Afield: Why you shouldn’t put away your trout rod just yet in Centre County
Crystal water tumbled over a few larger rocks and shot past a deeper area beside a half-submerged locust log. It was the perfect wild trout hangout, and I made my first cast with heightened anticipation.
My gold spinner probed the tail of the pool and it netted an 8-and-a-half-inch wild brown trout. My next cast, tucked along the log, enticed a hit from a larger very-colorful brown. His cherry and chocolate spots glistened in the morning sun as I held the fish against my rod for quick measuring before release.
I missed a trout on my next cast, then connected with another brown from the head of the pool. This one put some bend in my rod and measured over a foot. Three wild trout from the same pool — certainly a good start to what would be an excellent morning on one of Centre County’s many wild trout waters.
May and early June have traditionally been the time when many bait anglers stop fishing for trout and fly anglers take over the waters. Recent stream flows and water temperatures have been fantastic for trout fishing and the favorable weather has extended good fishing for all types of anglers as well.
The colder weather and sometimes bank-topping stream levels in late April and early May this year also mean that more stocked trout than usual remain to be caught, and the higher flows helped to spread out the fish. All of this translates into super fishing, with more stream options available to anglers.
Two recent outings serve as examples of the wealth of excellent trout fishing that our area offers. I measure and record every trout that I catch, and even jot down the misses. However, regular readers know that I rarely provide fish totals.
Why? I know that some fishermen struggle to land two or three trout and they consider five a great outing. Therefore, when someone relates that they caught 20 in a morning, it seems unbelievable. I will break from my tradition here — but only to reflect the quality of fishing that our area offers.
On the mid-May morning described above, I had three legal-sized trout in 8 minutes and (had I been keeping my trout) my “limit” in 25 minutes. This outing occurred on a small, Centre County, freestone stream that is not stocked. The morning was action-packed, with me catching 25 wild brown trout ranging in size from 4.5 to 12.5 inches. If you fish in a healthy wild trout stream, you should expect to catch a good number of smaller fish. On this morning, 17 of the 25 trout measured at least eight inches long.
Fishermen often claim that the biggest trout got away — and true or false, it is one of the things that calls us back to the same waters. In addition to the trout that I caught on this outing, I had one fish get off as I was bringing it in, and I had 18 hits (as verified by sight and feel). At least three of these strikes came from trout that appeared to be 14 inches or better.
At least for me, success leads to more fishing. My second trip occurred just two days later and was on a larger area stocked stream that also holds a few wild trout. Water level, color and temperature were perfect, and past experience told me that the water would still be holding an ample supply of stocked trout. I prefer overcast mornings, but the foreboding dark sky made me question just how long I would be able to fish before getting rained out.
I parked and walked downstream about a half-mile to start fishing back toward my pickup. Stocked trout seemed to be everywhere, spread out in the foot to two-foot-deep riffles. I covered the water with my spinner and picked up trout after trout — a mixture of rainbows and browns. I had brought 15 trout (8 to 12.5 inches in length) to net when the sky grew darker and I could hear thunder in the distance.
It started to rain, but I picked up four more medium-sized trout — two rainbows and two browns. The rain intensified and I walked back to my truck. As I reached it, the rain stopped. No other fishermen were around, so I decided to fish a little more above the bridge where I was parked.
I had a heavy hit on my second retrieve and my rod bent double — with the yet-to-be-seen trout pulling out line. I knew it was big, but how big?
After a nice battle, I slid the trout into the shallow water at my feet and measured him. Using the inch markers on my rod, the colorful brown just crossed the 20-inch mark — my biggest trout so far this year. I caught two more smaller trout and ended the morning with 22 stocked trout. Oddly, this day I had no get-offs and only two misses, which was quite different from my previous outing.
Two different days, two different streams and two different experiences — both bursting with trout-catching action. Get out and enjoy the water.