Little Juniata, Huntingdon County, 5/7/16

evw659

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Jul 4, 2010
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After finishing up my finals on Friday, I decided to put in a full day of fishing on the little j.
Weather/water conditions: overcast/partly cloudy. occasional light winds. air temp was about 55-63 throughout the day. the river was flowing at about 360 cfs, which is overall a great flow for fishing on this river. The water was just slightly stained throughout the day from rain the previous night. I didn't take a water temp, but it felt about 59-62 to me.
Hatches: Sulphurs 14-16, sporadic emergence for most of the day, steady/heavy from approximately 1:30-3:00pm (I didn't check the time all day, so this is my best guess.). Black caddis 18-20, tan caddis 16, midges.
The fishing: I started out around 11:30am nymphing in some braids around islands on the middle river (above spruce creek), and caught a couple on bh sulphur nymphs. As I was fishing, I kept on eye on a popular pool for fishing hatches where a couple guys were throwing dries, and around 1:00 they left, so I decided to head up and see what was going on. When I got to the bottom end of the pool, I spotted some subtle rises very close to the bank, and after a couple fly changes, I got a couple of them on a parachute sulphur nymph. By the time I got to the main part of the pool, the sulphur emergence was just starting to crank up, lucky timing for sure. I had the whole pool to myself. sulphurs were heavy for about an hour and a half or so. I caught several during this on a half and half type emerger, but the best part was when I spotted a really, really nice 18-19" brown rising on the far bank upstream of me. This fish was so nice that I ignored the 20 fish rising within casting distance of me and spent about 45 minutes trying to fool him. He was in a really tricky spot to present to, and I wasn't able to get him, but now I know where he is.
I fished two more spots on the river, and had some success. I quit fishing around 6:30pm (pens game). Overall a great day on the little j.
 
Nice report. The Little J is fishing great this year so far .
 
Heading there next weekend hope the rain stays away and hit the sulphur hatch for its peak thanks for the report
 
I fished the Little J from Thursday to Saturday. It was nothing short of awesome. The cool, overcast conditions on Thursday and Friday translated to almost all day surface activity in the form of caddis and sulphurs.

 
The lj certainly has been fishing well. Update: I made it back yesterday to the pool where I spotted that big brown (18-19). He was rising sporadically in the same spot, and after about 40 minutes and 4 or 5 fly changes, I fooled him on a sulphur soft hackle fished dry. I managed fighting him for about 15 seconds, but then it got out of control. He went downstream and never looked back. After it broke off, I looked at my reel and there was only about 8-10 of flyline left on it. To me, thia is what its all about. Hopefully the 3rd time's a charm.
 
What wt rod are you using?
 
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