Little Juniata Clearing

[Farley]

Can anyone tell me how long it usually takes for the Little J to have the flow come down. I am going out there on Friday and am a little concerned. After the rain last night it got up to 2500CFS and has since dropped to 1650 CFS with a few small showers expected tomorrow.
I was told it is hard to wade above 5-600cfs. Thanks

 

[DaveS]

Do you have a boat? I think it will be pretty high this weekend.

 

[evw659]

With no more rain, I would guess that it will be around 600-700 by Friday morning. some more rain in the forecast though. It can be tough to tell how fast the little j will come down from a rain event. Like any stream, It depends on where exactly in the watershed the majority of the rain fell, the average rainfall rate during the event, what the river was at before the rain event, how steadily the river was falling then, and other factors. hope this helps.

 

[Farley]

Ouch, no Boat. Thanks for the comments I hope there is no more rain. Maybe I will have to wait till Saturday or Sunday. I will be out there three days.

 

[icyguides]

This is your best bet for trying to forecast water levels:
http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=ctp&gage=spkp1

 

[Acristickid]

I not so sure about the CFS measurements. I use the gage in ft. I would not recommend wading when it's over 3ft. Saturday the J was pushy. Shame cause it was just rounding into shape.

 

[Midge22]

if its over 400 cfs, some parts of the river are sketchy to wade. half the river will be inaccessible at that flow (450+) id recommend spring or BFC if your set on traveling to central pa

 

[evw659]

In my experience, the absolute cutoff is about 800cfs. This general threshold doesn't apply to the whole river though. its a bit more nuanced than that. Some locations are very dangerous at around 400-600 (below sc bridge, gorge, 305 bridge area, etc.), but some are very fishable or even optimal at 400-600 cfs. if you fish the river a lot, you'll find some of these spots.

 

[Wetfly01]

Stopped at the "J" on my way home from Potter Co on 4/21/15 to see what the storm did on Monday. Water high and very off color. I am thinking she wont be fishable until Thursday 4/30/15. Coming down slowly. Also stopped at Spring Cr at Benner Springs and it looked pretty ugly too. I guess I got lucky staying on Kettle Cr Monday & Tuesday. The storm missed up there and the water was prefect and the fishing was pretty good too.

 

[DaveS]

Dave, I'd be interested to hear what you saw bug wise on Tuesday.
I was there a few days prior and it was mostly pretty sparse for an otherwise nice day. I observed an afternoon water temp. of 54F.

 

[Wetfly01]

Dave

Well, I was pretty much all over the place on Kettle. Even spent some time in the project. Mostly seen size16 tan caddis's, size 12 dark brown stonefly's and few blue quills. Thought for sure some quill gordon's and hendrickson's would be on the water. Seen one fish rise in the four days that I was there. I did take fish on a size 12 dark brown winged wet. Mostly fished all size 10 wets along with a few size10 mini buggers. Fish not pounding the flies as you know that water is still a liittle cold. Had to work the area's over very slowly and get the flies down deep. Used a class V sinking line and a seven and half foot leader built for three flies. That work very well.

 

[Dave78]

I live a couple minutes from the J and I can tell you that it will not fish well until Sunday if we are lucky.

 

[nymphingmaniac]

I checked tonight. geesh, even Logan branch and other Spring Creek tribs were dirty.
low of 28 tonight and we had snow on and off today in State College. This has to be a cruel joke from mother nature