Finding some time to fish with my cousin Shawn over the past year has been somewhat difficult.  In fact, difficult may actually be an understatement, with his busy schedule and mine it has been almost impossible.  So finally we just booked a couple of days and said these will have to work!

My first fish of the day.  I would say a very good start!

Not knowing exactly where or what we were going to fish for, I knew I really wanted to show Shawn, a western PA guy, a good time in the Southeast part of the state, so the man to call was Eric Richards of Coveted Waters.  As usual Eric said lets play it by ear and we decided to wait and see what the weather was like before we determined if we were going to fish the river or go trout fishing.

Shawn’s First Fish Of The Day.

The day came for Shawn to get in town and Eric said that he thought a float trip down the Juniata was a good call, so like I say, “I learned a long time ago, always listen to your guide.”

Another nice smallie on the Clackacraft

Eric floats the Juniata in a unique way, on a clackacraft drift boat.  I have never fished from one of these boats before and they are awesome, lots of room, very stable and easy to steer.  You are talking about three pretty big guys between myself, Shawn and Eric and we had all the room we needed.

The day started out with optimal conditions, overcast and the water was just a little off color.  We weren’t even by the dock where we put in and we caught 5 smallmouth and had two others on.  The lure of the day was crankbaits and the color was white.  I used only two lures all day and caught fish continuously.

Very nice Juniata walleye

I know I always need to talk about the one that got away, but I wouldn’t be a true fisherman if  I didn’t, right?  We were catching smallmouths all day when I had a fish on that just felt and fought different than a smallmouth.  The fish came to the surface and did a roll, but we never were able to identify it, other than it was very big.  The very next cast I caught a beautiful 20 inch walleye.  So I am fairly certain that I had a monster walleye on, but he was the one that got away.

Just another smallie!

All in all we had a great day and timed it just right because the following day it was pouring rain.  It was nice to finally get to go fishing with Shawn and I wanted to thank Eric for taking us out and showing us some fantastic water.  If you are looking for a great trip on the Juniata or fishing the trout streams in central PA, give Eric a call, he WILL put you on fish, www.covetedwaters.net.