Little Juniata River, Huntington Co, 5/19/17

[BrooksAndHooks]

Fished the morning on the J, low 50s, 60-80 degrees over the morning, good color, flows in the low 400s, very good levels to fish. very little bug activity, fishing was hard. lost a few fish early on, we landed a thick 16" in late morning and then the fish shut off completely. Swinging sulphur wets, fished all kinds of nymphs from natural to comp style, and swung streamers with very little action overall. Other anglers we spoke with reported similar mornings.

tightlines

 

[evw659]

My brother and I fished 4-7 this evening with similar results. I hooked 2, landed 1, and my brother caught 1. All on nymphs and wet flies. Saw a few caddis and grey fox early evening, then a couple sulphurs when we were leaving, but very little hatch activity overall like you mentioned. Didnt stay for sulphurs due to pens game. I was a little surprised to see a water temp of 64 at 5pm a little up from spruce creek.

 

[AFISHN]

I fished the Little j in several places Tuesday through Thursday.
Fishing was tough.Same results as above:very little insect activity.Any decent fishing was during the last 30 minutes of daylight, according to a friend of mine

 

[afishinado]

Fished the Little J last night at the Jam last hour some sulfur's but nothing much happening during the day

 

[rrt]

This is certainly disheartening but sounds similar to what has happened on other nearby streams. Blair County's Clover Creek has seen its sulphur population pretty much wiped out on its lower seven miles by a liquid manure spill a couple years ago. Another stream close by appears to have had its fly life wiped out during the high water this spring by something that flushed down during the high water. I hope this is not the case on the J, but it sounds like something similar might have occurred.

It seems that chemicals and/or other things have declared war on central PA streams.

 

[nymphingmaniac]

The J has been fishing very well. There is no problem with the J bugs. To the contrary, the numbers of pollution intolerant bugs has never been better.
You guys are just the victim of bad timing. Your event is scheduled months in advance. Tuesday was great fishing, starting at 6:30. I heard weds was good too. Thursday was a little thinner, but good action, but only near dark. Before this week sulphurs were great. I think the shock of hot temps, the upper J got to 69 degrees, and now the cold front has them on hold. I don't expect Saturday to be better, probably worse (I'm staying home). However, Sunday and Monday should be good again. Hang in there.

 

[ThePharmacist]

I agree with nymphingmaniac. Timing is everything.

 

[HopBack]

I was there on Friday as well and fished several pkaces above and below spruce creek. I experienced similar conditions. Bug soup in the early am with a few sulphuris mid day. Really large march browns were seen but no risers. Nymphinh was even tough but then again I do t know who I was following as the stream was packed all over.

 

[troutbert]

HopBack wrote:
I was there on Friday as well and fished several pkaces above and below spruce creek. I experienced similar conditions. Bug soup in the early am with a few sulphuris mid day. Really large march browns were seen but no risers. Nymphinh was even tough but then again I do t know who I was following as the stream was packed all over.

What bugs were you seeing in the early morning?

 

[Acristickid]

Last evening there were tons of small sulphers, lesser amounts of the large sulphers, blue quills, and 3-4 small files I'd call midges. Nice and cool and overcast. Good flows.

 

[HopBack]

What bugs were you seeing in the early morning?

I was fishing the gorge in the morning and saw some giant march browns, light colored caddis, black caddis, midges and some other unidentifiable mayflies.

 

[troutbert]

HopBack wrote:

What bugs were you seeing in the early morning?

I was fishing the gorge in the morning and saw some giant march browns, light colored caddis, black caddis, midges and some other unidentifiable mayflies.

Thanks. Very interesting.

 

[zenriver]

I was with Paul when he landed the above Brown. Excellent fish and was glad I was close enough to see his 3 wt. bend hard! The browns were really focused on soft hackles for a solid hour. Partridge and Orange worked well for me. Glad Paul stuck to his guns cause that fish took his dry fly. Awesome.

 

[ryansheehan]

That's an awesome brown!

 

[Dmomeyer]

The Little J does turn off for long periods during the day and it is frustrating; my best experiences are sun up to about 10:00 AM with Nymphs, I try not to chase the hatches

 

[ryansheehan]

I went up Sunday and fished it, one of the most amazing dry fly days of my life. No big fish like the one above, just action all day long. Will post a report with a few pics later.

 

[evw659]

^ I thought Sunday might be good, didn't go due to pens game at 3. If I had known we would win 7-0, I probably would have went! I did fish Saturday 3-8 upper end of c&r, and saw a really strong olive hatch from 3-4:30. They were 18-22, deep olive/green body, with an almost black wing. I've never seem a hatch like it on the j. 54 deg and overcast was the recipe, I guess. Hooked 4 or 5, landed one nice one about 16 on a 22 olive dun. Water felt kind of warm, like 63-65, little surprising to me. In the evening I saw some 14 cahills, a few gray fox, a few 16 sulphurs, and a heavy hatch of small sulphurs around sz 20, some smaller. Fish didn't seem to care for the small sulphurs where I was at.

 

[nymphingmaniac]

as anticipated, the hatches were very good sunday and outstanding tonight. I think the transition to sz16 hatching near dark has been made
The cahills (yellow) I've seen were big 12s. Tonight I saw some cream versions around sz 14

 

[sidthemuffinrunner]

Fished it Saturday from sun up to sun down and caught more than 70 fish nymphing a pheasant tail. Fish were coming up in the evening to drakes and sulphers but I was catching too many fish to switch. everybody I saw was catching fish.

 

[NewSal]

sidthemuffinrunner wrote:
Fished it Saturday from sun up to sun down and caught more than 70 fish nymphing a pheasant tail. Fish were coming up in the evening to drakes and sulphers but I was catching too many fish to switch. everybody I saw was catching fish.

I'm glad someone else has been having luck, I didn't wanna be the ******* to come on here and say I've been catching fish..But I haven't seen the same "slow" fishing that alot of people have been talking about, fished the 13th,14th 15th, 19th, 20th, and 22nd and have caught plenty of fish each outing, still some sulphers around, tan caddis as well. Seen green drakes in the gorge.
Have a feeling that guys that are having slow days are too focused on trying to catch fish on sulpher dries, or waiting for rising fish.
Throw some heavy nymphs on and vacuum the bottom of the river, you will catch fish, the fish are feeding, its may : plenty of nymphal activity and plenty of fish feeding. Try some frenchies, the simple frenchie with floss hot spot has been fantastic for me the past few days.