1st day of trout season in Pennsylvania!

[webster_catman]

1st day of trout season and im stuck , u guessed it right here at home. im gonna try to get out there later to catch a few. lets here how everybody else dose after theyre first day of trout fishing.

[Scott Daw]

I feel your pain brother. Ive been at work since 8:30 this morning and dont leave until 4pm. I'll see if theres any left after work.

[delawareriver]

well im stuck 800 miles away! at least the weather is nice, it is alot nicer 2 weeks from now any ways!

[kaleigh]

Trout fisherman are nuts!! Last night on my way home about 7:30 PM.I could not beleive people had tents set up and chairs in place at this time.I went out around 11:00 this AM and drove passed the same places,people were spaced about 2 ft apart.This is nuts,I went to where I fish the canal and the Lehigh.The canal area must have had 40 cars there as the canal is heavily stocked with trout.I had the Lehigh all to myself! Got 2 carp around 10# each,and 1 small cat around 18".All catch and release!

[Brett2]

Caught about 20 trout total today, biggest 18 inch (2.5 lb) brown trout pictured w/ 15 inch too. At dusk, i even caught a small bullhead on a minnow :confused:

They showed up really small, oh well.

[webster_catman]

once agai i cant get out today, but tommorrow i definately am, whipkey dam here i come.

[citori59]

explain to me why people will stand shoulder to shoulder for hours to catch scrawny, boney stocked fish. i haven't done that since high school.

[Brett2]

the only chance to catch trout, they aren't natural around this part of PA..

[back channel]

Went out for 7 hours today and did not even get a trout. No one was catching anything. But I did manage to catch two cat fish. Although they were very small.

[Pennsylvaniacatchaser]

Caught about 20 trout total today, biggest 18 inch (2.5 lb) brown trout pictured w/ 15 inch too. At dusk, i even caught a small bullhead on a minnow :confused:

They showed up really small, oh well.

Way to go Brett2! That's a real nice Brownie you caught!:)

[Brett2]

Thanks PennsylvaniaCatChaser... I ate it for dinner today and it tasted really good :cool:

[Pennsylvaniacatchaser]

explain to me why people will stand shoulder to shoulder for hours to catch scrawny, boney stocked fish. i haven't done that since high school.

I like to Trout fish but I get away from the shoulder to shoulder crowd. I work the riffles and water that the crowd isn't fishin' and I do pretty well. It is all just killin' time till Catfishin' kicks into gear!

[Brett2]

Got the last golden rainbow trout left in our creek.... 19 inches and 3 pounds exactly. Should be another night of good eating! It was a great fight too.... can't wait for CATfishing though!

[delawareriver]

maybe ill come fish with u brett! i normaly catch one decent fish each spring the last two year were 18 and 17 respectfully with one very much larger one escaping from me 2 times. andf the year before a 28 inch 9 pound brown but 3 good fish all with in 3 days of the opener is great! havnt been out yet actualy just got back in the state about 2 hours ago but ill proably get out after school tomorrow. keep up the good work guys for the cats are almost here but not yet.

[Pennsylvaniacatchaser]

Got the last golden rainbow trout left in our creek.... 19 inches and 3 pounds exactly. Should be another night of good eating! It was a great fight too.... can't wait for CATfishing though!

Brett2 - Nice Palamino! You had a real sweet opening weekend of Trout season! Great job and keep up the good work! Thanks for posting the photos!

[webster_catman]

finnaly got to go today, kept 3 fish, 2 rainbows and 1 brown. it was a pretty slow day.

[cjb10876]

I usualy go trout fishing once a year, and that's opening day. I go more to hang out with my uncle and cousins than to catch my limit. We go to the lehigh canal in Freemansburg. Last year i had my limit in 40 minutes (good thing since i got married that afternoon...I'll never live down getting married on opening day!), this year i got three in a few hours. The last few years it hasn't been crowded at all as long as you don't mind walking 50 yards or so from the main parking lot. My uncle's friend lives on the canal, so we park behind his house and walk about 15 feet to the water.

[back channel]

Went out on monday and did pretty good. Caught 9 rainbows and had three get off right by shore. All of them were catch and release. there really was not anyone were I was fishing so I had all of the fish to myself.

[delawareriver]

yea i got out yesterday and tonight and had a blast. last night i was only out for an hour before rushing to work. i caught 9, 7 were decent size mostly rainbows, and hand 2 small wild browns.

today fished the same spot between 3 and 8 and landed well over 25 fish, most were 12 inch rainbows a few a touch bigger or a smaller, i bunch of smaller browns (non-native though) and a 17 inch rainbow. i also lost about a 22 inch palomino not once but twice! ah its ok i was the only person fish that stretch of creek. the only two other guys on the creek were about 1/2 mile down stream. kept a few of the bigger ones since they are stocking tomorrow and i know alot of people will fish agian. but give it another 3 or 4 days and ill be alone at the creek agian. the fish ate bread, power yellow honey worms (power bait makes them) spinners and a few bites on powerbait. the spiner was a white mepps and i caught 4 fish and lost another in the first five cats in a large pool. after that it was spotty, bread seamed to work the best, the honey worms work real well after using bread for awhile. and power bait seem to attact a few smaller fish and even them didnt hit hard.

my advice is get out beofre they stock so you get smallest crowd.

