Advice From a Fisherman on Enjoying and Preserving a Favorite Pastime
By Pete Goodman
Opening day of trout season in Pennsylvania is on April 5 this year. If you join us here in Penn’s Woods, you’ll see lots of activity around our beloved streams. To enjoy the great fishing, be sure to have your Pennsylvania fishing license.
Opening day is a rite of spring for many fishermen. Some anglers have special things they do leading up to opening day. Some help with stocking. Others note where the stocked fish get placed. Still others camp streamside to assure their place on the stream.
This winter, I prepared by taking stock of how road salt pollution is impacting the Valley Creek watershed. Representing Valley Forge Trout Unlimited, I ran a volunteer event to gather chloride data from local streams and shared it with scientists who research threats to fresh water and ways to keep streams and rivers healthy.
I am a lifelong fisherman, and for the last 27 years, I have been an advocate for clean cold water. I see how rampant development is turning many of my local streams into stormwater runoff canyons every time it rains. That runoff, with its ever-increasing amount of road salt, affects the food sources for trout, which then affects fishing.
Temperature does too. Where I live in southeastern Pennsylvania, climate change has led to streams getting too warm to sustain trout through the summer. Creeks these days are stocked and then harvested before the summer temperatures become lethal for trout, which live in cold water.
I fear trout fishing in this part of southeastern Pennsylvania may not last forever due to all the threats to healthy streams, which is why I’ll keep doing what I can to protect vital fish habitats. And for as long as streams will sustain them, I intend to enjoy catching trout in the spring. Here are a few of my tips so you can too.
Consider What a Stocked Trout Has Gone Through
After a year or more in a hatchery raceway with lots of other trout and being fed on a routine basis, it is netted and dumped into a tank on a truck and driven around for several hours before being netted again, dumped into a bucket, and then unceremoniously dumped into a creek, after which it’s supposed to be self-sufficient. Stocked trout usually adapt well to local stream conditions and can even displace wild trout.
Ask Yourself, What Will They Eat?
Since trout are opportunistic feeders, the fisherman has a nearly limitless supply of bait to use to entice them to bite.
If you prefer to fish with bait, you can use any kind of tackle. You can choose live bait like garden worms and nightcrawlers, minnows, and mealworms. You can also use kernel corn, cheese, and commercial soft-scented bait.
If you prefer spinning outfits and artificial lures, you could use spoons and spinners, small plugs, and jigs. Any of these can be supplemented with live bait or plastic worms, grubs, squiggle tails, and plastic fish, which may be scented or unscented.
Then there is the fly fisherman who can look to patterns of all sorts to imitate everything that a trout might feed on as well as attractor patterns with no natural basis.
Catch ’Em Before They Wise Up
Trout are fast learners. Once they are pricked by a hook or escape the end of a line, they learn quickly what to avoid and what food to take. Fishing earlier in the season, when fish are hungry and less experienced, usually provides more success for the angler.
Operate Under Cover
As the season continues, trout become more wary and more difficult to catch. No longer does walking up to the fishing hole and throwing your line in assure you a bite. Stealth in approaching the stream is needed, and subtler, more natural baits work better.
Sometimes, dreary days or even a day with showers and off-colored water may afford the dedicated angler a good catching opportunity, as trout move about and feed more freely in such conditions.
Have Fun and Protect Trout Habitat
My advice is to enjoy fishing for trout as long as you can. It is a wonderful pastime. Advocate for clean cold water by volunteering to become a Master Watershed Steward, and support groups and organizations like Stroud Water Research Center, Trout Unlimited, and your local watershed association.
Guest author Pete Goodman is a lifelong fisherman, a long-time board member of Valley Forge Trout Unlimited, and an advocate for clean cold water.
Make a Lasting Impact
Did you know Stroud Water Research Center studies the impact of salt and other contaminants on freshwater ecosystems? Support the science that protects the streams and fishing that you and your family enjoy.
