Little Valley, Chester Co., 5/17/2013

[Van_Cleaver]

Got my hair cut in the GV corporate center this afternoon and stopped around three or so. Sunny, breezy, and the water was dead clear and 62. Bugs were minimal; mostly midges and a couple caddis; no risers. Fished down from the ball field and was pleasantly surprised at how many fish were present. Probably haven't fished that stretch in about twenty years, so the runs were different, but the fish were the same. Spooky, feisty and colorful; saw and moved more than I remembered, but it wasn't easy fishing. In fact it would have been a great warm up for fishing wild brookies in the boonies. I happened to have my 8ft. 3wt. with me but a shorter rod would have mad eit a bit easier. Fished to about five O'clock and brought six to hand and hooked or moved about the same. Fishing the same flies I've been using everywhere else; caddis pupa, and and ant dropper. Nice escape from reality. Oh, don't attempt to drive South on 252 on a Fri at that hour!

 

[greenlander]

Never too early for ants, eh?

 

[Van_Cleaver]

As soon as I see ants I start fishing them. They've been doing well for over a week now. Windy, sunny, days are a no brainer as far as I'm concerned. Surprisingly, I caught about half on the caddis pupa, though it does look a little like a scud. BTW, I was fishing them both down under.

 

[DavidFin]

Is this upper valley? Or that stretch of valley, possible another, near downingtown?

 

[Van_Cleaver]

Little Valley dumps into Valley near Chester brook, just off 202. I'd call it a smaller and generally harder to fish version of Valley, but that's just my opinion. My last outing was probably the best I've ever done there and that was on small fish. Definitely suburban fishing too; never really got away from the sound of cars. Still it was reassuring to know stream bred fish can survive the increasingly urban setting.

 

[greenlander]

It's the stretch that flows into Valley. They intersect above the turnpike a ways.

 

[DavidFin]

Ah, yea... I called it upper valley when I lived in Philly. I used I fish it a lot, I've walked it up from the confluence past the highway, through the meadow stretch. It's one of my all time favorites.

 

[surveyor06]

Those are some tough fish. Nice job.

 

[Van_Cleaver]

surveyer06; thanks I was pleased and a little proud of myself for that performance. My initial goal was to land a fish or two. That said, I spooked more than one spot, got stuck in a few shrubs and roots, but somehow managed to not lose any flies. That was more shocking to me than the number of fish encountered.