December 1, 2020 – A Lot of Short Strikes and Some Short Trout – Valley Creek

A long skinny one liked Eric's custom bugger.

I thought I had a lot more grading to do this morning than I actually did, and I thought it was going to be a lot colder and windier following the storm on Monday too.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have another fishing window until Friday if I am lucky, and it was hardly calm and balmy today, but I was able to enjoy a few stolen hours on the water close to home.  Valley crested in the roads during the height of the storm on Monday, and it was stained all day even as the levels dropped slowly.  I wanted to swim a few of Eric’s bugger creations, and I caught the best fish of the afternoon on his ice dub, hot spot bugger, but it took small and black to get takers.  They were hitting really short or just swiping, and sometimes I had to work the bugger so slowly that the grab barely registered as any more than an errant leaf.  The 11 or 12 incher I landed was post-spawn skinny, and I only saw two other 12 or 14 inchers swipe at the streamer all afternoon.  Based on the 10 to 12 small to average fish I landed, I think the grownups are still in spawning mode or were resting deep post-spawn. 

Cold chocolate, so black was the call.

I only brought one rod, an 8-footer in a soft 6 weight that I found in my dad’s shed this summer, so I was committed to the streamer.  Persistence did not pay off with any big fish, but the last hour of daylight, maybe 3:30 to 4:30 PM, aka magic hour, did provide a lot of action and 75% of my fish landed.  The egg sucking leech, a black bugger with a hot bead, in size 6 or maybe even 8, was the high hook.  I did have more than one pounce on one of Eric’s buggers tight to the bank, but the fish seemed to be missing.  It is also possible that I needed my usual streamer rod in my hand to be a bit more effective.  Either way, I saw a lot more fish, all but a couple small, than I actually stuck.  At least while throwing a streamer, I could stay out of the water near any potential spawning areas.  That was a key reason why I fished here today, and I actually caught most of my fish intentionally targeting soft muddy holes and wood.  That slower, dirtier water can also explain the tentative bumps and swirls.  I was not alone out there, as I saw at least one other fly guy and two gear fishermen.  On paper it looked like a potential day, but not every post-rain bite is the same.  While cloudy, the temp was dropping and the barometer rising all afternoon, so they may not have been feeling it even if their minds were not still on the spawn.  It was also a lot of rain, and some water was still flowing in all the little rivulets coming down into the valley.  Conditions were probably better than what tomorrow will be, however.  Not that I will know since I am in Zoom all day Wednesday and Thursday this week. Fish were caught, and I am only three trips away from hitting 90 for 2020 with all of December still waiting.