Little Valley/Valley Creek - Chester County - 17/Sep/25

[wgmiller]

In continuing on with fishing streams in the SEPA area during this busy field hockey parenting season, I made my way out to Little Valley and Valley Creek yesterday before the 7 PM game at Immaculata. I hadn't originally planned on fishing all afternoon, but all the pieces fell into place, so I went with it. I started off fishing Little Valley Creek using Mill Road Park as my launching point. I moved up and downstream on Little Valley, ultimately ending up at Valley itself. I then fished up Valley for a few hundred yards past Mill Road. After fishing these stretches, I walked back to may car and relocated to the Valley Creek Preserve off of N. Valley Road. Below is a write-up of each stretch fished.

Little Valley Creek
Total time fished: Noon - 2:30 or so
Stretch fished: Top end of Mill Road Park to confluence with Valley Creek
Water temp: Consistently 62(ish)
Water flow/clarity: Low and clear
Weather: 70 +/-, overcast with occasional showers
Hatches/bugs seen: None
Flies fished: Started off topwater with a #16 EHC, moved to a golden retriever and Kreelex minnow
Fish caught: None
Rod fished: 7' 6" 4WT

Little Valley was tough with the low and clear water. i saw a number of non-trout fish such as chubs, darters, etc. It's listed on the Natural Repro list and given the habitat and water temps have to believe there may be trout somewhere in the system, but in keeping with my theme for other streams, "The juice wasn't worth the squeeze" in exploring it any more. Class A water? Mmmmmm.... I'm not so sure.

Little Valley Creek @ Mill Road

Little Valley Creek adjacent to Mill Road Park

Valley Creek Nature Preserve
Total time fished: 3:00-5:30
Stretch fished: Access road off of Tree Line Dr and upstream
Water temp: Didn't temp - plenty cold
Water flow/clarity: Low and off-color
Weather: 70 +/-, overcast with heavier showers/downpour
Hatches/bugs seen: None
Flies fished: Kreelex minnow (copper/silver, gold/silver)
Fish caught: Several wild browns
Rod fished: 7' 6" 4WT

I relocated to Valley Creek Preserve and parked in the cul-de-sac and fished upstream of the access road. I don't recall exactly how far I fished upstream, but do recall seeing an electrical box wall plate nailed to a tree, so that's my reference point for the next trip. The water in this stretch was on the lower side, but still flowing decently and the color was off just enough to make my presence not known to the fish. I worked streamers through a lot of the likely holding water and ended up landing two. I flashed and moved a lot of fish, with the largest probably being in the 12" +/- range. I really, really like this stretch of water, as it felt a lot like the water I cut my fly fishing teeth on - Donegal Creek. All the deadfall, stream characteristics, and everything about this stretch really made me feel at home. Even the few brushes with burn hazel reminded me I was close to my roots!

As I reached the top end of this stretch, the skies really started to open up. I was pretty wet til I got back to the car. There was some lightning in the area, so I didn't stick around and play in the rain. It hadn't rained heavily during the day in the region, so it was really interesting to see when this cell hit how quickly the creek came up. I could literally see it changing color and rising as I worked my way back to the car. It made me realize how sensitive Valley is, even to the smallest period of rain. The gauge near the Turnpike shot up to almost 50 CFS from this rain event, from its previous flow of 10(ish) CFS.

As mentioned, I really like this stretch of water and can't wait to return. Working streamers and pulling fish out from under deadfall/structure is a lot of fun, albeit not as productive as tightline nymphing. I have no doubt there are some nice fish in this stretch of water, given its habitat.

Valley Creek wild brown

Valley Creek local from around the Mill Road area

Deadfall, wild brown trout, briars, and burn hazel, oh my!

 

[CLSports]

Stream looks extremely low in all of your pics. Not the best time of year to fish there really.

 

[wgmiller]

Stream looks extremely low in all of your pics. Not the best time of year to fish there really.

Late summer/fall can be tough on a lot of our streams. To give Little Valley a better shot, I'm sure spring would be a much better choice. Valley was more than fishable in the stretch I fished yesterday. No doubt it would be easier with more flow, but when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade!

 

[Kms]

In continuing on with fishing streams in the SEPA area during this busy field hockey parenting season, I made my way out to Little Valley and Valley Creek yesterday before the 7 PM game at Immaculata. I hadn't originally planned on fishing all afternoon, but all the pieces fell into place, so I went with it. I started off fishing Little Valley Creek using Mill Road Park as my launching point. I moved up and downstream on Little Valley, ultimately ending up at Valley itself. I then fished up Valley for a few hundred yards past Mill Road. After fishing these stretches, I walked back to may car and relocated to the Valley Creek Preserve off of N. Valley Road. Below is a write-up of each stretch fished.

Little Valley Creek
Total time fished: Noon - 2:30 or so
Stretch fished: Top end of Mill Road Park to confluence with Valley Creek
Water temp: Consistently 62(ish)
Water flow/clarity: Low and clear
Weather: 70 +/-, overcast with occasional showers
Hatches/bugs seen: None
Flies fished: Started off topwater with a #16 EHC, moved to a golden retriever and Kreelex minnow
Fish caught: None
Rod fished: 7' 6" 4WT

Little Valley was tough with the low and clear water. i saw a number of non-trout fish such as chubs, darters, etc. It's listed on the Natural Repro list and given the habitat and water temps have to believe there may be trout somewhere in the system, but in keeping with my theme for other streams, "The juice wasn't worth the squeeze" in exploring it any more. Class A water? Mmmmmm.... I'm not so sure.

