Fall means stocking of trout for anglers
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By John Hartsock
jhartsock@altoonamirror.com
While the trout season's annual opening day on the first Saturday of each April is one of the biggest events on the calendar for the state's sportsmen, trout stocking for the year by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission's waterway conversation officers and their crews doesn't wind up with the conclusion of the spring stockings in mid-May.
The PFBC will be stocking roughly 130,000 adult rainbow, brown and brook trout in over 100 popular streams and lakes throughout the state this October and November. Fall trout stocking will take place in 51 of the state's 61 counties.
This annual fall stocking is done on a much-less pronounced scale than the spring stockings, but gives outdoors aficionados the opportunity to harvest more trout in the final months of the year.
The stockings also replenish lakes and streams in which the trout population has dwindled due to fishing pressure over the spring and summer months, as well as preparing lakes like the one at Canoe Creek State Park -- which receives its fall stocking of trout on Thursday, Oct. 15 -- for the upcoming winter ice fishing season.
"When it comes to fall stocking, it's much, much smaller than that which occurs in the spring,'' said Mike Parker, the Communications Director for the PFBC, whose office is based in Harrisburg. "Typically, (the fall stockings) (involve) only about 130 to 140,000 trout, compared to the 3.2 million that are stocked throughout the state each spring.
"The streams and lakes that are stocked each fall are popular places where there is good access, and where there is a good angler base that enjoys fishing,'' Parker said. "We're doing the fall stockings to give fishermen another late-year opportunity to catch fish, as well as to prepare the waters for the winter ice fishing season.''
Parker said that the PFBC stocking crews try to make sure that the water temperatures in the lakes and streams that are stocked each fall are optimal -- around 70 degrees, which is the temperature of the water in the various hatcheries from where the trout are bred and grow before being stocked.
"Cold water is considered to be about 70 degrees, so you want the water (temperature) to be generally somewhere in that area,'' Parker said. "We're looking to make sure that the fish are properly acclimated to the water in which they're being stocked, and the water in our hatcheries is cold, so we don't want to (stock) the fish in water that isn't comfortable for them.''
Parker said that in case of a hot weather spell in the fall, the water temperatures in some streams and lakes may be too high for the stocked fish to survive, so those stockings will be postponed until the weather and the water cool.
He said that fishermen should check the PFBC trout stocking website for any postponements and rescheduled dates.
The fall stockings around the state begin during the first week of October, and streams and lakes in Blair and surrounding counties such as Cambria, Huntingdon, Centre and Clearfield will all be getting trout stocked this fall.
Along with the mid-October stocking at Canoe Creek State Park, there will be stockings on Friday, Oct. 2 at the Janesville Dam, Parker Lake, and Shaggers Inn Pond near Houtzdale in Clearfield County, and a Monday, Oct. 5 stocking at Greenwood Lake in Huntingdon County.
Centre County's Poe Lake and Cold Stream Dam Run will receive respective stockings on Tuesday, Oct. 6 and Wednesday, Oct. 7, while Duman Lake and Chest Creek in Cambria County will both receive stockings on Tuesday, Oct. 6.
The section of Chest Creek that will be stocked is a delayed harvest section where only artificial lures can be used and where anglers are not permitted to keep any fish.
During the extended season from Labor Day through Dec. 31, the creel limit for trout in most of the state's waters is three trout measuring at least seven inches.
Ebensburg's Lake Rowena is customarily stocked in mid to late October, but this year's fall stocking there is being postponed until November because the lake is being dredged -- cleared of mud, sand, silt and other debris -- in a work project that is being conducted under the authorization of the Department of Environmental Protection.
"I'm hoping to have it stocked in November,'' said Nathaniel Yingling, the PFBC Conversation Officer in charge of Cambria County. "Dredging started at the lake on Monday, Sept. 14 and is expected to take six to eight weeks.
"We're not going to put any fish in there until they're done doing the dredging. The exact date (of the November stocking) will be put out on line (on the PFBC website) whenever we figure out when (the DEP) is going to be done with their work.''
While the opening day and first couple weeks of trout season each spring trigger intense interest and elbow-to-elbow crowds along lakes and streams, fishing for trout in the often pleasant Indian Summer fall days provides a unique, more laid-back kind of thrill.
The weather can be optimal, the leaves are beginning to turn into their annual magnificent kaleidoscope of various colors, and the lighter fishing pressure allows for greater opportunity for the anglers who do decide to cast a line.
Many of those fishermen are also avid hunters -- and with archery season for deer starting up in October, they have the best of both worlds when the fish are biting in the fall.
Brock Benson, the Blair County PFBC Conservation Officer, enjoys both hunting and fishing immensely. Benson said that he was actually vacationing in Idaho on a mule deer hunting trip when Canoe Creek Lake was stocked last October, but he will be directing the stocking at the lake this October.
"The peak of the archery season here isn't until later each October, and a lot of the older guys who get a lot of time to hunt, seem to like breaking it up, and also doing some fishing in the fall,'' Benson said. "And some of the other older guys who no longer hunt, still want to get out and do something, so having some trout (to catch) is definitely beneficial for them.''
The fact that so many outdoorsmen opt to hunt rather than fish during the fall trout stocking season plays into the hands of those die-hard anglers who have more of the water to themselves.
"Usually, we have a pretty good turnout that day and evening (of the October stocking), especially when everybody gets off work to do a little fishing,'' Benson said. "But there are just so many activities going on with hunting season ... you've got small game, you've got archery, and I think the weekend after we stock, it's early muzzleloader season for does and bears. So there is a lot going on.''
Nonetheless, trout fishing on Pennsylvania lakes and streams each fall still offers sportsmen its own special kind of thrill.
"It's a great time of the year to be out,'' Parker said. "Once the water temperatures start to cool, you still have warm air temperatures, which is good for insect hatches.
"The fish are really biting -- when you've got the cool water, the fish are more active,'' Parker said. "So the combination of those things makes the fishing great all around right now.''