Little Juniata, Huntingdon Co., 5/24/2009

[JakesLeakyWaders]

Fished the LJ today after visiting Spruce Creek Outfitters. Sulphers came off downstream several miles at about 8:00 and then after it started getting dark it got heavy. Not sure what all was hatching but I saw some huge stone flies about size 6 or bigger and what had to be drakes or something coming off in a size 8. Looked almost yellowish lime in color and very large. Fish coming up everywhere, I didn't bring my A game, I must not have one. The guy who was near me landed about six in a nice hole he had to himself and after the hatch came off it was too chaotic for me to focus and between swatting at bugs and bats and spitting some out of my mouth I managed to hook two and lose them and miss several other strikes before leaving the stream in total darkness. Couldn't find my fishing light had to use my cell phone. Over all though I was impressed at the fishing andwould drive 2 1/2 hours any weekend to see a hatch like that again. I seriously need to uprade my selection of flies.

 

[greenghost]

GDs must be doing well on the Little J once again. That's great to hear.

 

[VTPAangler]

They weren't green drakes. I was on the Little J for the past few days and there are sulphurs in all different sizes coming off. There is one that is a size 10 I'd say, something I'd never seen before.

 

[afishinado]

VTPAangler wrote:
They weren't green drakes. I was on the Little J for the past few days and there are sulphurs in all different sizes coming off. There is one that is a size 10 I'd say, something I'd never seen before.

Could they be Cahills? 2 tails for Cahills though, but cream or yellow body and some (E. Vitreus & S. Ithaca) are a size 12 or maybe 10 without much barring on the wings.

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

VTPAngler wrote, "they weren't drakes". I didn't think they looked like drakes but they were about the color of a tennis ball and the bodies were longer than a inch not including the tails. I've never seen a cahill or sulpher that big before.

 

[ezpickins]

Without seeing them it is hard to say - but sounds like they could be "cahills" . I saw very large stenacron (cahill) mayflies on spring creek a few weeks ago that were pushing a size 10. Their wings were bright yellow with black veins. Not exactly like this pic from troutnut.com but similar:

 

[harv06]

I have been fishing the Lj for the past few weeks. I think they were large cahills. I tried one on and had some luck with it. Good sulphur hatch before dark. I had really good luck fishing a dropper under the sulphur from 8pm on.

 

[SteviePinefoot]

Agreed that it is a fat sulpher. Size 10, maybe bigger. I have also seen this large fly on the Yough. Maybe we could get Acristic's view on this, as he has some ties to these waters.

 

[JakesLeakyWaders]

My identification skills are lacking but there were definately sulphers coming off increasing more steady in about a 14 in the failing daylight. Metaphorically speaking, fishing the "Little J" my first time was like watching popcorn popping. You see a few kernels popping and then within a minute or so all hell breaks loose there's popcorn flying everywhere.

As far as the other hatches I saw very large stones, small black stones, and a few very large light green bugs with at least two tails.