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Trout season in Pennsylvania is almost upon us again and fishermen throughout the state will begin to start thinking about where and how they will catch these cunning fish this year.  The first day in 18 southeastern counties including Juniata, Perry, Dauphin, Schuylkill, Lehigh, Cumberland, Franklin, Adams, York, Lebanon, Berks, Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, Delaware, and Philadelphia to the 29st of March.  The rest of Pennsylvania the opening day is still the 12th of April.  This change was due to the change in climate in the southeastern counties in which the weather gets warmer sooner than it does in the rest of the state. 

Trout Fishing Tips and Tricks - Catch more trout 

• Locate a hole (a deeper section of the creek) to fish generally trout like to hold in the head, belly, or tailout of the hole. In the morning focus your efforts on the faster sections of the hole at the head.  Fish with minnow imitations or minnows early in morning good imitations include streamers, spinners, and small spoons.  Trout tend to like faster water to lie in but often will get spooked to gut or belly of the hole later in the day due to heavy fishing pressure from anglers. Later in the day towards the evening hours focus on the tailout of a hole.  Often you will see trout rising in section towards nightfall.
  
  
• Don’t be afraid to fish your baits with an erratic motion.  For example if fishing with a fly rod and a streamer strip or rip your fly line to make a jerking motion with your streamer.  This will make your fly look as if it is crippled and darting to get out of harms way and will often causes a reaction strike. Or if you fish with spinning gear jerk your rod with quick short jerks while reeling to make your spinner or spoon dart while going through the water.  Also don’t be afraid to reel fast causing your spinner to burn just below the surface of the water which will often result in a very impressive strike from a hungry trout.
  
  
• Afternoon + Sun = Dry Flies – If you are a fly fisherman you know what I mean.  Often there are some mighty big hatches that take place during trout season and all it takes usually to kick it off is a little sun.  I usually do the best using Adams, Blue Quills, Red Quills, and Wolfs in a variety of colors.  Remember to try to match the size and color of the flies that are landing on the water during a hatch.  Also you may want to try incorporating a dropper fly such as a small nymph like a prince or hairs ear.  This can be an extremely effective method to catch trout.
  
  
• Attention Bait Fisherman - Remember to use the appropriate amount of sinkers when fishing with bait.  You should only feel your sinkers tapping the bottom every once in a while if you are fishing a location with current.  Also you should only be using 6 lb test line or lighter, with 4 lb being preferred.  Trout can be very sensitive to line diameter and you may want to give a fluorocarbon line a try this year.  Fluorocarbon lines are invisible underwater, which will allow you to use a heavier line diameter, however this line can be a little expensive.

Hopefully if you use some of these techniques you will be more successful this 2008 Trout Season.

If you send your photos to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it we will post them in this article to share with the community.  Please let us know the size of the fish, where it was caught, and how it was caught.

PA Trout Stocking Schedule

• Walleye - The fishing in the Lake Erie can be fantastic for walleye and is probably the best walleye fishery in the country. Walleye can be located in the first and second trench which are located from the Ohio border to past the Walnut Creek Marina and can be easily located with a map and depth finder. When fishing the first and second trench you will primary either be trolling with downriggers or using large and small dipsy divers with crawler harnesses.  A popular color when fishing for walleye in Lake Erie is purple and black.  Also there are times when you can locate walleye in closer to shore which they can be caught by trolling crankbaits or fishing the bottom with bottom bouncers.
  
  
• Bass - Lake Erie is the home to probably the best smallmouth bass fishing in the country and they can easily be caught by drifting tubes in the 20 to 30 foot ranges.  Some very popular locations to fish for smallmouth bass are right outside the presq isle area where there is a drop off that will hold large amounts of very large smallmouth bass often up to 6 pounds.  Looking for largemouth bass presque isle is home to some of the best, largemouth bass can be found in the weedbeds of the bay and easily caught by fishing texas rigged tubes, worms, or lizards.
  
  
• Steelhead - One of my favorite fish and Lake Erie is home to some of the best steelhead tributaries in the country.  In Pennsylvania we are home to Walnut Creek, 20 Mile, and Elk Creek which is the largest tributary in Pennsylvania.  There is also several smaller streams that hold steelhead in the spring and fall months.  Steelhead can be caught with either a fly rod or by fishing with a bait rig outfit such as spinning rod, steelhead casting rod outfit, or with a center pin dead drift outfit.  The name of the game when fishing for steelhead on the Pennsylvania tribs is dead drifting usually utilizing a strike indicator of some sort.  Fly fisherman often use a fly known as sucker spawn and often using two flies below a strike indicator.  Fishing with bait is also a very popular method to catch these silver bullets.  Popular baits include egg sacks, single eggs, skein, minnows, shiners, wax worms, and maggots.  The most popular time to fish for steelhead in the Pennsylvania streams are in late October and November and in the spring month of March.  To get some of the most up to date fishing conditions at Lake Erie see the fishing reports at FishErie,com which fisherman post their results and stream conditions on a daily basis.  Also during the summer months FishErie.com has daily updates on walleye fishing in our Pennsylvania Lake Erie waters.

