Saturday’s (Apr. 6) much anticipated statewide trout opener gets underway at 8 a.m. when local streams and lakes will be lined with anglers attempting to latch onto some of the 3.2 million trout the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission will have stocked for the season. The PFBC says they will stock approximately 2.4 million Rainbow Trout, 702,000 Brown Trout and 132,000 Brook Trout. And these fish, they say, are 11 inches in length and weigh .58 pounds 

In addition, the PFBC says 70,000 will be brood trout that are 2.5 years old and 3.5-year-old hatchery-raised Rainbow, Brown and Brook Trout measuring 14-20 inches. Roughly 70 percent of these lunkers will be stocked prior to opening day of trout season, and 30 percent during in-season stockings. 

As a bonus, approximately 14,000 golden Rainbow Trout will be stocked in 2024. These fish will weigh an average of 1.5 pounds with approximately 75 percent being stocked preseason and 25 percent will be stocked in-season. Added this, PFBC cooperative nurseries like the Lil-Le-Hi trout nursery and sportsman’s clubs, will add another one million trout to waters open to the public during the season.  

Once the opener kicks off, the PFBC will begin their inseason stockings. The following Lehigh and Northampton stocking dates are as follows. Keep in mind not all portions of a listed stream will be stocked at one time on that date. 

For Lehigh County the following will receive fish on listed dates:

4-9: Lehigh Canal; 4-10: Jordan Creek; 4-11: Little Lehigh, Swabia Creek; 4-15: Jordan Creek; 4-16: Coplay Creek, Jordan Creek; 4-18: Jordan Creek; 4-19: Switzer Creek, Jordan Creek; 4-22: Cedar Creek, Little Lehigh; 4-24: Monocacy Creek; 4-25: Ontelaunee Creek; 4-26: Jordan Creek; 4-29: Cedar Creek, Little Lehigh, Swabia Creek; 5-6: Coplay Creek, Trout Creek.

In Northampton County the following will receive stockings:

4-8: Monocacy Creek, Saucon Creek; 4-9: Lehigh Canal; 4-11: Hokendauqua Creek, Indian Creek; 4-15: Lehigh Canal; 4-18: Jacoby Creek, Martins Creek; 4-19: Bushkill Creek, Little Bushkill Creek; 4-23: Hokendauqua Creek; 4-24: Monocacy Creek, Saucon Creek; 4-30: Bushkill Creek, Little Bushkill Creek; 5-2: Minsi Lake; 10-10: Minsi Lake. 

If you’re heading to the upper Jordan Creek or Leaser Lake to fish and are need of bait, Bob’s Wildlife Taxidermy Shop in Orefield on Kernsville Road (610-398-7609) has Rosy Red minnows, medium shiners, fathead minnows, red worms, nightcrawlers, baby nightcrawlers, waxworms and mealworms. He may also be getting butter worms prior to the opener. Bob puts out a friendly reminder that a portion of the Jordan Creek at the Trexler Zoo above the ford that crosses the stream is a “kids fishing only” area where they’re almost guaranteed to catch a trout or two.

If you enjoy catching trout but not keeping them in a catch-and-release practice, the PFBC strongly recommends these release methods:

*Land the fish quickly: Don’t let it fight and jump until it’s exhausted.

*Use a landing net: The best nets have a shallow bag made of fine mesh. If you must handle the fish, wet your hands before touching the fish. 

*Keep the fish in the water as much as possible: If you must handle the fish, keep it in the water as being out of the water is stressful for the fish.
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*Quickly remove the hook: Practice grabbing the hook shank and turning the fish upside down. The fish will usually slide off the hook. Long pliers are helpful when removing the hook. Sometimes fish will get hooked and there’s no way to get the hook out so just snip the line as close as possible to the fish’s mouth, then release it. You may also want to crimp down the hook barb. 



 

With far too many youngsters tied to their cell phones and TV games, it would be nice to give them a life-long sport that gets them outside and into the great outdoors. And what a better time to do it is this weekend (March 30) for the Mentored Youth Trout Day that runs from 8 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. 

