W Valley Ck 3-11-09

[mute]

Took a trip up to W Valley for the first time to get a different view of scenery. And thats about all i got out of it. For some reason i would of thought this stream had more "stream" to fish. Unless i was fishing the wrong sections of the stream, i thought there was hardly any holding water.

Arrived at 1pm at the start of the dhalo section. Upon walking down the trail into the woods i was met with the stream. Up towards the right it was narrow and shallow. Looking towards the left there was a huge deep basically still water pool. Only being there moments i seen some rippled rises.

I Fished for about 20 minutes hooking a couple fish. I then departed down stream to explore some more. The stream was mostly shallow with one or two nice looking little runs. They were fishless of course.

So after following around the bend ducking and stepping over a tunnel of brush and trees i came across another big stagnant pool. I knew there was most likely fish in there, but i didn't feel like fishing such slow water again.

So i then hiked back to the car and left for the second spot of the dhalo section. Upon arriving it was located at a little bridge. Looking uptstream to the right it looked like nothing, a long stretch of flat water, only a couple inches high. Looking under the bridge showed a bunch of suckerfish and some small bass. And looking to the left looked somewhat promising.

So i preceeded to hike up that way along side the stream. After looking at hole after hole and seeing that it was way to shallow i moved on hoping to find a nice deep run with some fish to get into. Finally, i found some holding water! Well, almost anyway. after giving a few casts and then walking through it looking for scattering fish, i seen nothing. It was not as deep as it appeared to be either. After venturing down stream for about 10 more minutes i came to a bend and glanced downstream of which i then turnt back and called it a day. In my opinion i thought this stream sucked? It hardly had any holding water for any fish, and it was all super shallow. Also i expected to atleast see alot more trout since it was recently stocked. Perhaps it has a high poaching rate? Anyway, it was nice to get out and walk some new trails, i just probably wont be fishing this stream again anytime soon.

 

[reds]

I agree that stream does suck. i used to fish it when i lived down there and it is not worth a crap. Usually the majority of fish are in the few deep holes and they are not very fun to catch. I did however catch one of my first fish downstream in the late seventies as a kid, but even that is not enough to redeem the stream in my opinion.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

nice report even if the stream sucked ;-)

 

[mrchunk]

Mute - yer not too far off on your analysis. You probably noticed some man made structure there to improve some of the pools and create better holding water. i think that stream has some flow issues. i've been hit or miss there. I've caught some really nice fish but they are few and far between. much of my success has come from my belly or my knees because of the size of the stream and the spookiness of it's residents. There are definitely better spots in the SE though.

 

[Woolybugger]

Nice report. I especially like the way you put the pix in the report.
I'm finding the same thing. Everyplace I fish anymore, the water is just too stinkin' shallow. There is a lack of freshwater in our trout streams, but nobody will admit it.
You could always downsize to a 1wt and accept the fact that very few and small fish are in these tiny, shallow creeks. Tiny flies, 7X, and a tiny rod will be a fun day catching small fish.
Or you can fish deeper water for bass or shad?
Smallmouth are in a huge decline in south PA. This really breaks my heart.
Fly fishing the saltwater surf is still a beautiful thing. Herring should be arriving soon..... what fun with a 6wt.
It just might be time to make some changes if you like to flyfish.
Our streams are a changin'

 

[Giventoflyfish]

Mute, nice report. I was planning on heading down there tomorrow on my vacation day based on a reports I saw a couple weeks back from someone on this board (I forget his name at the moment, but thanks for that report). I used to live 5 mins from there, so I wanted to see what it looked like now. It's very unfortunate what has happened to the water in this area. People have said there are natives in there, I don't know if that's a fact though.

 

[vcregular]

Nice report. You gave it a good shot. Not that rainfall would help that stream too much due to the lack of structure and such, but do we ever need some rain here in the southern part of the state. Talk about dry.

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/marfc/Maps/precip.html

 

[govtmule]

we need more reports like this....more room for me...just kidding. only fished the lower dhalo 3 times in the past year and it's been ok. got one 22" rainbow there last year, and one 20" rainbow 2 weeks ago, they both came from the same deep hole. also, there were a lot of fish rising to midges a couple weeks ago and they were tough but managed a couple. seems like the fish there tend to be in good numbers in only certain sections. just a note to be very careful wading there as there are a lot of pipes near the banks that i guess were used for stabilization.

jeff

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

dang we do need water. That pic of the state is scary!

 

[wgmiller]

WGAL has the Lancaster region in a four inch deficit for the year... I'm sure the numbers are similar througout the bottom half of the state.

 

[jayL]

The schuylkill river, along 76 is very low. The boulders upriver of Manayunk are almost completely exposed. It looks like trout water down there.

On that note, I almost feel like going fishing for some smallies now...

 

[vcregular]

The big waters right now are looking really really good...problem is they are still so cold. But if things continue the way they are, we might even be able to target shad in the D this year, in some pretty fisherman-friendly conditions. That is not usually the case for that river.

You are right JayL, the Skuk is looking low, but fishy!!!