Little Juniata River, Huntington County, 5/19/2011

[midnightangler]

I know a lot of guys have plans to visit central PA this weekend and are probably feeling anxious due to the wet weather, so I thought I'd make myself useful for a change and post a stream report.

Visibility was about 18 inches and fish were actively chasing large black streamers. I moved 20-25 fish in two hours of fishing between 1 and 3 PM. Anyone fishing from a boat would have easily doubled this number as I was moving a fish for approximately every 10-15 yards of bank. Navigating and wading along the steep banks was easily the biggest limitation to covering the water. If you're planning to fish in central PA this weekend and have access to a pontoon or a canoe, you should seriously consider putting it to use.

In spite of the dirty water, I encountered quite a few fish rising to sulphurs and tan caddisflies. I didn't have any flies smaller than 3" on me, so I threw streamers at them. Many of the risers chased or hit the streamer, and I hooked or landed several fish this way. A better strategy would have been to have my dry fly box on me.

It absolutely poured twice while I was fishing. I'm not sure how quickly the water will clear if these intermittent showers persist, but they didn't seem to bother the fish. Even so, as long as flow levels remain at or near their current levels, the J should fish well this weekend. Wading and nymphing will probably be inconvenient.

 

[beeber2]

mid, did you get a lot of follows and no strikes? I lost count of how many of those I had last friday. I was floating.

 

[midnightangler]

There were a lot of follows, but plenty of strikes too. I'd say my hookup ratio was around 25%. Probably half of the chasers (out of the ones I saw) hit the fly. It was raining pretty hard while i was there, and I felt a lot of strikes that I couldn't see. I did see a few fish take multiple runs at my fly but never hit it. One fish circled back toward the fly four or five times on one cast.

I usually try to accelerate the fly away from anything that might be chasing it right before I pick up to cast again. This produces a lot of strikes when fish are following the fly, and did on friday. I think a lot of those fish are waiting for the fly to do something different before they hit it (accelerate, change directions, etc). Sometimes the fish seem like they are expecting the prey item to try to get to the bottom, and if you use a fly with a heavy tungsten conehead they will eat it as soon as they see it start to dive.

I wish I'd been floating. Slogging up the bank was a lot of work.

 

[beeber2]

Thanks mid, good info. I was thinking along those same lines.

The best action was the last 15 minutes of light, got an 18 inch brown on a sulphur emerger, it was too dark to see the take but I sure felt it. Felt good to have line pulled off the reel.