April 25, 2021 – He Gave Me another Shot at Him, Two Weeks Later – Valley Creek

A nice Valley fish that owned me a couple weeks ago in the same hole.

Two weeks ago exactly, Tom and I fished Valley in the rain and had a good day.  The only disappointment that afternoon was breaking off a big Valley fish in heavy cover, but I got a second chance at the same fish this morning.  It turned out much better, but it wasn’t all luck—there was some planning involved, at least on the fly.  Tom and I actually talked about fishing somewhere this morning, maybe a Berks County creek we both like, especially when we saw the rain forecast for last night, but the rain barely moved the gages, and he got roped into yardwork by his wife.  Me, I had done my grass cutting duties on Saturday, so I was free to go somewhere.  With the rain gone, however, I was more concerned about Sunday elbow room.  I also had a new rod to try out, but it is not a rod for Valley.  I decided that I would head towards a Chester County DHALO, where the luster may have worn off since Opening Day, but the persistent cloud cover urged me to get off an earlier exit and give a small stretch of Valley a shot before testing the new rod on stockies.  I arrived a little after 11 AM and ended up fishing two spots on the creek for nearly four productive hours, so I got lucky with fish and crowds.

Had to do some sneaking.  Very different conditions from our first meeting.

The first thing I did after suiting up and tying on a bomb walts and pinky as a dropper—well, the second, as I also clipped off a micro-streamer and sj worm that were tied on in anticipation of dirty water—was to sneak through the woods well away from the creek, which was low and clear already.  I wanted to get below a specific plunge angled into an undercut bank where I lost the good fish a couple weeks ago.  The water was dirty that morning, so Tom and I only saw flashes of how big it might be, but the fish pulled and stayed deep like a big brown before it took me into a mess of wood and broke me off.  Well, today I still had 4X on the tippet for this hole, and I was sneaking up in clear water and sunny conditions, as I mentioned.  Heck, I even took a knee and crawled into place before dropping the mono rig into the sweet spot. 

Woods are getting green.

The fish softly took it, but took it immediately, then did the exact same thing it did two weeks ago!  Right into the wood, hanging itself up in a matter of seconds.  With the water clear today, I could see him, a colored up male that I was going to wade into 4 feet of water and get with the net if I had to.  Well, keeping pressure on him, but not too much pressure, I felt and watched him work his way out of the wood he had wound himself through.  I didn’t waste much time letting him get back under that mess.  I chose instead to pull him towards the back of the hole if I could, and he complied long enough to get a net under him.  What a beauty!  For reference, I have measured and know the bottom of this net, the same one I use on bigger creeks for bigger fish, is 14 inches, so this fish was over 15 inches, maybe close to 16 (I also know my spread hand, thumb to pinky, is 8 inches, and this fish was probably two hands) .  When I texted Tom a pic, I said it was likely in the top ten of my Valley fish, and that remains true, I believe.

Quill perdigon, pinky, many smalls at the second spot before the wind kicked up.

I was worried about a first fish jinx after that.  Honestly, if you catch a 16 on Valley you are justified going home unless it’s streamer conditions.  I worked through this short stretch without another hit, though I did spook a few (a theme today in low water and high sun) so before heading somewhere to test the new rod on stockies, I drove to another parking lot for Valley.  There were plenty of people out, but I did not see fishermen, so I took a walk into the woods.  Knowing I was too deep and too heavy, I re-rigged on the shady banks with 5X and one of Eric’s quill perdigons.  I kept pinky on the dropper for a while, but eventually I ended up sight fishing and hunting fish with the one size 18 perdigon on the long mono rig.  I had enough fun to never leave, so my new rod will have to wait for Tuesday in order to get a workout.

Back to reality but fun.

I dropped a couple 10-11 inchers, but I landed a couple others and a bunch of 6 to 8 inchers too.  In total, I would say I landed another dozen trout, more if I counted all the dinkers too.  No risers or bugs besides an isolated caddis blown from the streamside vegetation, but fish were up in the heads shallow waiting for nymphs, at least until about 2 PM, when they got even more spooky.  Even being careful, a couple times I watched a school of fish of multiple sizes shoot back to cover from upstream in the riffles—this just happens sometimes.  Even if I had the room to lay out 50-foot casts with a dry dropper, in some spots these fish just know you are there.  It was still a fun challenge to hunt them.  I was so stealthy, I managed to not spook a pair of snakes basking on a log—I believe they were queensnakes not moccasins, but I used the camera zoom to get the close-ups anyway….  

Pretty snaky out there.

Frogs, salamanders, all the usual post-rain suspects were out.  The woods are getting green, and I welcome some shade in the not too distant future.  As the clouds all but disappeared, the wind picked up.  Nothing steady, but gusts just annoying enough that I had to change flies again.  Instead of the 18 perdigon, I tied on one of Eric’s walts in size 16 with a bigger bead.  It was not so heavy that it would grab bottom immediately, especially since it was fuzzier and would fall more slowly.  With the ability to keep the line a little tighter in the wind, I did manage a few more fish.  I lost more in the wind and with this new bug, however.  Another case of just a little too little hook bite, perhaps, but just as likely the wind and the bow in the line coupled with mid-afternoon spooky trout barely taking the bug.  Eventually, I got tired of the wind and dropping fish after the hookset and called it a day, albeit a good day.

Pretty little guys still a fun challenge to stalk in clear water and sun.