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By Walt Young
For the Mirror
Many anglers were delighted this year by the first day of trout season being moved to the first Saturday of April, a change that opened the season two weeks earlier than usual.
Unfortunately, the weather so far this April has been anything but delightful. Several mornings were brutally cold with frozen fingers that struggled to tie knots, not to mention some snow on a few days along with rain and high water as well. Despite the decidedly unspringlike weather most of the time this month, the fishing has been good most days for those willing to brave the conditions.
But springtime can't hold out forever, and the glorious, desirable days we long for will be here soon enough. Many of our local streams have already received an in-season stocking and other waters will soon as well. These recent stockings will attract some anglers but nothing resembling the crowds of opening day. A large percentage of fisherman now found along stocked waters tend to be more dedicated trout anglers who are willing to fish for the fewer, and now smarter, fish that evaded the onslaught of opening weekend.
Back in the 1970s, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission dramatically changed its trout management strategies by finally recognizing that our state is blessed with many fine streams that support self-sustaining populations of wild trout. Studies also proved that dumping hatchery trout into such streams is highly detrimental to the resident wild trout. To protect important wild trout waters, the PFBC discontinued stocking these resources.
Currently, most of our stocked trout waters are marginal at best, incapable of supporting trout year-round. Some become too warm or lack sufficient flow during the summer months. Others don't sustain adequate quantities of insects and other aquatic life trout rely on for food. Therefore, numerous stocked waters only produce meaningful trout fishing opportunities for a few weeks each spring.
Like so many Pennsylvania anglers, however, the first fish I ever caught was a stocked trout. It was just a 9-inch brook trout that gobbled a garden worm on opening day more than 50 years ago, but I remember that catch as vividly as if it was last week. That stocked brookie lit the fire that made me a trout fisherman, but it was fishing for wild trout that fanned the flames for me and launched a long and rewarding fishing career.
During my early years, there were wild brook trout in several small streams near my home. Back then, those streams were stocked as well, and the larger hatchery trout were a welcome bonus during the opening weeks of trout season. By late spring or early summer, nearly all the hatchery fish were gone, and I was more than content to fish for the smaller wild brook trout and the occasional wild brown.
Those little wild trout taught me many valuable fishing lessons. Foremost among them was to approach the stream cautiously and with stealth when the water was low and clear, otherwise those spooky wild trout fled into hiding before I could ever make a cast. Fly-fishing on the tiny mountain runs where the pools and riffles were guarded by overhanging hemlock trees and rhododendron was no easy feat for an inexperienced fly caster.
But doing so trained me to be a more skillful caster along with instilling invaluable patience to one often impatient youngster. When I began tying my own trout flies, eager wild brook trout were the first fish I could fool on some of my own creations. But those bits of early success provided all the encouragement I needed to stick with the craft and polish my skills into those of an accomplished professional fly tier.
Fishing for wild trout also taught me the value of catch-and-release angling at an early age. Because a lot of the wild trout I caught in those mountain streams were under legal size, I learned how properly to handle and unhook the smaller fish to release them unharmed. As my fishing abilities improved, I began to release all the larger trout as well, knowing that I might enjoy catching them another time or two over the course of the season.
Those and countless other lessons learned on the headwaters pursuing wild trout provided a solid foundation as I graduated to bigger waters in search of bigger trout. But despite so much success on many wonderful trout streams throughout Pennsylvania and elsewhere, I enjoy no trout fishing experience more than returning to my angling roots and the small streams of my boyhood years.
I am thankful most of streams continue to provide that unique sense of solitude and intimacy as I cast my flies to the wild trout that still live there. Each time I catch one, I take a few seconds before releasing it to admire its beauty and to consider that this wild trout wiggling in my hand is likely to be the direct descendant of another wild trout who thrilled and inspired me as a dedicated teenage angler here so many decades ago.