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Angling for change
When are anglers more likely to catch trout, and with what success? According to the commissions study, anglers caught slightly more stocked fish after opening weekend than during the first-day crush. The catch rate was 1.0 trout per hour opening weekend and 1.13 fish per hour afterward. On wild trout streams, fishermen caught 1.76 brook trout per hour on small streams, 0.51 brookies per hour on large streams, and 0.56 brown trout per hour on large streams. Ken Undercoffer looks at the state's wild trout and sees enormous potential. "Devoted trout fishermen pursue them from early spring well into the fall, and sometimes even into winter," said Undercoffer, a former Greensburg resident who lives in Clearfield and serves as president of the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited.
You've probably caught used trout
Despite opening-day images of stringers hanging full of and creels packed with dead trout, a pair of newly released studies show anglers in Pennsylvania release most of the trout they catch. According to Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission/Penn State studies, anglers fishing stocked trout streams in the spring caught about one trout per hour and released 63.1 percent of those fish. Similarly, during the course of the legal fishing season on wild trout waters, average catch rates varied from around one fish every two hours for brook and brown trout on large streams to nearly two brook trout per hour (1.76 fish per hour) on small streams. Anglers released 92.7 percent of those wild trout. "In evaluating fisheries, we consider average catch rates of one trout for two hours of fishing time as 'good.' The fact that both wild trout fisheries and stocked waters averaged, and in many cases far surpassed, this measure is exciting," commission executive director Doug Austen said.
FISHING REPORT
Galveston Fishing Pier reported flat, sandy water most of the day. Fishing was on the slow side overall, but anglers throwing cut bait from the T-head had fair numbers of reds, including a mix of keepers and oversized throwbacks, along with a few sharks. If water greens, watch for a quick run of speckled trout. .
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