With the calendar — and assuredly the weather — stating that it’s the dead of winter, it’s hopeful to note that in only about three weeks the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission will begin stocking trout for the 2022 fishing season.
Trout season opens statewide on Saturday, April 2, and the PFBC has released its stocking schedule, with 3.2 million trout planned for 696 streams and 128 lakes.
“The release of our trout stocking schedule is always a welcome reminder that spring is just around the corner,” Brian Wisner, director of the PFBC Bureau of Hatcheries, said. “This schedule is our roadmap for stocking millions of trout into hundreds of waterways across the state before and during the trout season, which is no small task.”
The trout stocking schedule is searchable by county, lists the waterways in alphabetical order, and indicates stocking dates, meeting locations for volunteers and the species of trout that will be stocked.
In McKean County, the first stocking gets underway on the Marvin Creek, scheduled for Feb. 25, which includes a fly fishing only, catch-and-release stretch that is open to fishing year-round.
Other stockings are set for March, including the delayed harvest, artificial lures only stretch of the Kinzua Creek from the Guffey Road bridge down to the boundary line of the Allegheny National Forest near Westline. This stretch may be fished year-round, as wells as the West Branch of the Tunugwant Creek, which flows through the Pitt-Bradford campus.
Marilla Reservoir is set to be stocked in early March, early April, in the second week of May and then again in December, while Smethport’s Hamlin Lake will be stocked later this month, in early April and later in May.
Pennsylvania will return to a single, statewide opening day for trout season this year, while a single, statewide Mentored Youth Trout Day is set for Saturday, March 26. To accommodate the earlier statewide trout season, preseason trout stocking operations were set to begin the week of Feb. 21.
Fishing is not permitted on lakes and streams designated as Stocked Trout Waters from Feb. 21 to the Mentored Youth Trout Fishing Day and the opening day of the regular trout season in April, unless waters are included in the Stocked Trout Waters Open to Year-Round Fishing program.
Meade Run is the only stream so designated in McKean County.
The total will include 2.2 million rainbow trout, 686,000 brown trout and 293,000 brook trout.
The average size of the trout produced for stocking will again average 11 inches in length with an average weight of .58 pounds.
The stocking schedule will include about 70,000 trophy-sized brood fish, which are 2.5- to 3.5-year-old trout measuring 14-20 inches. The PFBC said about 70% of those fish will be stocked during the preseason prior to opening day of trout season, with the remaining 30% stocked during in-season replenishment stockings.
Also included in the 2022 stocking plan are 13,000 golden rainbow trout weighing an average of 1.5 pounds. About 80 percent will be stocked during the preseason.
In addition to trout raised in commission fish hatcheries, cooperative nurseries operated by sportsmen’s clubs and other groups across the state will add another one million trout to waters open to public angling throughout the year.
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