Pickering Creek and Valley Creek Chester Co. 8/31/09

[mute]

Decided to go to valley first so i could get the skunking out of the way. Thats exactly what happened. The water looked perfect though for anyone who wants to fish it. I then moved onto an easier fishery. Stopped by the atw section for about 30 minutes and convinced 3 out of the 8 fish i counted to take a bite. Water was cold and flows were great.

 

[jayL]

Were you down near the dam at valley? I know in your previous reports, you were.

If so:
It's frog water. Try from the covered bridge up.

 

[mute]

Jay, i tried downstream from the metal bridge, where theres a big deep hole with current running into it, right at a big tree you can stand behind. Jigged a bugger and a nymph down in the hole with no success. Then i tried right past the metal bridge upstream with no luck.

 

[jayL]

Ah, ok. There are tons of fish in that stretch, but it's hard to approach stealthily.

Keep working at it. I have better success further upstream of the metal bridge. Not sure how you fish, but concentrate less on pools, more on swift water there. People ignore the pockets and shallow runs there too often. You'll be rewarded for it. Fish are in the pools as well, but scattered uniformly between them.

 

[Giventoflyfish]

If those pics are from Pickering, I'm glad someone got something. I fished most sections yesterday along the ATW and DHALO with it looking like chocolate milk and got nothing but junk fish.

Nice pics though.

 

[mute]

Alright, i usually try to spot the fish first too. Perhaps i should just get in position stealthily to the stream banks and cast where i think there is fish instead of trying to spot one and sight fish it.

 

[mute]

Thanks, and yea, the water and flows were perfect today, a little higher then normal, but perfect visibility, temp and such.

 

[jayL]

mute wrote:
Alright, i usually try to spot the fish first too. Perhaps i should just get in position stealthily to the stream banks and cast where i think there is fish instead of trying to spot one and sight fish it.

Yeah, I was going to edit and add that. It definitely is not usually a sight fishing game. Cover water and the fish will show themselves to you. The biggest difference that I've found between fishing for wild and stocked fish is that there is way less sight fishing for the wild ones.

 

[philfisher]

Thanks for the report, and the discussion about fishing Valley. I fished it Friday and Sunday evenings, upstream from the metal bridge, and got skunked both times. Glad to know I'm not alone. At least last night I missed a few fish on top. Talked to two other guys at the metal bridge last night. One of them caught a bat (!), otherwise they got skunked too.

 

[JasonS]

jayL wrote:

Yeah, I was going to edit and add that. It definitely is not usually a sight fishing game. Cover water and the fish will show themselves to you. The biggest difference that I've found between fishing for wild and stocked fish is that there is way less sight fishing for the wild ones.

Bingo. I almost never sight fish at valley. I cast to where I think they'll be holding, and in that creek it's pretty much everywhere. I'll fish just about every inch of the stream section I'm at. I consistently get my bigger fish out of water with a depth of 8" or less.

 

[salmo]

At this time of the year I usually fish up from the iron bridge. I only fish dry flies and small beetle patterns work very well just below the big pools.


Salmo

 

[crs5942]

I was able to trick one valley brown trout on a sunken ant pattern when I was there Friday night. There was absolutely nothing rising while I was there. I tried midges, BWOs and terrestrials with no success. I stayed to fish in a light rain thinking maybe something would start happening. Midges and a few small BWOs came off during the rain but no fish came up for a snack. The one I caught came from upstream of the metal bridge in some fast water; however, I saw plenty of fish laying on the bottom both above and below the bridge. I don't know if it was the cold front or what, but they were not interested in rising for anything. There were a few people there but I've seen more fisherman in January than I did the other night. Tough fishing this weekend.

 

[fly_flinger]

Those browns seemed to love my ant Saturday afternoon. I was really amazed at the clarity of the stream after the rain we had Friday. It look like it hadn't rained there in a month.

 

[TDB]

Valley is pretty flashy - no doubt it can be muddy one day and clear the next. Go figure - I think 80%+ of the watershed is developed or under construction...🙂

Mute, good report, glad to see some good looking fish come out of Pickering..