Valley Creek Hatches?

[marcq]

what flies should i expect to see on valley in the up coming months? i know caddis should be going now or soon. BWO a always a chance, but does it have tricos, sulfers and other major bug hatches?


thanks Marc

 

[govtmule]

since no one chimed in yet....

no tricos
never seen a sulfur (supposedly they are there for a week)
bwos probably fading by now
caddis from now on
craneflies
terrestrials
midges all year

 

[afishinado]

govtmule wrote:
since no one chimed in yet....

no tricos
never seen a sulfur (supposedly they are there for a week)
bwos probably fading by now
caddis from now on
craneflies
terrestrials
midges all year

G-mule has it. Maybe some BWOs on the right day. I haven't seen a sulphur on VC for a few years now. Caddis, Cranes, Terrestrials and Midges.

 

[jayL]

It has enough sulphurs to make sure you have a few. I am not sure if it's a true dorothea, but it gets an 18 for sure. Haven't seen an invaria in a few years, but have historically seen them below the covered bridge.

 

[afishinado]

jayL wrote:
It has enough sulphurs to make sure you have a few. I am not sure if it's a true dorothea, but it gets an 18 for sure. Haven't seen an invaria in a few years, but have historically seen them below the covered bridge.

Jay,

I tried to hit the stream for the sulphurs the last few years and they were a no-show. I know several other regulars that have done the same with the same result.

 

[jayL]

Chaz and I fished the little sulphur there last year, so I am willing to stand by that one.

I haven't seen a larger sulphur there in over five years, and I can't be 100% sure of my ID skills back then. I saw them in the lower stretch.

 

[pcray1231]

I hit a very good BWO hatch back in mid-March.

The last time I was there was last weekend (as in a week and a half ago), right after the big rain. I saw exactly 3 mayflies. 2 BWO's, and 1 of what I thought was an 18ish sulfur, but I'm not 100% sure on the ID.

Did very well both days underneath, though.

 

[JasonS]

I haven't really seen a decent sulphur hatch the past 2 yrs. 3 yrs ago I hit an epic sulphur hatch on a couple of consecutive evenings. That was probably the best hatch I've ever seen of any type on Valley. If I let my fly drop in the water next to me I'd have a fish on.

 

[marcq]

how healthly of a stream would you say valley is. it seems like it lack a lot of bugs that other streams have. i have found good hatches of sulfers on streams like the the pick. they are close to each other would they have the same hatches?

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

From a website:

Valley Creek was contaminated in the 1980's by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), a known carcinogen. In 1987 the Paoli Rail Yards in Chester County, Pa., was an electric train repair facility owned by Amtrac and operated by the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA). Maintenance of the trains involved use of electric equipment containing PCB's. After extensive testing it was determined that a severe PCB problem existed at the rail yard "with soil contamination as high as three percent up to a depth of three feet." * The water runoff from the yard emptied into Valley Creek and sediments in the stream showed "PCB contamination as high as nine percent up to a depth of three feet."* The area was designated a federal Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency. This forced the removal of the creek from the state's stocking list and stopped all put-and-take fishing. Bottom line--don't even THINK of trying to eat these trout.

Valley is healthier than some streams but sick also.
Try to understand that hatches can and do indicate good water quality but not always. Conestoga River in Lancaster is a sick stream with many hatches. Lackawanna River has amazing cranefly and caddis hatches, but it also has a ton of sewage and mine acid drainage.

Often streams on the fringe of being a coldwater/warmwater fishery have epic hatches. They are more diverse than only cold water streams. (See Pine Creek in Potter and Tioga or Penns Creek).

 

[njk3395]

Look at the lehigh, fantastic hatches... BWOs, Slate Drakes, Caddis, Stoneflies, Sulphurs, March Browns, Hendricksons, Quill Gordon, Blue Quills.. lehigh used to be extremely polluted

 

[808transplant]

when you guys say sulphurs...are we talking about pale evening duns? im still new to the entomology game but i was there about 3 weeks ago for two hours before sunset and there were some bigger (14-16) bugs coming off and fish were taking a size 16 light cahill off the top.

 

[jayL]

http://www.troutnut.com/hatch/11/Mayfly-Ephemerella-invaria-Sulphur

 

[pcray1231]

808, there a lot of bugs that some loosely define as sulfurs. Other common names for specific groups within the larger group are various cahills, lady's, pale evening duns, etc.

But there are two closely related bugs that are recognized as THE sulfurs, i.e. pretty much everyone calls them sulfurs and they are rarely called anything else. Jay gave ya one, ephemerella invaria. These generally come first and are a bit larger and darker colored (both in dun and spinner stages), 14-16 hook size. The other is ephemerella dorothea, these come at the end of the hatch (hatch periods overlap some, though), are usually a bit smaller (16-18), and lighter colored (both dun and spinner). They were referred to as "little sulfurs" earlier in this thread. Lots of color variation in both species, though.

http://www.troutnut.com/hatch/458/Mayfly-Ephemerella-dorothea-Sulphur

On these troutnut pages, look on the right, it gives you a list of common names for each bug and ranks them. Usually pretty accurate, though regional variations exist.

Both species are extremely widespread in PA, and have exceptionally fishable hatches with great spinner falls. They are really probably the premier mayfly hatch throughout the state.

 

[808transplant]

thanks for the enlightenment pcray. part of me wants to know more, part of me is timid haha

 

[ryguyfi]

Once you reach the beginning climb of learning how to cast, present flies, etc; entomology comes soon after. I'm no where near some guys on here, and don't care to know the latin names yet, but I can recognize many flies on stream now and have a basic knowledge of when some of them are schedule to come and where.

 

[kyle1248]

Was there tonight and I didn't see any sulphers but ran into some swarms of caddis' coming off. Lots of fish rising in the places they were coming off.

 

[jay348]

also fished valley for a couple hours yesterday. i'll second kyle's post on the abundance of caddis.

 

[ihrtffishing]

I fished it yesterday. Some sulphur were there and also some caddis bouncing around here and there. Didn't have much luck... I caught a huge chub though. The fish are being hit hard there.

 

[afishinado]

ihrtffishing,

The post are about the Valley Creek in Valley Forge Park, near Philly, not up in your neck of the woods in the Wyoming Valley.