A little piggy from Valley this afternoon

[Nymph-wristed]

I took advantage of the rain and chunked a big streamer on Valley this afternoon, and look what I found :-D Two photos of the same fish below; I didn't have THAT good of a day...

The fish was about 15 inches, so Valley big, but beautiful by any measure I think. I moved about 8 fish, landed 4 in about 90 minutes, which was all the time I had today.

 

[SNJChef]

Nice fish! Looks like i am going a day late.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Good call!

 

[sroach]

@Nymph - Very nice catch!! I am going with you had a very good day

@SNJ see you out there

 

[wildtrout2]

Very nice Valley brown! Trout that size don't come easily from Valley Creek, congrats to you.

 

[Nymph-wristed]

Thanks, fellas!

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Nice January Thaw brownie. GG Slump buster in his lip?

 

[timmyt]

Excellent fish, way to go

 

[bradtheflyfisherman]

Beautiful fish...

 

[Nymph-wristed]

gulfgreyhound wrote:
Nice January Thaw brownie. GG Slump buster in his lip?

Thanks, all. The fly is one of my buddy's streamer ties, meant to mimic a smallmouth tube bait in some ways. I do well fishing them on a swing, sure, but a lot of fish, including this one, take it when I fish it upstream with some hops to imitate a crayfish and then use the bend in the line as it passes to work it in like a traditional streamer. If you ever encounter Sam at the TCO shop in State College, ask him about it.

 

[tjsingle]

That’s an awesome fish!

 

[GenCon]

Thats just a great fish. Congrats!

GenCon

 

[jacob]

Awesome valley fish! Good work!

 

[kevininpa]

Man that looks bigger than 15" congrat! im looking for my 20 and the best time to go there is when it looks crappy. Was your fly articulated?

 

[Nymph-wristed]

kevininpa wrote:
Man that looks bigger than 15" congrat! im looking for my 20 and the best time to go there is when it looks crappy. Was your fly articulated?

Thanks! No, it is tied like a jig. Sam calls it the Roberdeau. He is a gifted tier of really simple patterns that catch fish not fishermen, but really, really humble (probably as good of a stick as a tier too). George Daniel asked him for some patterns to include in his latest book, for example, and Sam thought that he didn't really produce anything new (as if there are any really new patterns but instead variations on classics at this point), so he declined!

Below is a better look of the fly on a Valley average+ from the same day. I usually carry a measure net, but it's not the rubber basket, so it is not good in the winter for me or the fish, hence the rubber basket net and no tape this week. I used the old hand measure, but I try to get fish that big back quickly, so it's not an exact science, as we all know. I err on the conservative side, especially after seeing how few 20's I landed once I got a measure net! Plenty of 18s that would have been 20 the previous season! It was not bigger than other fish I have caught in Valley under those high water conditions, so I didn't take much time with him. I did tape a 19 a couple years ago from Valley! If it was 20 I may have retired and taken up carp fishing...

And my biggest from Valley...

 

[kevininpa]

That one is gorgeous! What did the big one take? i had a big one come out of a log jam touch my articulated streamer before...my heart almost dropped.

Surprising there are some carp in the upper parts of valley

 

[Nymph-wristed]

kevininpa wrote:
That one is gorgeous! What did the big one take? i had a big one come out of a log jam touch my articulated streamer before...my heart almost dropped.

Surprising there are some carp in the upper parts of valley

Yes, those are the places I go back to in the rising water even though the fish that big probably have a handful of similar lairs that they frequent! I still like those odds... The big one took a nymph, a caddis pupa under the same kind of structure you mentioned in your post.