On this day, youths get a jump start on fishing trout-stocked waters before the statewide opener April 6. And the odds of them catching fish is better and helps maintain their interest in the sport. 

When my son was a youngster and there was no Mentored Youth Day, I took him to a local farm pond where he caught and released loads of small largemouth bass and sunnies that kept his interest and hooked him on fishing. Then we transgressed to trout fishing and on his first opening day of trout season he was excited to catch a trout before I did. And in  subsequent days on local streams, he often out-fished me. 

For starters, and to make youngsters feel like an adult angler, the fish commission says youth anglers need a Mentored Youth Permit or a Voluntary Youth Fishing License from any licensing agent and they must be accompanied by a licensed adult angler to participate in the program. With this license or permit it entitles the youth, 15 years old and younger, to take a total of two trout with a minimum length of 7 inches. Adult anglers are prohibited from possessing trout on that day. 

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission offers this guidance for mentors: 

*Youth should be capable of fishing on their own, with limited assistance from the mentor.

*Mentor should be fishing within a reasonable distance of actively fishing youth.

*This day is for mentors and their youth, and not designed for large groups of youth fishing, with minimal adult supervision. 

Of note, Special Regulation Areas are not included in this program and it’s unlawful to fish in waters designated as part of the Mentored Youth Fishing Day Program. 

The Mentored Youth Permit is free, whereas the Voluntary Youth License is $2.97 ($1 cost plus $1 issuing agent fee plus 0.97 PALS transaction fee). Adult anglers, however, need an annual fishing license and current trout/salmon permit. The youth permit, or youth voluntary license, can also be obtained online by going to HuntFishPA. 

LEASER LAKE

From recent field reports, Leaser Lake was reportedly stocked with larger than the average size trout stocked. The reason, it’s surmised, is so the muskies at Leaser don’t feast on them as they would smaller trout. 
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At the end of each hunting and fishing season, Southwick Associates performs a survey of the most frequently purchased equipment and gear for that year. 

Southwick is a consumer tracking company that surveys purchase information of sales across different types of stores, brand purchased, price paid and demographics for sportsmen and sportswomen who buy specific products. 

For 2023, Southwick compiled the most frequently purchased hunting and shooting equipment brands. Their sampling is as follows: 

Traditional Rifles – Ruger; Shotguns – Beretta; Rifle Ammunition – Federal; Reloading Powder – Hodgon; Reloading Components – Hornady & CCI; Binoculars – Bushnell; Reflex/Red Dot Sights – Sig Sauer; Scope/Accessory Mounts – Leupold; Trail Camera – Stealth Cam; Game Calls – Primos; Game Feeder – Game Winner; Holsters/Ammo Belts – Blackhawk; Gun Cleaning – Hoppes; Choke Tubes – Briley; Magazines – Magpul. 

OUTDOOR RAMBLINGS

In last week’s column we mentioned the possibility of shad making their way up the Delaware River in their annual spawning run. Well, Kevin Ingram, a contributor to the Delaware River Fishing Report, said he fished the Yardley stretch of the Delaware on March 14 and managed to land seven shad with the first one caught at 11:30 a.m. He also caught a walleye and added that the water temperature was 48 degrees at 6 p.m. 

In regards to the shad fishery, the New Jersey Marine Fisheries Division said American shad are in need of protection and addressed measures of an unsustainable adult female mortality in the Delaware Basin. As such, they would like New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware to reduce their creel limits down to just two American shad in the freshwater section. 

As a result, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission said that because the Delaware River American shad population is experiencing unsustainable mortality, Co-Op members and Pennsylvania have agreed to reduce the American Shad harvest by approximately 33 percent for both recreational and commercial fisheries. This was voted and approved on Jan. 1, 2023, which now drops the creel limit from three to two shad per day on waters managed for the Delaware River, West Branch Delaware River and River Estuary. 

TROUT POACHERS

As most of the local streams have been stocked with trout for the season opener, it’s being reported that some fishermen are fishing closed portions of the Little Lehigh Creek (and a few others), ahead of the opener. One guy was spotted using a hand-line to fish. 

