Fishermen find trout streams very manageable
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By John Hartsock
jhartsock@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG -- After steady and sometimes heavy rain pelted this area daily last week, stream conditions for Saturday's opening day of trout season were expected to be abysmal.
As it turned out, however, even though the water levels on some streams were high and the current was moving faster than usual, the streams were generally clear and quite fishable, and many fishermen were out trying their luck.
"You just have to pick your spots,'' said Dan Fraker, 45, of Duncansville, who had caught eight trout and released seven by late morning.
Fraker caught and released five trout while fishing in Claysburg early Saturday morning, then caught three trout while fishing with wax worms on Blair Gap Run near the Duncansville Community Park later in the morning.
Fraker kept only one fish -- a trophy brown trout that he said measured at least 18 inches --which he had extracted from a large pool on Blair Gap Run.
"I'm the only one in my family who eats them,'' Fraker said. "I'll take some good ones home and fry them up on the grill.''
Most of the fishermen interviewed experienced some success Saturday.
Elias Woods, 25, of Frankstown, was at Canoe Creek with a group of fishermen at a section of stream off Beaver Dam Road, and had caught and released his limit of five trout by mid-morning.
"Three of us caught rainbow trout,'' said Woods, who was using spinning lures for tackle and said that the biggest fish that he caught measured 15 inches. "I checked the water here (Friday) and it was high, but it has good color today.''
Further upstream in a very popular pool hole, the water was running fast and a little high, but fishermen were still catching trout.
Mark Irvin, 65, of Hollidaysburg, who was using PowerBait, had caught three by mid-morning, and put a 13-inch rainbow trout on his stringer.
"Last Tuesday or Wednesday, everything got flooded,'' Irvin said. "But things have cleared up pretty good.''
Fishing in the same vicinity as Irvin was Tracy "Birddog" Ammerman of Hollidaysburg, 63, who was making a killing fishing with a fly rod line and various types of bait. Ammerman had caught and released a dozen trout on the overcast morning. Ammerman was using a very large net to bring in his fish.
"Birddog has caught a dozen so far - he's better than me,'' Irvin said. "That's why he has that big net.''
Ammerman had experienced most of his success very early in the morning. Fishermen were permitted to put their lines in the water at 8 a.m. Saturday.
"They were biting early, but they've kind of slacked off a little,'' Ammerman said. "The water is a little high, but it's clearing up.''
Up on Canoe Lake, the water was high and clear as well, and anglers were having varying degrees of success.
Andrew Allie, 59, and his girlfriend, Denise Everhart, of Altoona, were sitting in lawn chairs by the lake, and both of them had two lines in the water.
"It's been slow for us,'' Allie said of the fishing on the lake. "She had a couple nice hits, and I had one nice hit. Otherwise, it's been very slow. We're using nightcrawlers, PowerBait and butterworms, and the fish seem to like the nightcrawlers the best.''
Both Allie and Everhart agree that patience may be the most important virtue in fishing — a pastime which sometimes offers only intermittent reinforcement at best.
"Fishing is one of those things where you just have to have the patience,'' Everhart said.
Dean Whittaker, 76, of Hollidaysburg, was fishing with his adult son, Scott, on Saturday. Dean was using fathead minnows and was releasing a huge sucker back into the water before agreeing to an interview. He also caught a 13-inch rainbow trout.
The water was moving very quickly on Blairs Gap Run, where several fishermen were trying their luck near a bridge that is located very close to the Sunbrook Manor apartment complex.
"The water is fast here, and some parts are hard to fish,'' Dean Whittaker said. "But the water levels have been coming down quickly.''