Juniata River Questions

[Bo_G]

I have a friend/customer that is retiring. He lives and fishes the Juniata from a jon boat north of Carlisle PA. I would like to the some jigs for him as a retirement present.

Anyone familiar with the river and can make suggestions? Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Bo

 

[hookup]

Brown & Green pumpkin craw patterns with a bit of orange or purple.

Don't make them small - 2/0 hook and up, 1/8-1/4 oz

 

[smalljaw]

I fish that river a good bit and exactly what hookup told you, don't go less than 1/8oz unless you are talking winter smallies but for normal late spring through fall 1/8oz, 3/16, 1/4oz is what I use and the 1/4oz is only when the water is a little high and I need to fish the current seams. Brown with a little orange or green pumpkin with a little orange, that is what color the crawfish are in that river during the summer, the bodys are dark and the claws on them tend to have bright orange tips so tie some up that are plain brown and plain green pumpkin and then tie some up in the same colors with some orange in the mix, some days the jigs with the orange are the only ones they will hit.

 

[Bo_G]

This is great stuff...exactly what I was hoping for. I really appreciate it!

 

[Bo_G]

Prototype...need to pour with larger hooks. Tested in the quality control tank (wife calls it a swimming pool) and while claw stay apart and open more at rest, they could use a little more. Overall pleased. Thanks guys! Criticism Requested!!

1/8 oz Football
#1 Owner 5318 Hook
Eyes - 40 lb Mono
Claws - Dark Brown Zonker
Antennae - Black Rubber
Face - Squirrel Tail
Body - Dark Brown Sculpin Wool

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Bo

 

[hookup]

I like the use of the mono eyes.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Why the need for a 2/0 or larger hook? Would a heavier wire hook like Gami 604 or Owner 5313 be of advantage?

Outstanding tie Bo !

 

[hookup]

Why the need for a 2/0 or larger hook?

Ever fish the Susky or Juni?

A #1 works, but hook a pig of a smallie and she'll head shake that jig right back into your lap.

I tend to hunt for the the bigger girls. This one was pulled in recently with a 3/0



Also not much of a fan of heavier thicker hooks. I like the Gami 114s - easier to drive into a big smallie's mouth than a hook as thick as a nail.

 

[smalljaw]

Why the need for a 2/0 or larger hook? Would a heavier wire hook like Gami 604 or Owner 5313 be of advantage?

Outstanding tie Bo !

Hawn, I use size #1 hooks and #2 for my winter time hair jigs but anything for late spring on up you have more success with the larger hooks. The Juniata has an abundance of smallies in the 17" to 20"+ and hooking them on a #1 aberdeen style hook with their matabolism is high is going to result in a bent hook and lost fish. If you take your time with the drag set the fish will fight until it dies, I watched in horror as 2 guys were fighting 4lb smallies on ultra light gear, they both landed their fish but it took over 20 minutes and the fish were belly up less than 3 minutes after release. The smallies in that river fight hard because there really isn't many spots for them to get out of current and being that strong makes it tough to use small hooks but in the winter they don't fight anywhere close to what they do in warm water so you can get away with small hooks.

 

[Bo_G]

Thanks For the complement Hawn. It is appreciated.

My first thoughts on the larger hook size was more tying area for a larger profile craw.

Thanks again for everyone's assistance.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Hookup, that is such a healthy chunk ! I never had an opportunity for big uns as heavy pressure CO waters seem to top them out at 2# with 3# being a brag. My best brag would be I've got massive #s of under 1# for the amount of my water time...right, I no longer target them in CO & WY.

 

[hookup]

I'm very blessed to be so close to waters that hold big fish. The entire mid-Atlantic reagion holds pig smallies (and large mouth - but I have little interest them), but also is preassured. One reason I fish from a kayak most of the time is to find area's that are less preassured.

The jigs I tie work well on the Junitata & Susky rivers, probably because of the abundance of cray fish. Other rivers have a minnow forage, so a minnow imiatation usually works well.

If you ever get the chance Hawn, find a good guide on Champlain & take a trip up to that lake. I was working on the elusive 8#r, but only could snag a few 7#'rs. Needless to say, I was not disappointed with the trip. Typically I fish rivers, but for pre-spawn smallies, you can beat Champlain for size. Erie too, but that was a bit out of my budget.

 

[Hawnjigs]

Guide? I don't need no #*%! ... no seriously, much of my satisfaction is finding & catching, or not, on my own.

Geez, 7# is a massive chunk of smallie!

JiggerJohn has a good fix on Erie smallies - here's one son Shawn got but they don't care much about weighing.

View attachment 3

 

[hookup]

Nice fish, but nicer rig he got it on. That's old school.

If I'm fishing new water, I tend to like guides to shorten the learning curve. Champlain was a big lake and I had no idea on the seasonal movement patterns of the smallies. Hiring a guide helped me hook into these ...

 

[Hawnjigs]

Yah, and you get a bonus photographer. Fat healthy fish - heads look almost too small for the bodies. Oh, thats why they're called smallies...

Early spring? - what month? Lake looks filled to the brim.

 

[smalljaw]

Here is one out of the jon boat taken on the Juniata, it hit a LC Pointer 100 and was spawned out, the fish measured a hair under 21" and I know it doesn't look it because of my fat body but it was and it weighed 4lb 9oz, if I would have caught it before the spawn or in mid summer this fish would have easily been over 5lb. My camera batteries died on that trip but I believe out of the 18 fish we caught the smallest was 14" but most were between 16" to 19" with this one and 1 other at the 20" mark.

 

[JUNGLEJIM1]

Very nice ,beautiful smallies guys. I've been wanting to get after some bad but as soon as the rivers here start to drop we get dumped on again. We had water almost four feet deep here in parts of the city yesterday after getting several inches of rain in just over an hour, never seen anything like it before.

 

[hookup]

Nice fish smalljaw. The Juniata holds some pigs

Early spring? - what month? Lake looks filled to the brim.

Early April. Weather was awesome for about a week -warming trend - must have melted most of the snow. Water was cold though, but warming. Guide said that's what caused the fish to move out of the depths, feed, then move into the streams to spawn. You hit one spot that was producing and you'd catch 1/2 dozen pigs.