Day 3: Juniata River, six mile float and some fishing success!

Three inch stickbait rigged on a octopus finess hook

When the fishing gets tough, mental attitude is everything. Persistence and focus are critical if your going to solve the puzzle. On day three of my fishing vacation (fishapalooza 2009), I found myself doing some mental gymnastics trying to stay positive and focused. I was armed with four rods today and tied on some baits that I believed would work in the very stained waters. Quickly I realized that non of these baits were going to produce fish. I end up making some “on the fly” adjustments which resulted in 28 smallmouth landed.

Visibility in most sections of the river was still one foot or slightly more. The six mile section I picked for my float today was very similar to the section I floated yesterday. On average, this section of river was shallower but it offered a lot of the same physical features. Like the day before, visibility was around 1 foot, however some sections of the river had around 3 feet or more of visibility. The variation was caused by small feeder streams that had cleared up substantially since the rains a few days ago. The bottom line… I was faced with some fairly stained water again.

I launched my kayak around 8 a.m. and paddled a very short distance across the river to a section that offered a combination of shallow flats, ledges, and alternating deep pools. This was a “very” fishy spot so I decided to continue to work the area until I could come up with some type of pattern or bait combination that would produce fish. This turned out to be a good decision ..although frustrating. I threw a lot of baits that would  normally produce fish in stained water conditions. I threw chartreuse crankbaits, jig and pigs, dark tubes, big worms, big soft jerkbaits, dark four inch stick worm, and the list goes on. I even tossed a couple of different topwater baits!

Through trial and error I noticed ONE thing that turned out to be the critical piece to the puzzle. Every once in a while I felt a “tick” on the crankbait, stick worm, and a couple other baits. I first shrugged this off thinking it was bluegill or small rock bass. Often you will feel these fish “peck” you baits. I thought it was a little odd though that this was happening a lot and in spots that I wouldn’t expect to get a “tick” from a sunfish. On a hunch, I thought to myself…maybe the fish want a more delicate presentation? I reached into my goody bag and found some small circle hooks and some three inch stick worms.

I pulled up on an eddy created by a small rocky point, flipped the bait into the current line and “tick”..then the bait slowly moved toward my kayak in a direction that the current was not moving. I reared back and set the hook on a chunky little 13 inch smallmouth bass! Talk about relief!

I did throw some other bait the remainder of the float trip but only the 3 inch stickbait produced fish. I was able to locate fish fairly consistently throughout the float in three areas. The top producing spot was weed lines in 3-4 feet of water. This pattern only held in clearer sections of the river. In the stained sections of the river, I got bit on shallow chunk rock ledges along the bank and current breaks on rocky points. The fish on rocky points where pushed up in the front 2-3 feet of the current break.

Juniata River Smallmouth Bass

Today wasn’t a banner day for size. I did see one fish pushing 20 inches but I got a little “over zealous” with my paddling and sent the fish sprinting down stream. The vast majority of my fish today were around 13 inches and the biggest fish was about 15 inches. Given the conditions of the river and the tough fishing reported by all that I encountered, I consider myself lucky today! Ok..on to day four of my fishing vacation! I think I’ll chase lake largemouth tomorrow.