Penn's/Little J

[ryansheehan]

Can someone give me an upper limit on flow for these two streams? There on the list of possibilities for tomorrow but I've never fished them anywhere near this high.

 

[afishinado]

Here are the reports from TCO.

http://www.streamconditions.com/StreamConditions_Fishing_Report.cfm?stream=Little%20Juniata

http://www.streamconditions.com/StreamConditions_Fishing_Report.cfm?stream=Penns%20Creek

I have a rule about picking a stream to fish > the worst the conditions, the closer I fish to home. Running down the road and fishing a stream under tough conditions is no big deal, but driving all the way from VA to fish in central PA is not what I would recommend.

If you decide to go, from the reports, Penns would probably fish better than the LJ. Maybe someone on here can give you a first hand update.

 

[ryansheehan]

Thanks afish, looks like the LJ is out but that report on Penns seemed decent.

 

[dryflyguy]

Spring creek would be a lot better bet right now, than either of the other two

 

[IdratherbePhishing]

694 on penns right now. That’s solid flow in my opinion I’d fish it. I prefer it anywhere in the 500s. Just bring your staff you’ll be fine.

 

[SmoothOperator]

Highest I will fish it is 1200 ....... Anything between 1000 down to 500 is good fishing for me......

 

[rrt]

ryan,

If you fish Spring, remember that you'll have to clean your wading boots afterwards so you don't transport the snails to your favorite home waters.

 

[bradtheflyfisherman]

Penns was good this past weekend...it fishes well from 500-600 CFS up to 700 CFS - just may need a wading staff as it does get swift. Perfect Penns creek green color and fish were crushing sucker spawns.

Fishing Creek was also good. Little high, but water was off-color so you could easily sneak up on fish.

 

[IdratherbePhishing]

They went to spring creek. Wasted a perfect opportunity to fish penns at its best flows.

 

[ryansheehan]

IdratherbePhishing wrote:
They went to spring creek. Wasted a perfect opportunity to fish penns at its best flows.

Those guys are dumba$$3$.

 

[IdratherbePhishing]

Haha hopefully the crowds didn’t suck. Last time I was there it was pretty bad.

 

[NewSal]

700's is basically my limit for the j, any higher than that ill drive to spring. 500 and below is preferred.

BTW, fished spring this weekend, caught a dozen or so on top. Good fishing so far

 

[ryansheehan]

IdratherbePhishing wrote:
Haha, hopefully, the crowds didn’t suck. Last time I was there it was pretty bad.

It was a great day, no problem with crowds. The plan was to fish the morning at spring and the afternoon at Penns. Rising fish and plenty of space kept us at spring. Like my father would say, never leave fish to find fish. Explored some water on spring id never seen before, thats not saying much as I've only fished it a couple times but I really liked it.

 

[3oh4]

I can't imagine fishing Spring Creek with Penns possibly fish-able. I feel for you lol.

 

[ryansheehan]

3oh4 wrote:
I can't imagine fishing Spring Creek with Penns possibly fish-able. I feel for you lol.

I fished both places a handful of times. New water gets me excited and spring is a pretty cool fishery. I could imagine getting tired of it quicker then penns but Im still in my honeymoon phase....or maybe dating.

 

[IdratherbePhishing]

I agree with ya, if it’s new it’s a nice place. It gets old super fast though. The fishing is good via numbers.

 

[3oh4]

Yea when something is new it is cool, I will give you that. I'll just go ahead and ruin it for you now though: pulling an 18 inch brown out of a pocket or run on Penns will shame any 10 fish you pull from Spring Creek all together, but I'm at the quality over quantity stage in my career so some will def. disagree with me.

 

[IdratherbePhishing]

3oh4 I’m totally with you On that. Although I’ve caught fish quality 18 inch fish in spring it just doesn’t compare. In all honesty, I doubt I’ll rver fish spring creek again in my life.

 

[3oh4]

I live in North Central West Virginia and I'm to the point I don't think I'll ever drive to State College area again and fish Spring (unless everything else is blown out).

Now that ugly water Spring dumps into...

 

[Swattie87]

The advantage of Spring over Penns/Little J IMO is its reliability and consistency. All else being equal, Spring will be unfishable less often than those two…It rebounds quicker after big rain events and is more resistant to extended periods of low rainfall. Its fish are also more reliable in their behavior, and the bugs (for reasons unknown to me) seem to be more consistent and easier to predict…It has less diversity than the other two, so that’s likely part of it. Also, in terms of fish per surface area of stream, Spring has far more fish than the Little J or Penns. (I agree Little J and Penns fish are larger on average though.)

All of that being said, I’ve had bust days on Spring before too. Saturday of the Jam last year the sulphurs never showed where I was…upper Canyon stretch. Sat on a log til dark, and walked out. I saw one fish, literally, rise all evening. That can happen anywhere, though a bust day on Spring (versus what you’d expect for that day) doesn’t happen all that often. It happens more often on the Little J, and to me, it seems to happen more often than not on Penns.

Each of them has a different feel and place for me, and most years I’ll fish all of them a few times. Penns is my favorite though…can’t beat that setting and a good day on Penns beats a good day on the other two in terms of the overall experience. Good days on Penns are just harder to come by. Sometimes it’s about the setting, sometimes it’s about the challenge…Sometimes, you just want to catch some fish. I’m glad they’re all different, and all a 3 hour or less drive away.