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The Pennsylvania Game Commission is hosting Junior Game Warden Camps for ages 12-15

5/24/2025

Pre-teens ages 12-15 can gain some valuable experience that could prepare them for a future career in wildlife enforcement. And that can happen at the upcoming Junior Game Warden Camps hosted by the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

The PGC is again holding Junior Game Warden Camps across the Commonwealth that will provide hands-on experience on what a game warden does. The one-day camp will be a structured, fun-filled day of learning that’s not taught in public schools. They’ll join wardens who will oversee various hands-on learning stations that will include forensics and methods used by wardens to catch poachers and solve wildlife-related crimes. The camp will feature wildlife capture techniques, woodland tracking and outdoor survival with some light physical activities.

The camp will show the methods wardens use to track down lost hikers, how they live-trap bears and other wildlife for research, or a trap-and-transfer of other various wildlife.

According to the PGC, the one-day camp will begin at 8 a.m. and end at 3 p.m.. Registration for the camps can be completed online on the PGC’s website. Registration is limited to those who have not attended a camp held previously.

While there are six regional camps scheduled across the state, the two closest to the Lehigh Valley are as follows:

*Northeast Region: Thursday, July 22, at Outdoor Insiders, 310 Outdoor Drive, New Milford, PA, 18834. Registration is limited to 45 participants.

*Southeast Region: Friday, July 25, at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area Visitor Center, 100 Museum Road, Stevens, PA 17578. Registration is limited to 60 participants.

WHITEHALL FISHING DERBY
The Free Trout Fishing Derby scheduled at Hokey Park on Saturday, May 24, was cancelled by the Whitehall Parks and Recreation Department. It has been rescheduled for Sunday, June 22 at 8 a.m.

FREE FISHING DAY
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has set Sunday, May 25, for the first Free Fishing Day where a fishing license is not needed to fish Commonwealth waters.

This is a good time for those who would like to try the lifelong sport or for seniors who quit fishing but would like to give it a try again.

Although local streams are a bit high and off-colored, there are remaining trout in those that were recently stocked. So it may take some perseverance to hook up with a trout or two. If not streams or rivers, Leaser Lake is in good shape and producing a variety of fish including panfish, trout and huge muskies.

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A free trout fishing derby awaits youngster ages 6-15 on May 25 at Hokendauqua Park and Playground

5/17/2025

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Rainbow trout like this will be stocked for the youngster Trout Fishing Derby on May 24 in Hokey. Photo by author

Youngsters 15 and under are invited to try their fishing luck at the free Fishing Derby hosted by Whitehall Recreation Department on May 24 at the Coplay Creek located at Hokey Park and Playground.

The Derby will award first through third place prizes for the largest fish for ages 6 and under, 7-9, 10-12 and 13-15 age groups. All fish must be measured and registration for the contest begins at 8 a.m. for the event that begins at 9 a.m. and runs until 11 a.m.

According to Michele Dragovitz, Whitehall Township Administrative Coordinator, there will be 150 rainbow trout stocked of which 125 will be 12-15 inches long, while 25, 16-20-inch lunker trout will be planted. She goes on to list the following:

Some rules to know is that prizes will be awarded based on the size of the fish with tie-breakers judged by the heaviest weight. This process will continue until a winner is determined, or a max of four fish have been measured. If no winner can be determined after four fish have been measured, a Random Selection Activity will be conducted to determine a winner.

No more than one prize will be awarded per angler. The winner of the biggest fish prize cannot also win first place in their age group. And registered anglers must be present to claim their prize.

A few other items are that there’s a limit of four fish per angler and only single hooks are permitted. No spinners, lures or corn are allowed. Live bait or Power Bait however is permitted. Adults can assist the kids who need help, but cannot fish for them.

All fishing must be done from the bank as no wading is permitted and each contestant may only use one rod.

Hokey Park is located at 3417 Lehigh Street, Whitehall which below the Ironton Rail Trail Bridge and a short distance off MacArthur Road.

FISHING REPORT

With all the rain we’ve been getting local streams and rivers are high and muddy in color. So the alternative is to head down to the Jersey shore where On the Water Magazine reports that big striped bass, bunker and 12-pound bluefish have moved into Raritan Bay.
There are also more 50-inch stripers being caught in the North Jersey surf along with fluke up to 7 pounds showing up in the Shrewsbury River. Added as well is the opening of sea bass season that kicked off today, May 17.

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Pennsylvania bear harvest numbers are in with several weighing over 700 pounds

5/9/2025

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It's a known fact among sportsmen that Pennsylvania has some large bears. Photo by author

The 2024-25 bear harvest numbers are in and Pennsylvania remains as the state of giant bears. To wit, three bears exceeded 700 pounds and nine topped 600 pounds. Of those figures, Heath Bromley of Titusville, PA, used a crossbow to take a 597-pound bear in Venango County. Topping that, Scott Price of Madison Township, Lackawanna County, tagged a 774-pound bruin in Monroe County during the November statewide bear season.

All total, hunters took 2,642 bears during the 2024 season, placing the 2024 harvest in the top 25 on record.

