Valley Creek Brookies?

[Wulff-Man]

dsleader just posted the following stream report on Valley Creek:

"Fished from 11am -3pm, from the Turnpike bridge down to the next bridge. Caught 3 brookies, one 9" on #8 olive wolley bugger. The other two were fingerlings. Lost a couple more nice fish.

First brookies I've ever caught! Glad I braved the rain."


I’m not a Valley Creek regular, but I fish there fairly frequently, and I have never seen a brook trout there. The PFBC Class A listing says it only has browns in it (both Valley and Little Valley). I did notice that the PFBC Wild Trout GIS Map shows a small tributary to Valley that contains brook trout (a little downstream from where Little Valley comes in). I think I remember another board member saying he caught a brookie in Valley a little while ago. Has anyone else caught brookies in VC? Is this a recent development?

 

[Stone_Fly]

There is an active restoration effort to restore brookies in the Valley Creek Drainage, which is something that I think is a long time coming. Crabby Creek a very small tributary has a resident remnant brookie population and the brookies dsleader caught may have been from that creek, it could be that they've been supplementing the population with hatchery fingerlings. I've heard guys say that they've caught brookies in Valley Creek down at the dam, but I believe they were mistaken. Maybe not.

 

[Wmass]

I posted last fall that I caught a brookie in Valley Creek. I am very good at IDing brookies from browns and I swear this was a brookie. I caught the fish a little way down from the covered bridge between the covered bridge and the dam where there is a rock wall supporting the bank/road. This fish was just a little guy but was clearly a brookie, with a greenish/brown back and white fin tips and a yellow belly, spots were also different from a brown. I caught the fish on a small elk hair caddis.

 

[Wulff-Man]

That's interesting. Both dsleader and Wmass were pretty far downstream from where the "un-named tributary" (Crabby Creek?) appeared to be on the GIS Map.

 

[vcregular]

Sure anything is possible...but three? I have definitely caught only ONE brookie in Valley. It was below the dam. I have a pic of it, and the fish was very pale. (found the pic - pasted below) Did not look healthy - though this was early summer, and brookies do become pale at times.

VFNHP supposedly has been told numerous times by folks that they catch brookies, but without actual proof, they tend to dismiss. In fact the brookie I caught they mentioned to me might have some from some other water since it was caught below the dam.

From what I gather the brookies in Crabby were pretty much wiped out as a result of Floyd, which also did quite a bit of destruction to the entire watershed.

 

[Stone_Fly]

Looks liek a stockie, however there are plenty of wild brook trout streams feeding the Schuylkill River so it could be a wild fish, but look at the anal (ventral) fin. The research department is looking into this.

 

[Wmass]

VCREGULAR That fish has some nice size to it. My fish was small (only about 6" at best) but one thing that it did have going for it was better coloring. My fish looked pretty healthy and was very happy feeding on the midges floating on top.

 

[vcregular]

I agree 100%...color is lacking big time. But I have caught brookies elsewhere, at certain times of the year, where they are lackluster as well. But since this was below the falls, I tend to think it might be a stockie from elsewhere...who knows from where though, but I like I said anything is possible.

One thing is certain, every single brown in Valley are some of the most colorful brownies found anywhere in PA (maybe it is the PCBs??), except for maybe Penns. :-D

Even the small guys got good looks...but to think the brookies might some day be back in numbers is a pretty cool thought.

 

[Stone_Fly]

Fish Restoration on Crabby Creek. Crabby Creek (Unnamed tributary to Little Valley Creek in
Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission records) had, as of 1995, held a wild brook trout population. On October 2, 2002, surveys of two 150 meter stretches of Valley Creek produced no brook trout. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission believes the brook trout population has been extirpated primarily due to scour. Hurricane Floyd in September 1999 may have had a significant impact on the brook trout population. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission recommends reintroduction of wild brook trout upstream from S.R. 252 as an appropriate restoration goal.