Valley Creek, Chester county, 3/25/17 and Letort, Cumberland county, 3/26/17

mcarney99

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Jul 12, 2016
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43
Valley Saturday morning from about 8 am to noon
Overcast and around 50 to 60 degrees.

Lots of midges coming off and rising fish like usual. I fish valley almost everyday so I figured I'd add in a report while I did one on letort. Recent tactics have been simple. I fish a small New Zealand style indicator in usually 12' leader and small nymphs (#20 small black stone, #18-#20 zebra midges black and red, #16-#18 hares ear and PT). Simple but effective in faster stretches. Dries have been midges obviously but in the last week or two I've had more success on a #18 Adams then the midges I had recently been doing well with. The occasional caddis has gotten attention from larger fish not willing to rise for a midge. And dead drifting and jigging a black bugger has like usual caught a few. Saturday I spent a lot of time sneaking into tough position on my knees and bow and arrow casting Adams into tight spots but got a lot of response. Landed 5 this method. Picked up 3 nymphing (1 on black stone, 1 on hares ear, 1 on red zebra midge) and 2 on black buggers.

Letort spring run Sunday from about 8 am to 4 pm
Overcast, misting from noon on, about 50 degrees today.

I havent been to the letort in a few weeks. The water looked a lot higher and was much eachier to approach nymphing. I also have been using a New Zealand indicator here but I use a dark green to blend in with the cress and algae of the letort. I used a 14 foot leader and once again spent the day on my knees in full camo. It definitely pays off on the letort. Picked up 5 nymphing (walts worm, midges, cress bugs). From 2 o'clock on bwo's appeared and caught another 3 although risers everywhere the fish were extremely inconsistent and picky as usual and I switched style size and color of my bwo about a dozen times each fish caught on a different fly. Witnessed a leviathan come from a deep hole beneath the cress chasing a sculpin I assume and dive head first into a shallow cress bed his tail up out of the water thrashing. It's very rare to see a fish this size during the day on the letort except on extremely overcast rainy days like today. Once I saw this I fished a sculpin for about an hour but didn't move a fish that I could see. All in all a good weekend. I wish I could post pictures from my phone because I have some very good fish I'd like to share on here. 2017 has been very good to me so far.

Also if I had tied a hook into the small green tuft of wool that was my indicator I would of caught twice the fish. They were blowing it up all day.
 
Great reports! I use some of the same techniques on Valley too. I wrap a gravel guard around the knee I favor for getting on the ground... I use a Adams or Ausable Wullf as an indicator and drop a couple midges below. If I see another guy hiding in the bushes with a long rod, I will not call the police since I will know it's you..
 
Been experimenting with more midge patterns on Valley the past few weeks. Interesting that my most effective pattern has been a very simple zebra midge... literally just a #20 emerger hook with black or olive thread and a very fine silver wire rib. I build up a small thread ball at the eye. It amazes me that the fish even see it, but they consistently grab this when casted downstream on a 45-degree swing.

Gotta love those wild ones!
 
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