of story.  Hope they had a good fishing day.

Small bugs, tight to wood and cover.

The other pair of fishermen I encountered who did not talk to me before or after they high-holed me, even when I walked past them on my way upstream and said hello—usually an acknowledgement of guilt on the culprits’ part—they looked like they new better.  They could not have missed seeing me as they walked past me fishing a spectator-friendly hole (I have entertained many an elderly dog walker at this very spot over the years).  They then proceeded to jump into the very next hole, within earshot not just sight of me.  I mentioned looks above, and looks do play a part, I think.  There is a pecking order, perhaps, with some dudes that they use to justify being bad sports.  Based on looks only, as I did not try to assess price of gear, though I could see expensive nets, I conclude that they knew better.  That, or they thought they bought their way into an exclusive club or something.  Me, maybe I looked less professional today.  I mentioned the bobber embracing today. Check.  My Simms waders are still in Washington being fixed, so maybe my LL Bean’s are not pricey enough?  Check.  Cheap net I found.  Check.  Orvis Clearwater, not even a Recon?  Check.  Just landed 6 fish before you got here, one a 16-inch fish on Valley?  Check.  None of this should matter, though.  People should be better, even on the Main Line on a pressured creek.  Fishing well is the best revenge however, so I rarely get pissed.  I know better too, so when this happens to me, I just skip the hole they are in and continue my upstream progress.  Not passive aggressively within sight, although saying hello to silent culprits is passive aggressive, I admit.  But I only let them slightly inconvenience me. 

Close to 15 fish, most Valley average.

I expect to tango on a weekend, and I actually select streams on the rare weekend excursion to avoid the dance, but this was a Monday in the winter and there are a lot of winter holes on Valley and a lot of flats with rising fish on the right days.  Most fishermen know at Valley and other crowded spots that they may have to work out a plan with others or go somewhere else. Most say hi, and few linger for too long.  I debated even giving this discussion energy here, but maybe it plants a seed and/or encourages me to continue to practice what I preach.  Pro not bro.  Today, I caught nearly 10 more fish AFTER I could have allowed these etiquette-challenged dudes to ruin my day. It was a great day, double digits and a good fish, in the middle of winter.  It was the last mild day for a few days, and the conditions were good, so the fishing followed suit.  Almost a shame I didn’t write more about the actual fishing!