In checking, it was learned that the local Waterways Conservation Officer has made a few arrests of these illegal anglers. If honest anglers spot any of this taking place, they should call the fish commission’s Southeast Region office at 717-626-9228. 

SPORTSMEN’S RAFFLE

The Lehigh Valley Community Benefit is a nonprofit group of folks who got together after some friends and neighbors lost their lives under tragic circumstances. They honor them with raffles and motorcycle rides like a Toy Run with all proceeds going back to the Lehigh Valley and surrounding areas. Their latest effort is a Sportsmen’s Raffle of 36 firearms ranging from a Ruger American 6.5 Creedmoor rifle to a Winchester XP 12 ga. Shotgun, Sig Sauer P365 9mm, Glock 43X MOS 9mm, Ruger 10/22 .22 rifle, 1000 rounds of 5.56 PMC and many more.

​The raffle is being held April 27, 2024 at 1 p.m., at Tri-Boro Sportsmen’s Club in Northampton. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the club or online at www.LVCB.org. 

​Although the deer hunting season has ended you can still take to the woods and fields in search of antler sheds. And since there’s no snow on the ground, sheds should be easier to find. 
Shedding can start to occur in late December as famed wildlife photographer and author Dr. Lenny Rue III indicates in his “Whitetail Savvy” book, which is an encyclopedia on whitetails. Rue writes, “Increasing amount of daylight after December 2, melatonin is suppressed by the end of March and the luteinizing hormone allows enough testosterone to be produced to start the growth of the buck’s new antlers.” 

In his chapter on sheds, Rue says that finding cast antlers may help hunters to be more successful in locating a good buck the following deer season. Sheds, he contends, also make good knife handles, door pulls and chandeliers. 

Rue goes on to say that even more important, cast antlers give definite proof which bucks made it through the hunting season, how large the bucks are and where they might be found next season. 

He adds that although bucks may not live in the same area in which they spend their winter, hunters who live in an area where deer do not yard up, can find sheds that indicate home range. 
And as many shed hunters know, if you find one antler you may or may not find the other one. Rue says that most of the time a buck will lose one antler and not drop the second for another hour, day or week. And if not found a short time after they’re cast, they’ll be consumed by rodents and other animals desperate for minerals. 

Trying to spot antlers in a forest littered with leaves and sticks could be tough, as they don’t stand out. He writes about an Indiana farmer who had two of his tractor tires punctured by a shed as he was driving in his hayfield. “That cost him $600 to have the tires replaced.”

 But for shed hunters, finding large ones could bring big bucks of the monetary kind. Rue points out that if finding a large 150-195-inch B&C class shed could bring the hunter upwards of $2,500 or more. 

As for locally in the Lehigh Valley area, Bob Danenhower, of Bob’s Wildlife Taxidermy in Orefield and an avid shed hunter since he was a kid, says shed hunters should check hillsides and ridge-tops with a southern exposure as bucks like to warm themselves during cold and bright winter days. He also suggests checking winter deer bedding areas. 

Aside from those areas, you may find one or more in unexpected areas like Andrew Wargo of Northampton and his son Harrison did last week when they walked the Ironton-Rail Trail section from Rte.145 west to Egypt. It’s there Andrew spotted what appeared to be a freshly dropped 4-point buck laying aside the trail. 

Another unusual shed was found last week by 8-year old Joelle Flyte, from Bushkill Township, who found a deer skull with the antlers intact when walking with her older brother in the woods behind their home. It’s surmised that the 8-point buck may have been shot during archery season and the hunter couldn’t find it but coyotes, foxes and field mice did and they ate the skull clean. 

Danenhower contends, as does Rue, that bucks may drop an antler then keep shaking their heads to drop the other that may or may not fall at that time. 

For novice shed hunters looking for a public spot to hunt, Danenhower suggests walking the Trexler Game Preserve lands as he did and as he used to find many sheds there. 
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So to lengthen your deer-hunting season, give shed hunting a try. It may pay off handsomely.