June 12, 2020 – Wet Wading Solo on the Early Shift – Valley Creek

Lot of creek pics, so I guess I missed the place.

I have not fished Valley Creek since March 19th, back when we naively thought this shelter in place thing was a two-week, maybe a month, campaign to flatten the curve.  Last year being the exception because I needed to stay close to home for a variety of reasons and to fish small creeks because of much rain, I don’t usually fish Valley often during the prime fishing season.  I have established that I don’t like crowds; I like to move around and fish where I wish to fish without finding someone else already in the spot or watching over my shoulder, just waiting to be high-holed.  This is especially true on small creeks where the approach counts for quite a bit and is often the difference between a good day and a day.  A trio of Northampton County limestoners, at just 20- or 30 more-minutes’ distance, often become my Valley once the crowds converge, but even they received mad pressure this spring, as evidenced by the spinners and bobbers, even braid, in the trees and deep snags near easy access points.  The average fish is a tad to significantly better at these other SEPA creeks when I need a quick fix (and, this year, can stomach the stream abuse).

At least a couple decent ones.

The National Park was closed eventually this spring to enforce social distancing, but before that a lot of dudes who rarely fish during the week, perhaps rarely fish period, were out in force.  Closing the park would only push them to the fringes in my estimation, and by all reports, so I stayed away even more than usual.  I do like the creek though, honestly, I just don’t like to compete for small fish with anglers that often reek of privilege just to land a few decent ones and maybe two or three good fish all year.  I have had as many positive experiences with others as negative ones, but the negatives stick longer.  It’s not like you remember every decent spicy tuna roll you’ve eaten, but you do remember the bad ones, you know?  As a result, I still fish Valley a lot (not as much as the Wissy, which I have not fished at all this year for only slightly different reasons!) but I tend to hit it in the rain, in the winter, in the snow, and in the wee hours.  Today was a wee hours visit, and I landed over 20 fish from 5:30 to 8 AM, a few more on the last half hour walk back downstream too.  Unless you are a night owl, we are in wee hours season, anyway, so it just works.

They are lookers here.

I was watching the gages all day on Thursday as we received some rain that was not a total blow out.  The creek still hit over 100 CFS on a second spike midday, so the timing of a streamer visit never worked out for me.  Instead of sneaking over at 5 or 6 PM and throwing a bugger until dark, I opted for a late afternoon nap too—I was still tired from the long day that we put in on Wednesday, I guess.  The water temps were getting dangerously high each evening, which was another reason to nap.  The next best thing for a dirty nympher who missed the streamer window was a morning of euro nymphing the creek with the benefit of some cover from the residual stain and remaining 10 CFS shot of extra water.  Small bugs were on the menu.  It was pretty dark in the wet woods, so I had success early on a size 16 dark purple CDC jig.   As it got brighter, I eventually went to one small bug on 6X tippet, a sparse frenchie with a hot spot.  Some fish were rising before 7 AM and fishing was not great for the first 30 minutes, so I was wishing I had rigged to dry fly fish until I finally found the right hole and a few willing fish.  From that point on, it was a steady pick of mostly small fish, but I did land a skinny one in the 11- to 12-inch range and several Valley-respectable “keepers” up to 10 inches.

Many pretty, healthy smalls.

Granted, I was on the road for home before 8:30 AM, but I had the stretch of water to myself, and as a result caught fish coming and going.  Because a few favorite spots were barren, or I had the wrong bugs the first time, I had to try them again on the way back to the ‘Ru.  I caught fish at all of them, though the bonus piggy eluded me.  I saw one though, and it made me question the decision to leave my streamer rod behind more than my dry fly rod!  I had a plump 14-inch fish dart out and try to eat one of the dinks I landed.  He would not eat a size 16 frenchie after that, or on my second visit to this blow-down, go figure.  The fish were frisky enough that I did not take a water temp.  It was warm enough that I was wet wading, however, and I did not have purple lips or “shrinkage.”  I like the simplicity and comfort of wet wading, so I was happy that I did not have to question my deeper creek crossings.  Moving around and getting a bit warm, it actually felt alright to get a little wet this morning.

A #16 frenchie on 6x did some damage.

I had a meeting at 10 AM this morning, my last of this academic year, so I could not be late to the Zoom room.  I was loading up to head home by 8:20 AM, having promised in my pre-dawn note to Tami that I would be home by 9 AM—she never believes me for some reason.  I resisted the urge to get too greedy and fish downstream of my parking spot too, so I was home early even.  I had a set of riffles and holes in mind when I started walking this morning, and they produced fish, so I can target the other spots some other stolen morning shift this summer.  I am hoping cooler air returns, at least for a while.  Today was more comfortable than the last two days, so that was welcomed, but I would like a cool morning on Saturday or Sunday to sneak in another trip.  There are at least 8 days in a row this month that I can’t fish due to a writer’s retreat (virtual this year, so my butt might hurt) and I want to get some more time in while the water temps are for the most part favorable.

See you in three more months?