[Pennsylvaniacatchaser]

delawareriver - sounds like some good fishin'! Way to go!:)

[delawareriver]

yea it was the best fishing ive had since last years trout season and its not even the most productive time of year for me! i normaly do great about 2 weeks into may when the state stocks for the last time and we have two clubs that stock some trophy fish. few people fish then and when they do alot of it is catch and release. today i only had an hour to fish and i had 7 trout. the state restocked but i fished above where they stocked in the same hole that i was doing very good. i caught 1 smaller brown on a spinner on the way there then i caught 2 decent rainbows, then i switched to the power bait honey worms and nailed a 17 inch palamino! only my second one i ever caught, to bad i couldnt find the larger 22 inch one that i almost had yesterday. i also saw a new large trout maybe a touch under 20 inchs. i think im gonna take some live bait down. today honey worms were most effective and power bait took second, but i didnt have any bread so i think that would have been better then the powerbait if i had it.

i stronly recomend the power bait honey worms if you can find them. i took the yellow color and it gives the trout something different to look at. bread still my fav bait though.

[delawareriver]

any one doing any good?

the last few days it has slowed down alot but it hasnt stoped me. ive been catching alot of natives after rains with worms. today i nailed a hold over brown from last year, 15 inchs with great colors and he was much longer and better adabted for the stream compared to the stocked fish. i also caught him about a mile away from the nearest access point so it was a decent walk. used a small spinner for him. i managed two 5 inch natives and 3 stocked fish also. i have picture on my phone but not on any camera, or i would share them.

[Pennsylvaniacatchaser]

Good job delawareriver! You have been having quite a Trout season so far! The streams around my area have been a muddy mess the last few days from all the rain. Things are getting crazy now with Trout fishing going on, Turkey season starts Saturday and Catfishing should be heating up now! So much to do and so little time!

[bigblaze]

Boy I have spent many of cold spring nights in a tent waiting for the magic 8:00 hour. But thats when I was in high School. Dont know if I could do that now. Looking back now the first day of trout season was absolutely insane...elbow to elbow and god forbid somebody crossed lines because a fight was sure to break out. All over a skinny 8" trout.

You want to catch a trout go to Lake Erie...thats where the big ones are.

Grew up in Beaver County anybody fishing in that area?

[Pennsylvaniacatchaser]

Fished Buffalo Ck. in Armstrong Cty. Thurs. morning and done well. The creek was finally coming around after being a mudhole for about 5 days. I caught 14 Trout - eleven Brownies and three rainbows on spinners. The Trout were really hittin' agressive.

[delawareriver]

sounds like everyone is doing well.

the other night i went down with my fly rod and caught 3! my first trout on a fly so that was exciting. action has slowed down but is still consistent if you dont mind walking. ive been averaging 3-5 trout a trip. caught one more nice one about 16 inchs so i took a picture and let it go.

the thing ive learned this year is show them something they havnt seen for awhile. ived tried a bunch of things this year and they all seem to work but only for so long. an example would be spinners, i was doing excellent the other day with them but recently ive been watching the trout just follow it or lightly hit it where its hard to get a good hookset, then i try a worm or minnow and they just inhale it.

one more tip is take a walk! these areas dont get stocked nearly as much or even at all but the trout find there way there and seem to be agressive with a bonus of native and hold over trout possible.

[back channel]

Went out today for a while and caught six rainbows and two browns. Had spurts of fish at times, they really were not hitting all day long. All of them were caught on meal worms and they were released to fight another day or at least until tommorrow when someone else catches them and takes them home.

[delawareriver]

good to hear. glad im not the only one having sucess.

[price]

I look forward to trout season also.

[price]

That is a real nice trout.

[4wdfisher]

Grew up in PA and opening day was the highlight of my young life. Dug worms for a month, took apart every reel and cleaned and oiled them, new line, cleaned the tackle box, and all the rest. Moved away to TX. in the 70's and got into surf fishing where we use bait as big as the stocked trout.

Been back in PA for work for a few years and got back into trout again. I like the winter stockers and the early season. If I'm in town for opening day, my brother has a camp in Elk county and we do the whole deal - up at 5:00 - wait shoulder to shoulder until 8:00. Its the comraderie, not the fishing on opening day. One year I caught a huge steelhead in Erie and froze it. I took it to camp, and waited until everyone went back to the cabin after limiting out, and I thawed it out. Came back to the cabin and claimed to catch it in that little creek down the road. They said I should call the TV station - it's prpbably a record! It was a great practical joke.

Whatever pulls your line - right!

[delawareriver]

yea opening day in pa is like no other! gotta love being fed up with small fish and crowded streams but i was deffinitly upset that i missed it this year. lol i know what you mean using bigger bait to since i do alot of striper fishing where we use 1lb baits sometimes and most trout are under a lb.

yea and i also caught a huge brown trout like 3 years ago that went just under 9lbs and i had so many guys ask me where i caught it so i said the water then they laughed and asked again so i said the drainage pond down the street that has alot of bass and sunnies in it. not giving up my secret hole in the local stream to a guy that to lazy to walk 100 yards away from the road.