19 inch 3.5 lb. smallmouth bass, Juniata River, Pennsylvania
It was a day of good numbers and quality smallmouth. The two largest fish of the trip were 17.5 inches and a 19 inch 3.5 pound bruiser! I was jointed by another angler (Ray) who made a three hour drive to do some fishing with me on the Juniata River. We had a great day on the water and the fish definitely co-operated! We landed close to 50 smallmouth on a 6 mile float trip.
Ray is an excellent fisherman who definitely enjoys fishing as much as I do. He was right there cast for cast every mile of the trip.We enjoyed great scenery and some great conversation. We even shared some bait tips that ended up helping each of us bring a few more fish to the kayak. No matter how long I fish, I will always be looking to learn something from other anglers.
*I’ll post a photo of my big fish soon
Time Fished
5:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. (with some breaks in between)
Weather Conditions
- Morning very cloudy, with one passing shower
- End of the day mostly sunny with passing cloud cover.
- Air temperature 70-75 degrees
Water Conditions
- Visibility varied a lot, some sections of the river were very clear with 5 feet or more of visibility. In other more turbid sections of the river the visibility dropped to 2-3 feet.
- Water temperatures 70-75 degrees
- Water levels withing normal range for this time of year.
Baits Used
- Spinnerbaits
- Jacks Worm
- Yum Dinger, 3 inch
- Crankbaits
- Slug-go, 3 inch
The most productive lures where the spinnerbaits, Jacks Worms, and the smaller Yum Dinger. We caught a few fish on crankbaits and Slug-go’s but these definitely weren’t the baits the fish wanted. For example, the fish I caught on crankbaits were all hooked on the outside of the head. This tells me that they are swipping the bait. Usually this indicates a color change may be needed. I changed colors several times, with no success. So I changed up to another similar bait (spinnerbait)…and they were smashing it! I caught over half my fish on a spinnerbait.
Fish Caught
- We combined for round 50 smallmouth bass, not a lot of small fish today, most were 12 inches or more.
- Ray caught a really chunky 17.5 inch smallmouth on a Jack’s Worm
- I caught a nice 3.5pound, 19 inch smallmouth on a 3 inch Yum Dinger
Comments on Pattern
We caught fish in on a lot of different type of water today. Sun and cloud cover where really the driving forces of the day. When it was sunny we focused on fishing shade along the bank. The best “shade pattern” was when we could combined 2 or more feet of water off the bank with a particular type of weed that grows in the river. These spots tended to be very productive. Both of our big fish came from shallow water. In the shallow water shade areas, weightless plastics were the ticket. We nosed hooked all our soft plastics with circle hooks.
When we had good cloud cover fishing mid river current breaks combined with or created by weed lines was the ticket. In general, spinnbaits seemed to be the ticket in these mid river areas. We also tossed out spinnerbaits at chunk rock along the bank when we got some cloud cover and pulled a few smallmouth from the rocks.
Fishing ledge eddys produces a few fish using crankbaits and spinnerbaits.
Great trip Juan! It was great to meet you and fish the Upper Juniata for my first time. Quite an experience fishing with an expert like yourself. Learned a lot, got a chance to try some new techniques and baits I haven’t used in awhile. Not to mention we got towed around by some nice smallies. That was a beautiful section of water, so perfect for kayak fishing.
Looking forward to the next one now
Thanks again.
Ray, thanks! It was great fishing with you as well. You definitely know you way around a river and a kayak! We will definitely hit the river again at least one time before the winter. I sent you some pics of your fish and the spinnerbait I was wackn’ all the smallies on. Hope your able to reproduce it! keep in touch!
Thanks for making the trip to fish with me!
Great job guys on tearing up the smallmouths! I fished the Juniata from Port Royal to the Walker access saturday evening and landed 14 smallies in the kayak on a variety of plastic baits. I havent tried spinner baits for smallies but it sounds like i should start! What brand/color of spinner baits were you using? Also, im curious what technique you use for fishing the BPS 3inch seknos? I just found your website about a mouth ago and im addicted to it! I fish the Juniata about every weekend and its fun to see the similarities in our fishing sucess. Keep on fishing and blogging!
Chad, thanks for stopping by!! I fished that section of the river several weeks ago. It’s a great stretch of water! Your going to laugh when I tell you about the spinnbait. It was a 1 dollar wally world special that I picked up on a whim about 3 a.m. that morning. We caught fish on about every color spinnerbait. I think the difference was the silver blades..one colorado…the other willow. In terms of the 3″ stickbait, I fish it nose hooked on a #2 finess/circle hook by BPS. Honestly, I”m going to be changing up hooks to a true circle hook next time. I had too many fish inhale the hook deep. True circle hooks will help prevent this even with the smaller bait. Let me know how the fishing is on your stretch of the river. I want to make one more trip to the lower Juniata before winter.
