Little Juniata, Blair County, 9/4/2010

[David]

Albatross, Good Fortune, and I hit the LJ yday. We arrived at 9am and fished til dark. Even with waders and long pants, the water's cold temp was apparent when you stepped in the stream. The cold front that moved in the night before did it's work well. The water level was at 70...Many places that normally hold fish were shallow, still water or even dry. The wind, though, was our biggest challenge. Often times it would blow your fly and fly line back towards you even with a low, tight punch cast. We were hoping to hit a few trikes, but the wind took care of that. We did see numerous bugs throughout the day, but none in numbers to turn the fish on. Most numerous were caddis along with cranes, little spinners (we assume were a jenny spinner), cream midges, white flies at dusk, very few isos, and assorted micro mayflies.

Alby took top rod honors not only with the most fish and the biggest fish, but he also landed 5 or 6 rainbows ranging from 17 inches (see pic) to 5ish" with par marks. His success came with nymphs and other subsurface things he may - or may not - wish to reveal.

GF caught several going under as well.

Thinking the skinny water would have the fish looking up more, I pounded the surface with everything I could think of. Surprisingly, terrestrials were not the answer....ants, beetles, hoppers, and crickets accounted for one nice brownie rise (which I promptly pulled out of his mouth.) Caddis with a skitter provided the best surface action, but primarily for small fish. I had to work for every fish on top, and lost more than I landed (but I did stay more or less righteous with the dries...🙂

From our unscientific survey, the population of the LJ has been reduced from just under 3000 fish per mile to just over 10 per mile.

 

[Fishidiot]

Great report David. I too am surprised that on a low water, windy day in late summer that terrestrials on the surface didn't do better. Oh well, thats FFing.

Cool.

 

[DaveKile]

Hi David

Thanks for the post and pictures. Looks like a nice day.

Dave

 

[flipnfly]

theres alby always in the spotlight.,.... nice report and nice pics

 

[David]

flipnfly wrote:
theres alby always in the spotlight.,.... nice report and nice pics

HAHA...I was kidding them yday that Albie is the most photographed guy on this site...but GF is giving him a run for his money this year.
For the record, I took an even number of pics of them both so as to not play favorites!!!

 

[JackM]

Good report. I didn't offer it as an excuse but when I was wrestling with my conscience deciding whether to try to make it, I check the weather and saw expected 22 mph winds for most of the day. Did it finally settle down before you quit? Even the thingamabobber has trouble in that kind of wind.

 

[albatross]

Not to quibble David, but I think we were in Huntingdon County. Does PaFlyFish have a policy on what county to use for stream reports? The county where the mouth of the stream is?

Courtesy of my measure-net, on re-examination of my photo the first rainbow of the day actually went 18 inches not 17. The fish of the trip. That rainbow has been in the stream for a few seasons if it wasn't born there. I caught 6 rainbows during the day, the smallest of which was almost certainly stream bred. A couple may have been Spring Ridge escapees.

I really enjoyed the day with David and GoodFortune. The winds were challenging at times, but otherwise it was a glorious day to be outside.

The three of us had the great pleasure of meeting John Dunn (JAD here on PaFlyFish) on our walk out in the dark. He was present for the recent stream survey on the Little J and filled us in on all the details.

Here is a shot of David doing pilates to warm up for the day of fishing ahead.

A close-up of my fish of the day. The measure-net doesn't lie!

GoodFortune lands his first fish of the day.


And the still.

Typical brown with perfect fins.

It doesn't show up in the photo well, but this fish had fading par marks.

David lands a brown.

 

[afishinado]

Nice! Great report.

Looks like the pilates paid off for David, he looked very limber landing that brownie.

Also Good Fortune finally got the screen time he truly deserves.

It looks like you all had a fun day.

 

[jdaddy]

That bow has been making a piggy of himself! Looks like a fun day.

 

[PennKev]

Last year I got a nice bow about 17" or 18" right above the trestle in your last pic and over the years have gotten many bows in the gorge. Whether wild or stockies coming down from Spruce, there are a lot of bows down there. I prefer the browns, but it's nice to have some variety!

Kev

 

[PaulG]

Guys

Good report and some great pics, enjoyed them. Every time I see a pic of Albie, he's holding the fish of the trip, nice job my friend!

PaulG

 

[David]

PaulG wrote:
Every time I see a pic of Albie, he's holding the fish of the trip, nice job my friend!

PaulG

Paul, not only is Albie technically sound as a fisherman, but he also has a "fish sense" of where they will be and what to do to get them. He's a great fisherman.


Jack, you're going soft if you're gonna let a little breeze blow you off the water ;-) (Actually, while I was hoping for your company on this trip, you were right where you should have been!!!)

Albie, Ok it was Huntington...I didn't want to get blasted for spot burning though, so I just made up a spot. PS Good thing the sunspot doesn't show in the pic...kiss your camera goodbye!

Afish, GF has come a long way in the short time I've known him. I think you'll be seeing a lot more of him and with bigger/more fish each time!

 

[albatross]

David wrote

he also has a "fish sense"

I was once bitten by a radioactive spider... David would have out-fished me Saturday if he hadn't been so stubborn about fishing dries.

I couldn't show the picture with the sun spot. People would talk...

I'll second the remarkable development of GoodFortune's fishing skills over the year I've known him. I read of his exploits here and I know he is putting his time on the water and seeking opportunities to fish with skilled anglers.

Thank-you Paul.

 

[3wt7X]

Great fish and great report guys! That first rainbow was a beauty.

 

[goodfortune]

I had a great time getting out to fish with you both again on Saturday. It's high praise coming from you both...but I've got a long way to go before I catch up to either of you, skill-wise. I'll keep working on it though. I'm looking forward to the next time we get out together again.

PS: Walt's Worms and Green Weenies did the trick for me that day.

David wrote:

PaulG wrote:
Every time I see a pic of Albie, he's holding the fish of the trip, nice job my friend!

PaulG

Paul, not only is Albie technically sound as a fisherman, but he also has a "fish sense" of where they will be and what to do to get them. He's a great fisherman.


Jack, you're going soft if you're gonna let a little breeze blow you off the water ;-) (Actually, while I was hoping for your company on this trip, you were right where you should have been!!!)

Albie, Ok it was Huntington...I didn't want to get blasted for spot burning though, so I just made up a spot. PS Good thing the sunspot doesn't show in the pic...kiss your camera goodbye!

Afish, GF has come a long way in the short time I've known him. I think you'll be seeing a lot more of him and with bigger/more fish each time!

 

[albud1962]

I fished the LIL J on Sunday and Monday. Found some nice fish and the water temp was about 56 degrees. Evening fishing was definitely better. My beetles and ants went unnoticed 🙁 though.