Valley Creek, Chester County, 5/8/22

sarce

sarce

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Poked around some spots on Valley over the weekend with my dad and a friend. We focused toward the headwaters because of the elevated flows, hoping for a decent streamer bite, but it did not pan out the way I envisioned. Fish seemed full. My friend caught one 9" brown on a small jig streamer that appeared stuffed - probably from gorging on worms. I managed a small one on an olive bugger and later a 7-8" brown on a small white marabou jig. A couple fish took a shot at that fly but that was the only one that stayed hooked.

Did observe a couple fish rising to cream midges. There were a small number of tiny BWO and caddis around also.

I noticed one habitat structure has been completely destroyed, probably from the Ida flood. Coincidentally my best fish on this section of Valley came from that same habitat structure when it was still functional (that fish was about 14"), probably 6-7 years ago. Photo of the destroyed bank structure below.


PXL_20220507_203649604.jpg
 
tjsingle said:
Ida was rough on that particular section of the creek.

Was out on Sunday as well for a few hours, streamer bite was spotty but still picked them up.
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+1 on the damage. There are places now where you can't wade with chest waders that are full of mud and leaves, then entire stretches of displaced stone and gravel. A mess. Still plenty of fish, however. Water temps probably dropped this weekend, but a buddy said it was bonkers later in the day on Sunday as they crept back up.
 
Nymph-wristed said:
+1 on the damage. There are places now where you can't wade with chest waders that are full of mud and leaves, then entire stretches of displaced stone and gravel. A mess. Still plenty of fish, however. Water temps probably dropped this weekend, but a buddy said it was bonkers later in the day on Sunday as they crept back up.
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Dang. We left too early!
Didn't really have the option to stay though with it being Mother's Day.
 
I fished in the preserves on Friday afternoon (the 6th) when the storm was just getting started. It was pouring rain most of the time with water and air temps both in the mid 50s. I was tight lining with a wooly bugger and larger nymphs and the bite was on. Didn't catch anything huge but had a lot of hits and I did land a few that were close to a foot - which for me is really good on Valley. Most of the hits were on the buggers and in the faster water.
 
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sarce said:
Poked around some spots on Valley over the weekend with my dad and a friend. We focused toward the headwaters because of the elevated flows, hoping for a decent streamer bite, but it did not pan out the way I envisioned. Fish seemed full. My friend caught one 9" brown on a small jig streamer that appeared stuffed - probably from gorging on worms. I managed a small one on an olive bugger and later a 7-8" brown on a small white marabou jig. A couple fish took a shot at that fly but that was the only one that stayed hooked.

Did observe a couple fish rising to cream midges. There were a small number of tiny BWO and caddis around also.

I noticed one habitat structure has been completely destroyed, probably from the Ida flood. Coincidentally my best fish on this section of Valley came from that same habitat structure when it was still functional (that fish was about 14"), probably 6-7 years ago. Photo of the destroyed bank structure below.


View attachment 1641225169
Click to expand...
Think we ought to have a Valley Creek clean up this year before summer is over.
 
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