Juan got the most spinnerbait fish. I got them as long as the SB was small and had a silver blade and/or a white skirt. I also got a few on a 1/4 oz SB with pearl white blades and shad skirt. The pattern Juan was throwing did better, and I think his retrieve angles were significant.
I used a weedless whacky circle hook on my sticks. I had no issues with deep hook sets, which was a relief for me. In the past I often had trouble remembering not to set the hook with a circle, so had not used them in awhile. I had no problem this time using them with sticks. I think it’s the way the fish were picking up, running and pulling the slack out themselves. I was relieved that all those sets were around the mouth or down only an inch or so.
Juan got the most spinnerbait fish. Heck he got the most fish! I never dropped down to 3″ sticks, so I had a lot of tykes that couldn’t hook up on the 6″ ones I was throwing.
It was fun watching those little guys attack from the rear, running off and trying to work that long bait in. I would just pull it away. I got them as long as the SB was small and had a silver blade and/or a white skirt.
Juan’s got this water covered like the back of his hand though, so I’m pretty sure he’s out fish me any day of the week.
I also got a few on a 1/4 oz SB with pearl white blades and shad skirt. The pattern Juan was throwing did better, and I think his retrieve angles were significant. He even gave me the twin of his SB that was working and I didn’t have a hit. My retrieves were straight back or downstream. His upstream angles worked better IMHO and I should have changed to that. I believe his method gave them a longer look or more opportunity to see it.
I’m just not used to retrieving SB’s at upstream angels. I’ll have to remember to change up now. You learn something new or remember something every time you go.
I used a weedless whacky circle hook on my sticks. I had no issues with deep hook sets, which was a relief for me. In the past I often had trouble remembering not to set the hook with a circle, so had not used them in awhile. I had no problem this time using them with sticks. I think it’s the way the fish were picking up, running and pulling the slack out themselves. I was relieved that all those sets were around the mouth or down only an inch or so.
Juan got the most spinnerbait fish. Heck he got the most fish! I got them as long as the SB was small and had a silver blade and/or a white skirt. I also got a few on a 1/4 oz SB with pearl white blades and shad skirt.
The pattern Juan was throwing did better, and I think his retrieve angles were significant. He even gave me the twin of his SB that was working and I didn’t have a hit. My retrieves were straight back or downstream. His upstream angles worked better IMHO and I should have changed to that. I believe his method gave them a longer look or more opportunity to see it.
I’m just not used to retrieving SB’s at upstream angles. I’ll have to remember to change up now. You learn something new or remember something every time you go.
I never dropped down to 3″ sticks, so I had a lot of tykes that couldn’t hook up on the 6″ ones I was throwing. It was fun watching those little guys attack from the rear, running off and trying to work that long bait in. I would just pull it away. I tend to throw bigger baits.
Juan’s got this water covered like the back of his hand though, so I’m pretty sure he would out fish me any day of the week.
I used a weedless whacky circle hook on my sticks. I had no issues with deep hook sets, which was a relief for me. In the past I often had trouble remembering not to set the hook with a circle, so had not used them in awhile. I had no problem this time using them with sticks. I think it’s the way the fish were picking up, running and pulling the slack out themselves. I was relieved that all those sets were around the mouth or down only an inch or so.
Ray, Great observations. You’re right about the angles. I’m a big time believer that color and bait choice are only part of the battle. Presentation can make a HUGE difference. Those downstream angles were a critical piece of what I was doing.
Thanks for the info guys! What have you found works best when fishing the BPS 3 inch sticks? casting upstream and letting them float down with the current, cast and immediate retrieve? do you cast them when floating or only when holding position, etc… I just started fishing them about 2 weeks ago and have found that when im holding position i’ll cast them upstream and the fish will hit the bait as soon as it enters the water or on the float downstream. Once the bait gets to the end of the slack line i reel in and throw out again. is this how you fish them or is there another/better technique?
Sorry for the duplicate posts previous, I was editing by going back. And 3 posts wound up in the pile
Juan was throwing the 3″ sticks. I was throwing the big Jack’s Worm which are 6″. Nose hooked weightless. Letting them drift. In even slower moving water let them settle to the bottom and applied no action. Smallies would pick up and run with them if they were there.
Yesterday I was throwing the same rig, but on my local water the flows are faster so added a split shot about 8 inches up the leader with good results. I also added a drop of glue to the tip which keeped them from tearing off occasionally on aggressive or forced casts.
Juan can speak to the BPS 3″, but I believe he was nose hooking as well, and perhaps rigging them whacky as well.