February 25 and 27, 2022 – Go Big or Go Native (or Stay Home?) - Valley Creek and a NEPA Blueline

Basically a storm drain today.  I threw black for while too, with same results: leaves.

February has not been easy, so let’s hope March levels out weather-wise and improves.  It may well have been user error, choosing the wrong creek or the wrong section of creek on Friday this week after the rains, but I took my second skunk of the young year and the second this week!  The flows at Valley were great-ish for streamer fishing, like 90 and falling when I arrived, but I should have checked the temp and turbidity gages too.  Not only was it chocolate, but it was also colder after the freezing rain event on Thursday.  It was very slow to clear for Valley too.  Perhaps, had I headed upstream instead, things would have been a little better.  I almost did that when I saw the conditions upon arrival, but I figured the water was falling and would clear in real time, as is often the case here.  I went for broke with a big old fish skull sculpin a few inches long, figuring only a pig might expend the energy to eat a big meal in these conditions.  Not a touch, not a follow.  The bright sun came out and lit up the particulates in the water, and the wind—which has been a near-constant annoyance the last few weeks—picked up too as the day cleared.  I caught leaves like it was fall, and wading was tougher because visibility was all of three inches and lot of the stream bed is loose since the floods.

A bright, windy, and rather cold one.

The Silver Fox and I decided to try and catch our first brook trout of the year today.  One of us succeeded, barely.  I caught and photographed one and dropped two others after a short battle.  It was cold and windy, and the flows—though solid—were crystal clear.  Besides the three I tangled with, I saw a total of two more.  I saw two midges, as well.  Tom got one good bump for all his effort.  We even floated his sighter (and mine) so we could fish the slicks, glides, and the few quiet, deep holes, and that is where fish came from, but 90% of them were hiding in these conditions.  It was a good aerobic excuse to be outdoors, at any rate.  The creek, like many I have seen in my fall and winter travels, is going to need some time to recover from the ravages of those summer storms.  With much of the streambed just bare rock, I am sure the bug life and the fish have suffered a bit.

A few of the target species seen, most at a distance.

I landed one on a grubby caddis larva, and Tom fished a juicy stonefly, but we were both throwing small jigged buggers by the end of the trip when no bugs showed and the wind made nymphing a tiny creek pretty tough.  Having seen early black stoneflies in neighboring counties, I was hoping they might help us out today.  Tom did see one confirmed rise, and I actually lost my final fish at this hole on the second visit.  He spooked one from the tailout of a deep hole too, so a couple were out getting warm and looking for a meal, but not enough of them to make for a successful day.  We saw a couple massive flocks of snow geese, some cool ice formations, and were able to photograph our first native fish of 2022.  And we were fishing, of course.  Better days are coming, for sure!