Pennsylvania’s annual trout season begins statewide at 8 a.m. Saturday.
As in past years, the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission have stocked a great portion of its 3.2 million trout for both lake and stream anglers.
The average length of those rainbow, brown, brook and golden trout it claims are 11 inches in length. Saturday’s opener follows one week after the mentored youth season start.
Stockings will continue throughout the season, with a limited number of fall season stockings to replenish the most popular waterways. In addition, sportsmen's groups with cooperative nurseries have added an additional 1 million trout to public waterways.
Two Somerset County streams that anglers will not find on the PFBC stocking list however, are Quemahoning Creek and Wells Creek. “They are examples of waterways that are not stocked by the traditional fish and boat commission white truck,” said Len Lichvar, president of the PA. council of Trout Unlimited, and district managerof the Somerset Conservation District. “But they are viable fisheries, both because of AMD (abandoned mine drainage) abatement efforts over the last 20 to 25 years.”
Lichvar explained that both streams are stocked through donations. “The creeks harbor trout 12 months a year because of the efforts of local volunteers and local citizens and local businesses supplying money to purchase fish for them.” He said that the Wells Creek Watershed Association has and will continue to stock 1,600 trout this year in the stream it maintains. “That’s a stream that’s off the radar screen as far as most anglers are concerned, because they don’t really realize that it’s a viable tributary of the Stonycreek River.”
The 9-mile stream that is stocked from Listie northeast to Mostoller. “It’s recovered from historic abandoned mine drainage and has a very small local watershed group that has shepherded that waterway for well over 20 years, and has flipped it from an AMD-contaminated stream with no fish in it, to a point where they’re able to maintain those AMD treatment systems and now turn it into a viable recreational fishery,” he said.
“Que Creek” is stocked through donations from Jenner Rod & Gun Club, Jenner Community Sportsmen Assc., and local businesses and individuals, from rt.30 in Jenners, north to the Que reservoir, as well as in its tail-waters from the below the dam to its confluence with the Stonycreek. AMD treatment systems in Jenners and Boswell have allowed aquatic life to once again thrive in the waterway. It offers easy access both above and below the dam with plenty of free parking.
Avid angler Allen Berkey of Jennerstown recommends anglers try their luck on the South Fork of Bens Creek (4.7 miles of which is designated wild brown trout water)as well asClear Shade Creek, Beaverdam Creek, and the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River near New Baltimore. “It’s unbelievable the amount of nice brownies that are in that creek,” he said. Higgins Run is another Somerset Co. stream where anglers may have luck. “That one has wild brownies in it,” he claimed. Berkey recommends using garlic or glitter Power Bait or wax worms for natural bait for success.
During the regular season (opening day through September 2), anglers may keep up to five trout (combined species) measuring at least 7-inches long. During an extended season from September 3 through February 28, the daily limit is three trout.
To locate stocked waters near you, search online: Trout Stocking | Fish and Boat Commission. Waterways are searchable by county, organized in alphabetical order and list the date, time and meeting place for each stocking.
In January the PFBC commissioners approved the acquisition of a property easement along 2,440 linear feet of North Blacklick Creek in Barr Township, Cambria County.
From 2019-23, the agency ...
