Despite getting home late last night from a long day of fishing I woke up this morning rearing to do some more fishing. Considering it was early and I didn't have to get to the office until later in the day I decided to try out a new stream: Valley Creek in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
I've always been hesitant to fish Valley Creek despite being a spring fed limestone creek. In the past, Valley Creek was stocked until the pollutant PCB was discovered in the stream. Immediately the PA Fish & Game Commission stopped stocking and surprisingly the Brown trout population thrived. A healthy population of wild Brown trout now exist in the stream and the stream has maintained restrictions that promote the longevity of Valley Creek's trout population. Fishermen can only use artificial lures and must release the fish after catching.
I decided to get some line wet. I decided to fish from Little Valley Creek up to the damn a couple of hundred yards above the Mill Road bridge. The water is murky and the rocks are covered in algae, which makes it difficult to navigate the stream bed. Several times I tripped over submerged trees or slipped on rocks. As I waded through the stream I kicked up dirt and the water became even muddier. This was highly disappointing until I saw a trout rise about 20 feet in front of me. Uncertain of what the trout were eating (there was no sign of a hatch) I tied on an elk hair caddis size 16 (a fly I've had success with this time of year and one of my go-to flies) and began casting to the rising trout. The brownie was rising underneath a branch that was hanging only 3 inches from the surface. This made casting a challenge. I presented my fly upstream and watched it drift over the trouts feeding lane. There was no action so I tried again, and again, and again. On my fourth cast the trout rose and porpoised over the fly. It appeared to be about 10 inches in length and failed to give my fly the time or day from that moment forward. I continued to fish and began wading further upstream. At the next bend I saw three more fish rising. The casting was going to be difficult. The water was moving at a snails pace and to my right was a branch that looked like the tree of life and behind me was a forrest. I was able to throw about 15 feet of line but I needed to add about 10 more feet so I tried a roll cast. With the slow moving water my roll cast kicked created enough disturbance to put the fish down. On the one hand I was invigorated that trout were rising and on the other hand I was discouraged at how difficult the casting conditions were. No wonder these trout have flourished is all I could think. Fortunately I pushed ahead and saw more trout rising near the bridge at Mill Rd. On my first cast in front of the bridge I hooked a 12 inch brown trout but the fish jumped off my hook as reeled in. It was about 2 feet from me when I lost it and in the sunlight the fish looked beautiful. I was a little disappointed in the trout's fight. It seemed sluggish but then again the weather has been quite warm over the past 2 days.
I moved further upstream and made several casts into the faster moving current on the right side of the bridge. By my fourth cast I had hooked another brownie. This trout put up a much better fight. I figure he was sitting in the shade and in water that was more oxygenated than the previous fish. I landed the trout - a beautiful 10 inch brownie and quickly released him into the stream.
I continued further upstream until I reached the dam. The dam flowed into a deep pool where I saw at least 7 different trout take flies off the surface. I tied on a size 16 cdc puff and cast into the ripples toward the right of the dam. A nice brownie had been furiously feeding in the riffles for a few minutes so I decided to try and get him on my fly. My cast couldn't have been more perfect. The fly slowly fell to the surface and within a split second of hitting the water the brownie attacked the fly and set himself on the hook. This fish put up the best fight of the morning - it was another 10 inch brown trout.
To the left of the dam trout continued to rise and there were two pockets of fast moving water I wanted to hit before heading home. I cast to the pocket closest to me and hooked a nice trout that I unfortunately lost when it wrapped my line around a submerged log. I had to replace my leader and fly but continued to fish. There was another trout slashing the water further away that I was able to cast to. This time I was using an olive size 16 CDC pattern and after several casts was able to hook and land the trout.
All in all it was a very good morning of fishing at a stream I had overlooked for years.
I found out later that there was a 107 fish kill last May. Last year a PECO water main broke that ended up polluting Little Valley Creek and the stretch of Valley Creek just below the tributary. Fortunately I fished above the formerly polluted section. You can check out the article on the fish kill here.
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