Fly Fishing The Little Juniata
Little Juniata River Overview
The little Juniata is one of the “big four” Central Pennsylvania limestone streams. It’s a favorite amongst anglers for its plentiful access, epic hatches, and incredibly healthy population of fish, some of which grow larger than twenty inches. Of all the Central Pa limestoners, none quite embody Pennsylvania fishing quite like the Little J. With its limestone littered banks, heavy, tinted flows, and numerous century old bridges, you won’t find a more classic river in the state.
The Little Juniata begins just north of Altoona, Pa. It picks up a lot of water from a handful of tributaries as it flows northeast towards the town of Tyrone, where it meets Bald Eagle Creek, and takes a nearly ninety degree turn southwest. It then takes runs through the small towns of Spruce Creek, where the world renowned tributary of the same name dumps in, and Barree. It finally ends where it meets the Frankstown Branch to form the main Juniata River, just north of Petersburg. The Little Juniata holds trout through the entirety of its thirty two mile course. Though you’ll mostly find wild brown trout, there are a decent number of stocked rainbows that drop down from the stocked section above Tyrone, and a few massive fish that swim in from the private water on Spruce Creek every now and then.
Accessing the Little Juniata
Luckily for anglers, there’s ample access all up and down the J. On the lower end of the river, there are plenty of pull-offs from Barree down to the river’s mouth, mainly off of Barree Road and Allison Road. Above Barree, however, the roads end. This section of the river is known as the Gorge or Rothrock section (as the river is bordered by Rothrock State Forest). It can only be accessed via walking up the river or train tracks, or via some sections of private property.
If you follow the river through the gorge, you’ll pop out in the small town of Spruce Creek. This area is again accessible by road, with a popular parking area at the white church right next to the main bridge in town. There are numerous pull-offs as you drive up the river along Union Furnace Road, and a large parking lot at the quarry at the roads end.
After this, access is again by foot only. From the quarry parking lot, there is an old paved road that follows the river for about a mile that you can walk and jump off to fish wherever you like. Near the end the road goes up a large hill and ends at another parking lot right off the main highway, Birmingham Pike.
The next access is upstream at Babe Road (maybe 3/4 of a river mile), which is an easy to miss turn off the pike. From this access it’s maybe another half of a river mile up to the next access, a large gravel pull off by the guardrail right on the shoulder of the pike. You can park here, then follow the guardrail up a hundred yards or so until you come to an old dirt road that cuts down to the river.
The river comes back to the road just a few hundred yards upstream, but the next official parking area is nearly a mile away at the Irish Flats Road bridge. There’s a large pull off on the opposite side of the road that can accommodate plenty of cars.
There is still a lot of river above this, but fishing becomes more seasonal and spotty. The main fishing areas are from Irish Flats downstream, though there are some fun places to explore upstream. There are a few more parking areas from Irish Flats to the town of Tyrone, most easily findable on maps. Above Tyrone, you can still find public pull offs, but the river becomes increasing private. There’s some state stocking in this area as well, which tends to keep the wild trout anglers away.
Fishing The Little Juniata
The Little Juniata is one of Central Pennsylvania’s favorite rivers for a reason— the fishing is great! Though it does get moody some days, you’ll likely find plenty of success no matter where you go. The river can be broken up into three distinct sections: the Lower LJ (below Spruce Creek), the Middle LJ (from Spruce Creek to Irish Flats Road), and the Upper LJ (From Irish Flats upstream).
The Lower river is probably the most beloved section. It has great fish numbers, fun water, and through the gorge is one of the most picturesque fishing areas in PA. You’ll generally find a bit better average size through this section than the other two as well.
The river through here averages fifty to sixty feet wide, but narrows up significantly through the tight slots and braids, and widens a good bit in some of the pools. Through the gorge it has a fairly decent gradient, with some pretty forceful runs and rapids. This gradient levels out a bit as you get below Barree and closer to Alexandria, but there are still some great riffles and runs all the way down to the mouth.
Through the entire length of the section, the riffles and runs are separated by large pools, some of which are over a hundred yards long and fifteen feet deep. The lower and middle river are crisscrossed by numerous limestone shelves that run bank to bank along the river bottom. These shelves give the river a unique character, and with some being undercut by a few feet, create the perfect habitat for big fish.
