June 4, 2021 – Mostly a Numbers Day with Some Encounters – Valley Creek

One nicer fish out of many, many, many smalls.

During the cold rain last weekend, the Silver Fox hit Valley twice.  I was tied up with work and family stuff, and it seemed a bit cold for a magic day to develop, but he did well on that Saturday and did unintentionally shame me into heading out at sunrise today following Thursday night’s rain.  I used to get all excited when the stars were fixing to align at Valley, but I have steered clear a lot in the last year or more.  I have also had more consistent success with larger fish in a few creeks only 20 minutes further away, and a couple of them had assumed the roles of my home waters during the height of the pandemic.  It was much warmer, bordering on too warm but just bordering, like 65 to 66 degrees, when I quit.  That will change this weekend, I am sure, as 4 or 5 days of 90's are forecasted.

The roberdeau eaters.

The flow on the gage was 85 cfs and change when I left the house this morning, so streamer water, especially since the flooding looked bad, which makes the water more turbid and for longer.  It was supposed to stay cloudy skies for a good portion of the day, so that was another positive factor, even if the water stayed dirty, which it did.  I fished a good long time, like a full 7 hour trip, until the clouds burned off, and I covered a lot of ground.  I only saw two dudes all day, so I worked downstream with the streamer and back up to the ‘Ru (well, just some spots) nymphing with a stream-tied mono rig on my 9-foot 6 weight.  Not optimum, and I did miff on some fish, including a couple really nice ones while bobber fishing to see if that would help my game.  The 10 foot 3 weight was in the car, but it was too hot to hightail, and carrying two rods on Valley seems a bit much!  Plus, the nymphing back upstream was just something to pass the time, or so I thought…

Some b reel of same fish, 14 and change.

For the first time in a while, I started out tossing the mighty Roberdeau—one of Sam’s streamers that has landed some big trout.  In fact, I landed my Valley personal best on it a few years ago—a pig close to 20 inches long.  The best today was well over 14 inches, and that took Sam’s streamer.  The star of the morning, at least on the numbers front, was Eric’s micro-sculpin, however.  I caught so many fish and had so many bumps, swipes, rolls, and follows that I had to take it off.  When I tried a bigger olive sculpin, it also rolled some good fish, but it just seemed to piss them off because it rode higher in the water column.  The bugs that did well, like Sam’s and Eric’s, had tungsten beads and rode deeper in the water column.  I tried different colors, like black and a thin mint that covered most of the darker spectrum, but neither got touched.  Both had a thinner profile, which probably didn’t disturb enough water to get the fish zeroed in with the muddy tint.  

Eric's micro-sculpin killed them.  I had to take it off.

By the time the water looked perfect, the sun was out and it was hot.  I decided to nymph riffles and tighter to cover on the way back because the sun was really trying to win the early afternoon battle.  Like I mentioned, I spent a long time out there and covered a lot of creek.  I basically parked at one end of Chesterbrook and fished to the Turnpike, before running into a dude who had probably covered the Park at the same time I was out, and then I rerigged to nymph and fished back up.  After taking a water temp, I actually fished Lil’ Valley for a while just before I quit, and I landed 5 pretty fish there as well.  I told the Silver Fox 30 fish, but I have no clue how many I landed, maybe more than that, so imagine how many fish I moved and saw in 7 some hours on the creek….

Some nymph fish from the walk back in the hot sun.

The only encounter with glory came on the way back, while nymphing.  In a deep hole where the stain was still profound, I floated a walts and a purple frenchie through after picking up some dinkers in the back of the hole.  In a really slow seam that runs over the deepest part of the hole, I got a bad/late hookset on a fish that dug deep immediately.  At noon and fishing just to fish, a bonus round, I did not expect to tangle with a beast now!  Where were you at 9 AM when my streamer game was on point?!  Anyway, after that digging, the big hen took one jump, and I could tell she had the size 18 frenchie on the point because I could see the bigger walts dangling.  That was as close as we got, as she was gone by the time she reentered the water.  Hey, at least I have a confirmed sighting of another pig to sneak back and target.  Not this week, though.  The first heat wave of June looks terrible…

Some deer company on Small Valley.