Meat Eaters From the LJR

Well I made a nice day trip to the Little Juniata River today to hunt down some nice wild browns. After a later than planned start, my father, brother and I piled into my little fishmobile and made the short trek to the river. We planned on hitting my favorite stretch across from the Grier School, but upon arrival, we saw multiple dudes on the river so we decided to head to the second stretch I wanted to hit. We drove the few miles to the next section and geared up. My dad and my brother rigged up with nymph rigs and started working some runs. They mostly wanted to get out and get some experience casting and what not since they are both new to fly fishing.
I half-hazardly skirted the side of a steep bank, and started heading towards a bridge right upriver from where we parked. On the way there, I thought about what I wanted to throw for the day.......My good friend Shane has been fishing streamers out in Idaho still and has been sending pictures of some real beauties my way for me to drool over. I decided I was going to tie on an articulated Circus Peanut and trail it with a black bugger. With this setup, I knew I wouldn't have a quantity day, but might possibly have one or two good fish by the end of the trip. After 4 hours of fishing, I had only brought 3 to hand. I did however fish about 2 miles, and in that stretch of water I had about 30 or so fish either chase or take. I just wasn't able to connect with many on this trip. Out of the 3 that I landed, the first was a dink and not picture worthy, the second was about 14 inches and the third was an absolute MONSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Here is a shot of the Second fish. It took the lead streamer.

 And Another...........

 This is the run that the 14 incher came out of.





And now to the Big Guy

What a monster of a Brown........Absolute Monster.

Just Kidding :) That guy was from a little freestone stream I fished last week.

Right before I caught the Big Guy, I came up on a big boulder and cast out to run the meat through the little hole that formed directly behind. On the 4th or 5 strip I had a fish about 18 inches take and after a good fight, he came off as I was getting my net out to land him. I quickly became depressed and planned on giving up after losing what would have been my largest 100% wild brown. Well after convincing myself that the day was not over, I continued to fish and shortly after caught this guy.....

He stretched the tape to 20 inches, beating my old record by 4 inches.....How is that for a day on the LJR? No hatches, No dry flies, just meat eating Browns.





Some pictures from trips since my last post are below......

 I went back and caught the big bow from an earlier post again.......same fly same spot.