Pa Fellers, need your help (Altoona Area)

[JCrzy4Bass]

Mods, please do not relocate this post. I always post in the northeast section but RARELY get responses. I'm going to a family reunion for my wife's family next week, this happens 1 - 2 times a year. Every time I go up here I try and get a chance to fish in the am and it may finally work out for me this time because I will have a GPS and my wife will let me use her car if I get out extremely early.

My post in the northeast section was this (I was hoping some of you smallie guys may know the area well):

I'll be up in Altoona all weekend next weekend. I'm looking for any mud puddle and or pond, stream, creek, river, lake I can find within' a 10 - 20 minute drive.

Any help would be appreciated. Wife might be nice and let me take the car early one morning to get a top water bite or search for some smallies. Not familiar with the area much so nothing that will get me lost fellas. Though I will have my GPS

Thanks in advance.

I found a few by satellite on google. Has anyone fished any of these:

Kittanning Reservior

Mill Run Reservoir

Kettle Reservoir

Lake Altoona

Lakemont Resrvoir

and or the pond on Old Mill Run Rd (allegheny reservoir) before you reach Mill Rin Rez? What about the pond after Kittaning? What about the ponds off Locke Mountain Rd?

There is also Canoe Creek Lake, and then a creek in the same park. Does the creek have smallies?

Are there smallies and largies in these? One or the other? Can anybody point me to a website where I could locate information about these locations and so forth?

Also which one of these spots has the best opportunity for shore fishing? Don't have a boat to bring. Any cheap rentals for these places early in the am around 6am?

Any other tips, pointers for the area? Smallies or largies... don't matter much to me.  I just need to know so I know what kind of tackle to bring so I'm not hogging up a lot of room in the car with my gear.

[Hot Rod]

Unfortuantely, most of the resevoirs you named are closed to fishing as they are small resevoirs for drinking water purposes run by local municipalities.

The exception is Canoe Creek Lake, which is a state park.  A great place to fish but it is devoid of smallies but does have a decent numbers of green fish though.  But it gets pounded with pressure and is difficult to fish at this time of year from the bank because of heavy weed growth.  The best spot from the bank would be around the dam but it is a little bit of a hike from the parking area.  The steam that runs into/out of the lake (Canoe Creek) is mostly just a put and take trout fishery but by this time of the year it's running to warm to support any trout.

If you do want to fish that lake from the bank try throwing toads or frogs up on the matted grass.

There are also two small ponds right next to the lake.  They are easy to fish from the bank and I always caught largemouth there but you really have to finesse them.  Try small straight tail worms in dark colors with very little or no weights.

My best suggestion for close by smallies would be to head North on I99 to Tyrone (about 12 miles from Altoona).  Take the Tyrone exit and head South on SR 453.  453S basically follows the Little Juniata River.  Its more like a stream than a river but it is a good bet for some smallies.  Though most of them will be small, if you can get into some deeper water that's were the bigger fish will be.  You can also catch an occasional brown trout as it holds a self sustaining population due to the many springs that feed into it which provide cold water.  In fact it is often noted as one of the East's best trout streams in publications.

There is also a skinny section of "the Little J" you can fish off old Route 220 near Bellwood just north of Altoona.  Which would be a little closer but I never did as well there.

Haven't fished it for a few years but it used to be you could count on catching brown bass there.  I used to live right on the river and fished it about everyday.   Try gold bladed undressed Meps spinners, black curly tail grubs on 1/8oz jig head and early/late small Pop R's in any color are killer!

Good Luck!