Valley Creek Catch 8 and Release 9

[weedy]

Yesterday morning at Valley Creek, I released more fish than I caught. Was walking upstream, heard some splashing and looked over and saw a small fish struggling at the surface. Looking closer, I saw it was hooked and the line was coming from a big nearby tree. Stuck in the tree was a big indicator fly, and it looked like the fish was hooked on the dropper (pic). That turned out to be the case. I released the fish and it seemed fine. I have no idea how long it had been there struggling. The big fly was snagged a foot up the tree, so I imagine that someone got snagged on the tree casting from the other side and the big fly broke off at the knot, but was still embedded in the tree and still had the dropper in the water. Some unfortunate brown went for the dropper. Then, it rained and the creek rose, making it hard for the fish to stay off the surface.

I have never personally done it, but I've seen people snag lines in the water that, when retrieved, had previously-caught fish on the hook. But I had never seen a fish catch itself on an unmanned hook before. I guess it might happen frequently with dropper rigs down in the water where I can't see it.

 

[KeviR]

Several years ago on the Little Lehigh, I was fishing in the upper FFO stretch when my nymph hung up on a piece of mono. I pulled it up to retrieve the line and throw it out. The one end came free so I started pulling and pulling and (obviously someone had been spin fishing in the FFO area) and the other end had a decent 10" brookie hooked on a spinner. The line and lure looked pretty clean so I suspect it wasn't there that long, but I'm sure that guy was very happy to be free of the rig.