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Home › Waters › Pennsylvania › Raystown Branch Juniata River
Tailwater · Huntingdon County, the tailwater reach running north from Raystown Dam through Huntingdon to the Juniata River main stem, below Pennsylvania's largest lake · Pennsylvania

Raystown Branch Juniata River Fishing Guides

The cold tailwater below Raystown Dam, carrying trout, smallmouth, walleye and musky through Huntingdon to the Juniata main stem in central Pennsylvania.

A mountain stream running over mossy rock through eastern hardwoods
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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About the Raystown Branch Juniata River

Raystown Lake is the largest lake wholly inside Pennsylvania, and the river that leaves it is a genuine tailwater rather than a reservoir outflow in name only. The dam draws from depth, so the Raystown Branch below it runs cold and clear through the summer months while the surrounding freestone streams of Huntingdon County are warming past the point where trout will feed. The reach is short — a handful of miles from the dam to the Juniata River main stem at Huntingdon — but it carries one of the more varied fish communities of any tailwater in the state, and the gauge below the dam reports temperature as well as flow, which is unusual and useful.

Trout are the headline near the dam, where brown and rainbow trout hold in the riffles and the deeper slots and grow heavy on a year-round food supply. Moving downstream the river widens, warms a little, and smallmouth bass take over as the dominant fish, holding on ledges and around the bridge abutments through Huntingdon. Walleye run the deeper channels and are most reliably caught at dusk, and the reach has a real muskellunge population that accounts for a handful of very large fish each season. Rock bass, bluegill and channel catfish fill in around all of it. The river is wadeable in the upper reach and better floated below town.

Because the gauge publishes temperature, this is one of the reaches where you can plan a trip precisely. A release holding in the low fifties means trout water all the way to the confluence; a reading pushing the mid-sixties means the trout have tucked into the first mile and the smallmouth fishing is the better bet. The discharge trace tells you the rest: steady moderate flows are ideal, and a hard release makes the lower reach a float rather than a wade.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the Raystown Branch Juniata River cfs

Now: 2,580 cfs, read 5:30 am CST, Mon Nov 2, 2026 (USGS 01563200, Rays Br Juniata R bl Rays Dam nr Huntingdon, PA).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

Access

Raystown Dam - the gauge site and the upstream end of the coldest, most reliable trout water.
Huntingdon - the gauge town, with lodging, tackle, food and the shortest walk to the lower reach.
Route 26 crossing - the usual mid-reach access and the easiest place to judge release level.
Seven Points - the Raystown Lake recreation hub just above the dam, useful for launching on the lake itself.
Juniata confluence - the downstream limit, where the branch joins the main stem and the fishing turns fully warmwater.
Raystown Lake - the still-water alternative immediately upstream, with its own striped bass and lake trout fishery.
Standing Stone Creek - the small freestone trout stream entering at Huntingdon, a good wet-weather option.

Seasons

Spring: high but productive, with heavy releases pushing trout to the margins and smallmouth waking up downstream.
Summer: the best of the year here, with cold releases holding trout while every freestone stream nearby has gone warm.
Fall: excellent and underused, with walleye and musky both feeding hard and the trout still active near the dam.
Winter: the upper mile stays fishable on the steadier releases, and the deeper channels hold walleye through the cold.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Raystown Branch Juniata River?

As of Nov 2, 5:30 am, the USGS gauge Rays Br Juniata R bl Rays Dam nr Huntingdon, PA reads 2,580 cfs, with water temperature 60.1 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Raystown Branch Juniata River?

Anglers target Bluegill, Brown Trout, Channel Catfish, Muskellunge, Rainbow Trout, Rock Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Walleye on the Raystown Branch Juniata River in Pennsylvania.

Where can you access the Raystown Branch Juniata River?

Raystown Dam - the gauge site and the upstream end of the coldest, most reliable trout water. Huntingdon - the gauge town, with lodging, tackle, food and the shortest walk to the lower reach. Route 26 crossing - the usual mid-reach access and the easiest place to judge release level. Seven Points - the Raystown Lake recreation hub just above the dam, useful for launching on the lake itself. Juniata confluence - the downstream limit, where the branch joins the main stem and the fishing turns fully warmwater. Raystown Lake - the still-water alternative immediately upstream, with its own striped...

When is the best time to fish the Raystown Branch Juniata River?

Spring: high but productive, with heavy releases pushing trout to the margins and smallmouth waking up downstream. Summer: the best of the year here, with cold releases holding trout while every freestone stream nearby has gone warm. Fall: excellent and underused, with walleye and musky both feeding hard and the trout still active near the dam. Winter: the upper mile stays fishable on the steadier releases, and the deeper channels hold walleye through the cold.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Raystown Branch Juniata River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Pennsylvania agency site: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/fishandboat/fishing/regulations