Lots of people joke about how fickle Pennsylvania’s weather is in spring. This is why.
March 27 was the date of the state’s mentored youth trout fishing day, when kids go fishing with adult mentors.
Plenty did, and enjoyed the bluebird conditions: warm temperatures, sunny skies and lots of fishable water.
“They had a good time,” said Sgt. Frank Mehalko, a supervisor in the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s southwest region office, which covers 10 counties in Western Pennsylvania.
“A lot of the kids I ran into had their limit before lunch and were done and playing in the water, playing in the mud, doing the things that kids do.”
A week later, trout anglers of all ages found themselves playing in the mud – or at least muddy water – whether they liked it or not. The statewide opening day of trout season April 5 was cold and wet, with many stocked trout streams flowing dirty and fast.
“You couldn’t fish Slippery Rock Creek or Neshannock Creek at all,” said Jerry O’Donnell, of O’Donnell’s Sports Supplies in Portersville. “They were high and muddy. This was the worst trout opener I ever had in 50 years. It was cold, wet and miserable.”
The action was slow everywhere.
“I know not many people were fishing,” said Isaac Versaw of Allegheny Angler in Tarentum. “That water was pretty high.”
Dave Barnhart, owner of A Capital Bait and Tackle of North Huntingdon, said the combination of foul weather forecasts and the actual conditions did him no favors.
“It killed me,” he said. “The first day of fishing, I’ll sell about 50 or 60 pounds of minnows. This year, I bought 80 pounds and sold maybe 35.”
That’s not to say no one was on the water, or that no one caught fish. The opening day crowd was fair early on, said Mehalko, who spent the day on patrol.
“Most of the fishermen I talked to, they fished from maybe the start at 8 a.m. to 9:30 or so and got one to three fish,” he said.
“Once heavy rains started, everything pretty much shut off. Fishing pressure was almost nonexistent. You had one or maybe two diehards out still trying their luck, but it was kind of to no avail.
“From there on, the only thing most people got was wet socks.”
Commission waterways conservation officers throughout the region all reported much the same thing, Mehalko said.
Anglers fishing lakes on opening day seemed to do a little better than those on creeks, said Mike Milvet, owner of Cross Creek Bait in Avella, Washington County. Dutch Fork Lake and Canonsburg Lake were both muddy – which is typical for them anyway – but he got reports of people catching at least a few trout in both.
Scott Boytim, owner of River’s Edge Bait Shop in West Newton, said he heard some trout were caught at Dunlap Creek Lake in Fayette County and Upper and Lower Twin lakes in Westmoreland County. Anglers on lakes higher in the Laurel Highlands did OK, too, for at least a little while, he added.
Barnhart echoed that. His grandkids fished at Twin Lakes Park and did well – one granddaughter caught 16 trout – and Indian Lake in North Huntingdon gave up a few.
Versaw said anglers at Northmoreland Lake and the three lakes in Deer Lakes Park all had some level of success as well, with Deer Lakes a hot spot of sorts.
“They got a lot of big brown trout out of Deer Lakes,” he said.
Those who did catch fish around the region used a variety of baits. Barnhart said butterworms were hot, along with maggots. Milvet said he sold more wax worms than anything else. Several shops reported minnows were popular, along with commercial paste baits, especially chartreuse ones.
But all in all, it was a rough opener, said Milvet, who estimated his business was down 50%.
The good news is that – as the old adage about lost love says – there are lots of other fish in the sea, so to speak.
“We’re still continually stocking through April and the first week of May,” Mehalko said. “So there will be plenty of fish to be had.”
This week is an example of what’s coming. In Allegheny County, Sewickley Creek, Big Sewickley Creek and Montour Run got a fresh load of trout on Wednesday, as did Montour Creek.
Several sections of Pine Creek and Turtle Creek were scheduled to get fish Thursday, and North Park Lake on Friday. Indian Creek and Linn Run in Westmoreland County got fish Wednesday, and stocking was scheduled Thursday at Indian Lake, Keystone Lake and Northmoreland Lake. Mammoth Lake was to get trout Friday and Donegal Lake on Saturday.
Anglers can find the trout stocking schedule for the entire state at fbweb.pa.gov/TroutStocking.
Conditions, meanwhile, seem to be improving. Versaw said Deer Creek was starting to look “green and fishable” by Tuesday, with Buffalo Creek likely to be the same a few days later.
“We’re hoping by the weekend that it will warm up and sunny skies and those creeks will be perfect,” he said.
The desire to get out is certainly there, Milvet noted. He saw anglers on a couple of streams, including Millers Run, as early as Monday, as water levels started to come back down.
O’Donnell expects that will be the case in lots of places in the weeks ahead. It can’t stay dismal forever, he said, not even in spring in Pennsylvania.
“This isn’t the first bad opening day we’ve had, but it’s going to get better. They’re starting to fish. All it’s got to do is warm up. If it hits 60, 70 degrees, people will start to fish,” he said.
First Published: April 10, 2025, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: April 11, 2025, 5:04 p.m.
