Running the Juanita

looking upstream, the marine layer lifts over the Juniata

Last Spring when Henry and I were frustrated with Clear Shade Creek we found the Little Juanita and it turned out to be a gem.   One thing led to another and we decided we'd try a smallmouth trip to the main stem 'Juniata' and we're sure glad that we did.     From the perspective of a blue liner, the Juniata is a big river, a really big river. It's the 2nd largest tributary of the Susquehanna which is the largest river east of the Mississippi.   The Juniata flows from and drains a huge portion of central Pennsylvania from just South of State College flowing easterly to Dauphin township 15 miles northwest of Harrisburg.

Juniata Rivershed

The Juniata begins its 104-mile course at the confluence of the Little Juniata and Frankstown Branch (of the Juniata) just west of Petersburg, PA. Its generally broad and shallow as it meandering through the PA ridgelines with a rocky bottom that supports great smallmouth habitat. With so much water and no local knowledge Henry and I relied on fishing reports, blog diving, known access points and a google maps study of river structure to decide upon a 2.5 mile trip in the vicinity of Mifflintown, PA for our first adventure on the Juniata.






It took the first several hours for us to answer the rivers questions, its shallow expanses masking the deeper channels.   We picked up a few along the way but it wasn't till right after lunch when we were at the top of the island that things heated up.   We found the 'black hole', named not because for its depth but for inexhaustible run of feisty smallies.   I'd caught 20 smallies out of it before I persuaded Henry to join me (he was having success on his own), then with 10 minutes to recharge the hole gave up another 20 smallies to him. When we reached the bottom of the hole and the bite tapered off we rested with a beer and a sandwich and my kayak, liberated from my tether, demonstrated its ability to float the river my itself, it wasn't till Hen looked up and saw my yak 100m down stream that we learned it was gone.     Henry hopped back in his Kuda and another 10 minutes later we were back in business....and as we'd let the black hole cool down again we fished it one more time and again pulled out smallie after smallie.   Back at the top of the island you can see to the left we went down the narrower (rt side) channel and found faster, deeper water throughout the mile long island and consistently picked up bronzebacks when and where every the water was 2 or more feet deep.   At some point I began to tire, got lazy and dunked under when a rock caught my boot and started to feel the cold 2/3s of the way down the island.   Hen would have stayed for another 2 hours but even he was getting tired so we fished quickly from the bottom of the island down and in doing so missed so amazing looking water between the two bridges before the takeout.   The Smallies today responded near equally to both smoke-sparkle tubes and a variety of weighted streamers.  A great day and a great length to fish.

Thanks for reading -- Matt