View attachment 1641245058
Little Valley Creek @ Mill Road

View attachment 1641245059
Little Valley Creek adjacent to Mill Road Park

Valley Creek Nature Preserve
Total time fished: 3:00-5:30
Stretch fished: Access road off of Tree Line Dr and upstream
Water temp: Didn't temp - plenty cold
Water flow/clarity: Low and off-color
Weather: 70 +/-, overcast with heavier showers/downpour
Hatches/bugs seen: None
Flies fished: Kreelex minnow (copper/silver, gold/silver)
Fish caught: Several wild browns
Rod fished: 7' 6" 4WT

I relocated to Valley Creek Preserve and parked in the cul-de-sac and fished upstream of the access road. I don't recall exactly how far I fished upstream, but do recall seeing an electrical box wall plate nailed to a tree, so that's my reference point for the next trip. The water in this stretch was on the lower side, but still flowing decently and the color was off just enough to make my presence not known to the fish. I worked streamers through a lot of the likely holding water and ended up landing two. I flashed and moved a lot of fish, with the largest probably being in the 12" +/- range. I really, really like this stretch of water, as it felt a lot like the water I cut my fly fishing teeth on - Donegal Creek. All the deadfall, stream characteristics, and everything about this stretch really made me feel at home. Even the few brushes with burn hazel reminded me I was close to my roots!

As I reached the top end of this stretch, the skies really started to open up. I was pretty wet til I got back to the car. There was some lightning in the area, so I didn't stick around and play in the rain. It hadn't rained heavily during the day in the region, so it was really interesting to see when this cell hit how quickly the creek came up. I could literally see it changing color and rising as I worked my way back to the car. It made me realize how sensitive Valley is, even to the smallest period of rain. The gauge near the Turnpike shot up to almost 50 CFS from this rain event, from its previous flow of 10(ish) CFS.

As mentioned, I really like this stretch of water and can't wait to return. Working streamers and pulling fish out from under deadfall/structure is a lot of fun, albeit not as productive as tightline nymphing. I have no doubt there are some nice fish in this stretch of water, given its habitat.

View attachment 1641245060
Valley Creek wild brown

View attachment 1641245061
Valley Creek local from around the Mill Road area

View attachment 1641245062
Deadfall, wild brown trout, briars, and burn hazel, oh my!

As a SEPA resident, I greatly appreciate your most excellent reports. Thanks!

 

[Mike]

Road

Little Valley Creek adjacent to Mill Road Park

I truly appreciate that wg miller included this pic with the text above. In addition to its value in illustrating his very nice write-up, it gives me the opportunity to show to those of you not in touch with the urban, metro, and suburban environs the damage that others and I refer to as that created by stormwater runoff. This is not yet as bad as it gets, however.

When I surveyed Ltl Valley in the early 1980’s I believe that the stream banks shown in this pic would have been at or very close to water’s edge in the above pic. At normal flows, imagine what such a constriction would have done to water depth and habitat. Much like stream channelization by heavy equipment, stormwater runoff in the extreme flattens channels and creates substantial shallow habitat, which is good for an abundance small fish (all species, not just younger trout) but terrible for larger individuals.

 

[wgmiller]

I truly appreciate that wg miller included this pic with the text above. In addition to its value in illustrating his very nice write-up, it gives me the opportunity to show to those of you not in touch with the urban, metro, and suburban environs the damage that others and I refer to as that created by stormwater runoff. This is not yet as bad as it gets, however.

When I surveyed Ltl Valley in the early 1980’s I believe that the stream banks shown in this pic would have been at or very close to water’s edge in the above pic. At normal flows, imagine what such a constriction would have done to water depth and habitat. Much like stream channelization by heavy equipment, stormwater runoff in the extreme flattens channels and creates substantial shallow habitat, which is good for an abundance small fish (all species, not just younger trout) but terrible for larger individuals.

Great points, Mike, and thanks for the compliment. My intent is to always share content that has some value to others, even it's just for archival purposes. Your post definitely highlights the challenge so many of our more urbanized/suburbanized streams face - runoff and bank erosion. I'd love to look back on images of some of these streams from 50+ years ago, just to see the difference between then and now. As you pointed out, Little Valley certainly has suffered quite a bit of bank erosion as the area becomes even more developed. There are so many examples of stream bank erosion I could take and share, because it truly is quite prevalent.

Streams that previously surveyed as "Class A" many years ago may in fact not be Class A anymore, but instead need to be downgraded to "Natural Reproduction". The work to constantly reevaluate streams would be a monumental undertaking and certainly not practical in a financially-challenged agency such as the PFBC. I always take my angling results with a grain of salt when walking away from a stream that doesn't fish like a Class A, because as you say, a fishing rod is a poor tool to evaluate a stream's biomass. Based on what you said Little Valley used to look like back in the 80s, it may very well be one of those streams.

Here's a few more images from Little Valley that show some of the bank erosion you mention:

Some of the best habitat/holding water I encountered on Little Valley