Juniata River, Juniata/Perry Co's, 8/25/09

[Fishidiot]

The main stem of the Juniata River has been a favorite of mine for warm water species for many years. I spent yesterday afternoon canoeing and fishing in the vicinity of Thompsontown. While a very nice day (finally, no thunderstorms), the fishing was poor for me. Managed a couple bass and some very nice redbreast sunnies and rock bass, however, for the amount of time fished, I would have expected to do better. Most of my luck came fishing a large nymph close to boulders or structure. The sunnies and rockies were right on the structure. I did see some nice bass but didn't manage to get close enough without spooking 'em. I usually see walleyes and muskies in this particular stretch but none this time. I did see tons of the usual quillbacks and what I suspect are some of the introduced shad. The water temp was 75 degrees F with several feeder creeks and spring seeps bringing in temps in the mid 60s. The water was slightly stained making sight fishing a bit difficult. I like my bass rivers low and clear for FFing. The USGS water gage at Newport read 3.54 which is a good level for wade fishing the lower Juniata. I did chat with some fellas fishing bait and lures and they had done well so the fish are catchable. I suppose the high, bright sun may have put the fish down. While I no longer expect to have 50 fish days when I visit the Juniata these days (like was common in the 90s), there are some very nice bass in this river and this trip just didn't fish as well as I'd expected. Also, on an unrelated note, there's a new fisherman's access site just downstream from Lewistown that was installed when the new, two lane highway was added in the Narrows last year. From what I can tell, it is only accessible from the eastbound lane of RT22/322. This does improve access to some deep pools and nice water in that section of the river.