Stream Reports

Last week's weather brought us really nice temperatures to be on the water for August fishing with daytime high temperatures staying in the mid to upper 70's and low 80's with cooler nights dropping back into the upper 50's and low 60's. Mother Nature continued to deliver several batches of rain in the form of passing showers and thunderstorms similar to what we've been experiencing in our area for the majority of the summer.

The forecast for the upcoming 10 days is similar to last week with beautiful weather for summer fishing as daytime high temperatures are to remain in the 70's and low 80's. Overnight temperatures are also supposed to stay cooler with the nights dropping down into the upper 50's and low 60's. These forecasts make for enjoyable days spent on the water for this time of the year. As far as precipitation, this week looks to have a little less with the only chances of rain in the current forecast calling for brief, light showers Thursday and Friday night.

Water conditions are currently higher than average for this time of the year on all the creeks and rivers in our part of the state. We managed to fish last week on our creeks as well as the rivers by bouncing around to areas that were in nicer shape to fish in as different areas received varied amounts of precipitation at different times. 

As we start this week the water on our trout streams remains higher than average with off-color clarity that should continue clearing up as the week progresses. After several dry, warm summers in recent years it is nice and refreshing to have extra water in our streams and cooler temperatures for our fish. Conditions for summer trout fishing are in nice shape as we approach the end of August and look forward to September.

With the extra water around, the nymph fishing has been solid with a variety of attractor style nymphs, and as the water continues to clear this week the typical summer menu of small bugs on light tippets and Terrestrials will once again be important for putting fish in the net. Subsurface action is typically more consistent when we have cooler temperatures and higher flows; however, Dries and Dry Droppers are still a great summer option for anglers hoping to catch fish on the surface.

The smallmouth fishing on the Juniata River remained very good last week with poppers on fly rods as well as minnow and crayfish imitations fished subsurface. Our guides were able to have great days of fishing throughout last week by moving around to sections of the river less affected by the rain. Over the weekend a batch of thunderstorms hit the river pretty hard, providing another reset of water conditions on the entire Juniata River system. Water levels to start this week remain very high and pretty dirty, but should drop into shape nicely for fishing by the end of this week. Overall August has been a great month of smallmouth bass fishing, and we expect that great fishing to continue by the end of this week when conditions are once again in prime shape.