June 29, 2016 - One Extreme to the Other - Valley Creek

Just shy of 20 inches of Valley Creek wild brown.  Wow, is all I can say.

Despite the bruiser of a male wild brown I am holding above, I had a rough start on Valley Creek this morning.  It was hot and humid, and even wet wading offered minor relief since fishing Valley effectively means wading as little as possible.  Fishing Valley is more like catching 9 innings of baseball or going to a really long Catholic mass, both rough on the knees.  My left arm, not the one with fisherman’s elbow, mind you, is still tingling from a run in with some nasty nettles (through the long sleeve shirt, no less).  So I have that going for me…  But I am not complaining... now.

A beautiful steamy sunrise

The water was a perfect 60 degrees, so there was fog coming off early on top of the stain from a couple thunderstorms overnight.  I just couldn’t find the fly to make them eat.  To add insult to injury, every time I put on my cheaters to tie another fly on, I had to race against them fogging up.  My Costas were just as bad.  A romantic soft focus is great for telenovelas but not fishing.  The good thing about Valley is that it clears up very quickly, though.  The visibility was almost back to normal by the time I left, and I did end up catching three fish, two typical Valley browns, and one huge one, one of the biggest wild fish I have caught in recent memory, especially in a creek no wider than my humble driveway at home.

What they usually look like on Valley!

After many combinations, I coaxed two small fish to hit a size 20 brassie in one of the few deep holes left, but I felt like I needed to get down to the bottom even more quickly.  The only issue with that was the amount of weed and grass growing in a spring creek at the height of the summer.  Adding shot, deleting shot, changing tippet to fluorocarbon, dry dropper, a small streamer, and so on, and so on.  I finally decided to give them something completely different (No, not an SJ worm, though I did try that too!) and tie on one of Sam’s caddis larvae as the anchor fly of my two nymph set up.  With 6x tippet it would get down and maybe hang up in the roots and grass, but it would be in the strike zone quickly.  It was a good call, one of my few good ones of the day. 

Shot number two.

When I set the hook, I knew I was in for something special.  I could see this hooked jawed brute trying to get under the far bank’s tree roots and then trying to butt his head into some downstream hang-ups.  I was happy I had a net with me, but I still expected tragedy on 6x after the morning I had had so far.  Needless to say I was psyched when I got the net under him.  He was likely an old specimen based on the hooked jaw, the big teeth, and the unique colorization.  I kept him in the net, set the timer, and got two self-fishes before letting him swim back to his lair in good shape.  Then I started the group text to all my fishing buds working today!  There was no topping this fish today, so I started back to the 'Ru before noon and made it to work for a couple hours, so I can save a day for later in the week, maybe Friday with young Kenny?

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