Wading this section can be difficult, especially when the flows start getting up there. There’s tons of slippery boulders, shelves, and deep drop offs. It can certainly be done without issue, but it’s best to use caution. Between the wading and the access, my favorite way to fish this section is by floating on a raft.
Fishing this section isn’t two different than the upper two, however, you may want to make sure you pack a few heavier flies to get down in some of the bigger runs. Specific flies are pretty much the same, though the fish here tend to react a hair better to streamers. Just like the rest of the river, the lower J gets amazing hatches, and you can find rising fish from March to November.
Moving upriver, the middle Juniata is the section most anglers are familiar with. This section from Spruce Creek upstream see’s more anglers than most other waterways in the state. Despite the pressure though, the fish are there, healthy, and willing to eat. In general, the middle Juniata looks similar to the lower, with just a bit less flow.
The average trout on the middle J is twelve to fourteen inches, with fish up to seventeen being fairly common. Fish bigger than that are certainly around, but the numbers drop off exponentially as you get towards twenty. It’s a great area to go catch a bunch of nice fish, but not necessarily a huge one.
The upper Juniata is much different than the two lower sections. The gradient is much lower, and the banks aren’t the same steep limestone cliffs that line the water downstream. It doesn’t pick up nearly as much spring water or dissolved minerals, and as such doesn’t boast the same fish size or numbers.
The fishing can best be described as spotty— some sections can be great, some can seem devoid of fish. Winter and early spring when the water is up and cold is the best time to explore the upper J. The fish can move around and sit wherever they want. When it gets low and warm, they are pretty much stuck in the sparse deeper holes, around the spring seeps, or up in some of the better tributaries.
This section also doesn’t get quite the hatches of the lower river. There’s certainly bugs to be found, but not to the level of downstream. If you have a lot of time on your hands the Upper Juniata is worth exploring, but if you’re just coming for a visit, stick to the lower sections.
The little Juniata as a whole can be fished pretty much any way you want. Dries, nymphs, and streamers can all work on any given day. Like many rivers, nymphing will produce most consistently throughout the year. Pheasant tails, Walts worms, and other euro nymphs all work well in #16-20. Mops, eggs, and squirmies also produce pretty well, usually as good or better than natural flies. One secret to this river is the fish absolutely love green and chartreuse. Some people say it’s because of the crazy amounts of caddis nymphs, but no one really knows why.
If you want to fish dries, the Juniata is a great place to do it. It has some of the best, most consistent hatches in the state. You can probably catch a fish on a dry 365 days a year here if you try hard enough. If not, you at least have to come for one of the major hatches— BWO’s in March, grannoms in April, and sulphurs in May.
Top Flies
- Walts worm, natural squirrel & grey & olive, #16-20, 2.0-4.0
- Pheasant Tails, #16-20, 2.0-4.0
- Mops, Charteuse, #10, 2.5-4.0
- Eggs, orange & peach, #14-18, 2.5-4.0
- Squirmy Worms, #14, 2.5-4.0mm
- Dubbing bugger/wooly bugger, olive & black, #10-14, 3.0-4.0mm
- Shuttlecock, pheasant & black & olive, #16-22
- CDC Comparadun, sulfur orange & sulphur yellow & olive, #14-18
- CDC Ant, black & cinnamon, #14-18
Top Gear
The little Juniata lends itself to pretty much whatever gear and tactics you want to use. Personally I recommend euro nymphing for most of the water, and fishing indicators on a mono rig in the larger pools where that’s not possible. A 10-11′ 2-4wt nymphing rod will do you very well from headwaters to mouth. A micro leader system with 4-8x tippet (6x is always a safe bet) depending on flows is a great rig for covering all the nymphing scenarios.
For dry fly fishing, a five weight is going to be a little much for most of the water you’ll encounter. I recommend a 9-10′ 3-4wt with an appropriate weight forward line. The fish aren’t incredibly spooky, but they are very sensitive to drag. A 12’+ leader will help you get a drift the fish will want to eat.
I normally just fish streamers off my euro rod. Large jigged buggers are pretty much all you need, and the easiest streamers to fish while wading. If you’re floating, a 6-7wt with a sink tip and a larger articulated streamer can pull some larger fish when the conditions are right.
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