In the past, the overall bear harvest was spread across the state. Fifty-six of 67 counties gave up at least one bear, as did 21 of 22 WMUs. Hunters, says the PGC, got bears in all of the seasons. The traditional statewide firearms bear season contributed the most to the harvest with 823 bears. The archery season added 756, the extended season 425, the muzzleloader and special firearms season 634, and there were four harvests in the early archery season.

The PGC explains that the overall bear harvest was spread across the state as 56 of 67 counties gave up at least one bear, as did 21 of 22 Wildlife Management Units. And hunters took bears in all seasons as well.

Aside from Bromley’s bear and Price’s bear, the others in the top 10 by weight included a 714-pounder taken in the rifle season in Perry Township Clarion County, by Matthew Conto of Slippery Rock; a 700-pounder taken in archery season in Harrison Township, Potter County, by Henry Mast of Harrison Valley; a 689-pouner taken in rifle season in Chapman Township, Clinton County, by Michael Greg of Kersey; a 681-pounder taken in archery season in Sharon Township, Potter County, by Tyler Birdsall of Milton; a 681-pounder taken in rifle season in White Haven Borough, Luzerne County, by Stanley Boc of Huntingdon Valley; a 678-pounder taken in muzzleloader season in Lightfield Township, Bradford County, by Scott Tiffany of Athens; a 673-pounder taken in archer season in Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County, by Jeff Prinkey of Connelsville; a 615-pounder taken in archery season in Jefferson County, Dauphin County, by Dennis Morgan of Halifax.

Among the top counties, Tioga produced the most, giving up 163 bears last season. It was followed in the top 10 by Clinton with 157, Lycoming with 148, Bradford with 133, Potter with 109, Luzerne with 95, Monroe with 93, Pike with 85, McKean with 78 and Sullivan with 75.

Here in the Southeast the final harvest numbers (2023 numbers in parenthesis) were 167 (159) total for all WMUs with Schuylkill reporting 64 (65); Dauphin, 45 (42); Northampton, 28 (21); Berks, 18 (16); Lebanon, 9 (10); and Lehigh, 3 (5).

According to the PGC, last year, 201,280 hunters bought bear license for the 2024 season. It was the sixth-straight year bear license sales topped 200,000.

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PA sportsmen can now hunt for turkey in the morning and fish for shad in the afternoon

5/4/2025

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Right now is a sportsman’s delight in that they can hunt spring gobblers in the morning, then head over to the Delaware River for some shad fishing action.

Shad anglers are reportedly catching them from Easton on up to New York State. And doing so from boat and shore.

On a recent Bi-State Shad Fishing Contest the top shad was a 5.06-pound buck. Second place was a 4.925 pounder. And in the kids ages 11 and under group Everette Warman placed second with a 4.770 pounder. In the 12-15 age group, David Schell placed fifth with his 4.135-pound shad.

Steve Meserve, the commercial shad fisherman who operates a shad netting operation in the Bucks County stretch of the Delaware River, has been reporting modest catches every time he pulls in his nets. Most recently he reported seven buck and one roe while he returned eight buck shad. This same net also produced one smallmouth bass, 18 catfish, one sucker, three quillback and four gizzard shad. But if we get additional heavy rain storms that will raise the river four feet or more, he could be off the river for a while.

On Sunday morning, Andrew Hildenbrand posted on the Delaware River Shad Fishing site that he fished the Riegelsville stretch of Delaware and went 27 for 32 plus a bonus walleye. David Perruso also posted that he fished from 7 a.m. 11:30 a.m. and landed 22 shad and probably lost a dozen more. By using downriggers on his boat plus plugs and TripZ’s both were getting hits. Hot color this day was gold tri-color spoons.

Further down the Delaware closer to Philadelphia and even in the Bucks County area, stripers are hitting bloodworms and the linesiders are sizable. They customarily follow the shad run.

Since the weather has warmed you may want to hit the Jersey shore where the striper bite has been reported as good and getting better.

According to our reporters from On the Water Magazine, sizable stripers are being caught in Raritan Bay and in local rivers and along the beaches. The surf action too picked up with anglers picking up stripers on clams. Rick Hebert at Tackle World in Rochelle Park reported that there’s a solid striper bite in Raritan Bay with fish hitting shads, metal-lip swimmers and live bunker.

Also showing up are bluefish in the Shrewsbury and Navesink rivers and in the Manasquan River and Barnegat Bay. And fluke season kicked on Sunday, but prior to this, they were already hitting baits intended for other species.

Salt water angling will only get better as the weather warms and continues on climbing into summer temps.

Anglers should not forget local streams for trout action. With recent stockings, I made drive-by passes Saturday along the Jordan, Coplay and a part of the Little Lehigh crews and fishing pressure was virtually nil.

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Lehigh valley outdoors

By Nick Hromiak

The Pennsylvania Game Commission is hosting Junior Game Warden Camps for ages 12-15

A free trout fishing derby awaits youngster ages 6-15 on May 25 at Hokendauqua Park and Playground

Pennsylvania bear harvest numbers are in with several weighing over 700 pounds

PA sportsmen can now hunt for turkey in the morning and fish for shad in the afternoon

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