First day of trout yields mixed results
Hunter Foor shows off a nice rainbow trout he caught on Saturday.
April 6, 2022
This past Saturday April 2, 2022 was the start of trout season in PA.
Rivers, streams and lakes throughout the commonwealth have been stocked with more than 3.2 million trout by the Fish and Boat Commission, 22 million of which are of the rainbow variety.
The season has gone two ways for the fisherman here in Bellwood: either you had a fishing spot that was packed shoulder to shoulder and didn’t have a successful day, or you were able to find a private spot and had a good day.
Fishing is a pretty big tradition in central PA, passed down generation after generation. The tradition has certainly fallen off these past years with kids not wanting to fish as much. In 2019, the number of fishing licenses sold in Pennsylvania dropped to an all-time low, and now most people fishing are parents and grandparents, it seems.
However, there are a bunch of kids at Bellwood who still fish and keep the tradition going. There are students who invest their time in fishing and some who just go every once in a while.
Dominic Daughenbaugh, a junior who is a pretty dedicated fisherman, went out for at least 12 hours on Saturday and only caught five trout, the biggest one being only 14 inches. He was using live bate, but in a very populated area with lots of other fisherman.
Junior Hunter Foor, who also invest lots of time in fishing, only fished for about 6 hours, but in total he caught over 20 fish, the biggest being 18-incher using a fly rod and artificial bait made by him and his father. The reason he was so successful, he said. was because he had a more private spot with little to no other fisherman.
Freshman Jackson Grassmyer said he was out for two hours and didn’t catch anything from his spot near Eight Foot behind the Bellwood Dollar General. Classmate Hunter Simmons reported catching seven from near the same area.
Corbin Folk, also a freshman, caught three trout from the stream in the Bellwood community park. He also caught a carp.
Freshman Brady Brown, who is an avid outdoorsman, said he was shutout on Saturday and Sunday, but was heading back out this week.
