The First Day of Fishing in PA is…When??

Guess we were all caught off guard with the announcement that the First Day was Tuesday April 7th! I was certainly not ready. Not close. Teaching online has taken up a good bit of time. Lots of things to rearrange and learn as we play our part in this Twilight Zone episode called, ‘Covid-19.’

As I waited until the 17th when I could get time away, I wondered if there would be many fish left in the stream near Burnt Cabins, PA. Lots of the fishing streams in Southern Huntingdon County are not far from where locals live. So to get an hour of fishing in during lunch time is not a problem for them. And as you probably heard, the fish commission stocked larger trout than usual this year. Makes it frustrating wondering about what’s going on stream side…

When I finally arrived at camp, the water looked good. Not too high. But then the rains came and pounded down all Friday night. The stream was excessively high and muddy the next morning with the temperature around 40. Not a great day to be fumbling in the water in hip boots or walking through stream-side thickets and over slippery rocks. But finally late Saturday afternoon the stream started to subside and I was able to catch two. One shown below is 13 inches. Very big for what I typically catch!

High Muddy Waters

 

First Trout

When Sunday morning arrived, the water was still a bit high but quite good. Deep and moving. From the one hole pictured below, I caught three that were also in the 12 to 14 inch category. I was convinced that the stocked fish were indeed larger than years before! It’s rare for me to have trout jump out of the water when hooked but these trout did just that! I was lucky that none of them got off. Later in the afternoon I caught two more and the big one was16 inches.

Nice Trout Hole

 

Three Nice Trout

 

Last Two

What I caught the fish on was pretty unusual for me. Corn and butter worms. I used my favorite Panther Martins and caught one on the yellow. Black is typically good for unclear water but nothing doing this year.

The Stick-in-the-Mud worked well in securing the big fish to shore while I tried my luck in other spots on the stream. Let me know if you’d like one or more for yourself! They work great.

Because the weather has been unstable so far, people are not getting out quite so much. I would not be surprised that many trout have yet to be caught. At least that’s my hope!

Stay well and send me your fish stories and pictures, especially if you’re using the Stick!. Always good to hear from you: ftkoe5561@gmail.com. 

Stay Well.

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