August 21 to 23, 2026 – The Warmwater Jam Pivots to a Late-Summer Coldwater Jam and a Memorable Fall Trout Preview – Central PA

Friday view from the front porch.

Because of the rain that had fallen and promised to fall harder on Saturday evening, a smaller number of guys from the fly fishing forum made the trip this year to the Josh Jamboree on the Juniata.  For those who didn't come, it was their loss because the fishing was really good, especially for August.  If you had your heart set on wade fishing for smallmouths or taking that half-day float on the river, it was not your weekend, of course, but for those who decided to pack the trout rods and make the drive anyway, it was hard to beat.  I believe nine dudes, ages 28 to 70 and all points in between, spent time in and around the farmhouse on the property instead of sitting under the big top and grilling over charcoal.  We also fired up the gas grill near the cover of the back porch and ate a lot of cold sides and a more continental-style breakfast.  The group was small enough that when rain approached on Saturday night, we were able to gather indoors and be entertained by Shakey, a working blues guitarist, and Josh, a more than competent amateur performer, on dueling guitars.  Pre-season football flickered in and out of focus during the deluge while we ate well (don’t ask about the chocolate lasagna) and shared plenty of stories.  It seemed that everyone was content with the fishing, too.  We spread far and wide (well, within 30 minutes of camp) and caught fish in the big crick and the little cricks.  The Juniata never got to fishable flows, at least for fly gear on foot.  I saw one jet out there on Saturday night. But I counted us fortunate to have nearly springlike flows and conditions for trout on Friday and Saturday before Sunday blew up most creeks for a second time in three days.

First pig brown in probably 6 weeks or more.  And on a streamer.  Fun stuff.

No Larry, no Brian, but many other Josh Jam regulars.  In the absence of the rest of our core crew, it was easy for Josh and I to pair off both Saturday and Sunday.  Josh was generous with the local information so that everyone could find fish, but only I was fortunate enough to have the local guide with me all weekend.  When everyone was convinced that Sunday was a bust, Josh found a creek in good condition that produced at least 10 wild browns for us while everyone else was driving home.  I even scored a pig on a streamer on Saturday night.  And this was after having a 15+ fish Saturday morning.  Rainbows dominated for us, but we caught many dink wild browns too, and our buddy Joe caught a handful over 15 inches.  He was the outlier though.  Most of us reported very eager holdover rainbows and many small wild browns tuned into a decent showing of size 20 BWOs.  I had fish jump all over a size 18 soft hackle dropper on Saturday morning, but I couldn't find a good fish until the evening.  And it was a streamer eater, a ferocious visual eat!

Perfect flows for late August and many cooperative trouts.

Even with Josh’s knowledge, we had some misses and errors in stream selection due to the unpredictability of the weather and flows on cricks without gages.  We had a great spot in mind to throw streamers on Saturday morning, only to find surprisingly low flows and visibility too good for a bonkers streamer bite.  The same stretch was blown out on Sunday when we took another peek, determined to get the good fish that live there to chase a bugger or two.  Even a tributuary of this creek was too dirty, so Josh pivoted to another favorite trib instead.  Here we found much better visibility.  Sadly, no fish over 8 inches ate our nymphs and small jigged buggers, but we did catch 10 or 11 wild brown between us to end the weekend on a high note.

Despite most creeks being blown out, Josh found us some small stream fish on Sunday.

I wish we could have caught a few bass, but the weekend did get me excited for fall trout fishing again after braving the summer doldrums with nearly zero motivation to get out.  I am already seeing rain on Thursday after a cool first half of the week, which has me thinking about the weekend.  I have a couple creeks in mind that could fish well on Saturday or Sunday.  This past weekend started with me taking the boy back to college on Friday after working a half day and then driving another hour to the Jam, but now he’s there and settled for the semester, so I have a lot of unrestricted fishing time ahead.  Work is still crazy until about September 10^th, but weekends are free, so more fish will be caught in August and September and beyond.  I need to walk off the meat heavy menu from this weekend, not to mention chocolate lasagna.

A close up of the tank.