Juniata River, Juniata Co, 7/19/10

Fishidiot

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Took the canoe up for some prospecting in the vicinity of where we'll have the mini jam next month. The river looks great: 3.91 at the Newport gage - best wading is under 4. I've seen the river a good bit lower but it was fine for wading yesterday and very clear. I mainly just paddled around and spent a lot of time looking. The fishing wasn't great - got a few bass and lost a big one and the evening popper bite failed to materialize. No white flies. The encouraging news is it isn't due to lack of fish! In the clear water and bright sun I could see well and there are plenty of bass. I saw two in the 20" range and swarms of YOY in the shoreline shallows and grass beds. Plenty of redbreast sunnies too. Channel cats could be seen in their usual daytime spots under woody cover. Also saw four different muskies, all good sized and got good shots at two of them that I was able to sneak up on while wading. I pulled a 8" bunny leech past the nose of one 40" a couple times but the big guys showed no interest in my flies. All in all a nice day - hopefully the warm water river fish will turn on soon.
 
Nice to see the YOY showing up. I noticed a bunch myself on the susky above millersburg. The fishing is slow on the susky too but the white fly is on. I think this hot summer has the water temps a bit higher than normal and the fishing is slow cause of it. Hopefully the weather pattern changes and the fishing turns on 4 the jam.
 
Also saw four different muskies, all good sized and got good shots at two of them that I was able to sneak up on while wading. I pulled a 8" bunny leech past the nose of one 40" a couple times but the big guys showed no interest in my flies.

Did you have heavy mono on or a wire leader for the muskies? I'm assuming going after muskies specifically would warrant some rigging changes...
 
wgmiller wrote:
Did you have heavy mono on or a wire leader for the muskies? I'm assuming going after muskies specifically would warrant some rigging changes...

Yes. I was using a 10WT with custom muskie flies I tied with a short wire bite tippet.
 
I kind of figured you switched out your rigging. Not thinking a 3X leader is going to work very well with those gnashers! That's a heck of a fly! :-o
 
I bought a 6wt three years ago and never used it. If Im able to go I'll break it out, for this event.

PaulG
 
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