Valley Creek - Chester County - 9/27/18

Nymph-wristed

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Joined
Jun 27, 2015
Messages
1,814
City
SEPA
About 40 CFS
low 60's
midges
partly sunny

I snuck one in between the storms yesterday between about 10:30 AM and 1:00 PM. There were a few others out in the Park too. The water in the pools was stained, and I considered heaving a streamer, but the riffles and runs had enough visibility to enjoy the rare perfect tightline nymphing conditions on Valley. I helped out the cause with some purple and brighter colored hot spots on a frenchie and a soft hackle jig, a beaded caddis emerger too, nothing over size 16, even for the point fly. Besides catching a few YOY, which is encouraging after the nonsense upstream earlier this year, and a couple 11-inchers, the highlight was a fat one pushing 14, maybe 15 inches. Two mediocre shots of the same hen below and maybe one of her babes...

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That’s a VERY nice Valley brown! Did you stay within the park the whole time? I still have yet to venture over to some of the preserves.
 
It may be just the camera/lens/filter or whatever but did the water have a greenish tinge to it?
 
See the op's first three sentences. Looks more like a stormwater brownish tinge. Timing can be everything, and often is.
 
Jason, that is muddy runoff you are seeing. I was also in direct sunlight, which is the reason for the two photos. One was backlit and dark, so before the release, I held the fish in the other direction with respect to the sun. And as Mike said, timing is everything. The old adage is about rising water, but there are sweet spots in falling water too. When I looked at the gage yesterday, it may have been closer to 50 CFS when I was there, too, so I was being kind/conservative.
 
I always thought falling water was the sweet spot most of the time. Rising has been hit or miss for me. Though I've had a few experiences when it was ridiculously good during the rise but before going full chocolate milk.

Very nice fish, well done!
 
Thanks, guys. sarce, my experience has been the same. I have had good days on rising water, but I have had more good days on falling. It might be that I like fishing after the rain more than during it???
 
I can attest to that also. I’ve had my best days within 24 hours of a rainfall and have noticed I don’t care too well in an active rainfall.
 
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