• Walleye - Fishing for walleye in Kinzua can be a lot of fun or it can be heart breaking.  At times you would swear there are walleye everywhere and other times not even know they were in the lake.   Walleye in Kinzua dam can be found anywhere in Kinzua but certain areas attract more walleye during certain times of the year.  The willow bay area which is close to the New York border is a very popular location to find walleye in the spring and early summer months.  There are several areas which host structure that is often in the middle of the lake which holds walleye.  Also during the early part of June walleye are everywhere, if there is a rock pile on a flat there will be walleye. However often they are under the minimal size limit, but sometimes their is a monster walleye that is lurking in the rocks.  Kinzua is home to two state records which include New York's walleye record and Pennsylvania walleye record.  There are two popular methods of catching walleye in Kinzua in the early months jigging with jig tipped with a piece of nightcrawler is popular and in the summer months it's time to speed up and troll a crawler harness.  A popular color in the summer for a crawler harness is something shiny think silver and fast moving.
  
  
• Smallmouth Bass - The bass fishing in Kinzua is awesome at times and it can be a little tricky at other times.  One of the hardest parts of fishing Kinzua is it's depth.  Fish will move from shallow to deep in no time, and often fish will feed on the golden shiner population that is always suspended in the deep water.  For the smallmouth bass they usually can be found on any of the rocky flats, but can be in the shallow water or out deep.  And when I mean out deep on the flat they may be in 25 to 35 feet water.  The best way I've found to catch these fish is using a tube with a 1/4 ounce head and fishing bouncing it along the bottom.  Also if the bass aren't hitting the bait on the bottom look to the top!  Often the bass will be taken on soft plastics such as a slugo or my favorite just fishing a white magnum flipping tube texas rigged with no weight and jerking just below the surface.  Just be prepared to loose a couple to our toothy friends the northern pike who also lurk below on the rocky flats.

• Bass - You can find bass almost everywhere in Lake Raystown, however there are ways to improve you chances of having a great day instead of one of those "Well the weather was nice days".  One of the keys of fishing Lake Raystown is to find the structure that attracts baitfish.  Structure in Lake Raystown varies from weedbeds, to points, to man made structure such as road beds, house foundations, and brush piles.  Some of the easiest places to find bass in Lake Raystown is the points of the main lake and secondary points that reside in the coves and bays of the Lake.  Also often on these  points especially the secondary points you will run into  a random brush pile which is a bass magnet in Lake Raystown.  Fishing for bass in the summer months in the Lake is best done in the early morning and evening and at NIGHT!  The best fishing in Lake Raystown for bass is at night by far at night you want to fish areas that the baitfish move into such as points.  To fish at night you will do yourself a great favor by purchasing a black light and using fluorescent mono.  The line will light up like a rope which will allow you not only to tie on new lures, but to also see when a fish bites by watching the line.
  
  
• Stripped Bass - Lake Raystown is home to the state record Stipped Bass for the state of Pennsylvania.  Fishing for these allusive creatures can be difficult but is very rewarding when you latch into one.  Fishing for stripped bass is best during the spring months in which they move in shallow to feed and can be caught on a variety of lures including cotton cordells, the "blue stripper" lure, rattle traps, and of course bait.  Finding stripped bass in Raystown is an art and can be difficult to do. My best advise for anyone wanting to target these fish in Lake Raystown is to invest in a trip with a guide.  The guides of Lake Raystown know when and where to fish for these bass and will be your best bet in catching a monster stripped bass.

• Bass - Finding bass in the river systems is different than locating bass in other fisheries to locate bass in  a great number always look to the current and where it is.  Areas such as below the lock systems are great locations to find bass.  Fishing below the locks is only permitted to certain distance to the dam.  One method that I found to work is to use a long spinning rod around 7 to 7 1/2 feet and using light line such as six pound test and making extremely long cast from the danger buoys toward the dam using a tube with a 1/4 ounce jig head.  The closer you can get to the fast water the better.  Also locating bass around water outtake areas can be awesome these areas are pipes where water is pushed into the river system.  Bait fish will be thick in these areas and the bass will be thick below.

5. Susquehanna River - This river is loaded with smallmouth bass and is probably one of the premier smallmouth bass fisheries on the east coast. 

• Bass Fishing on the Susquehanna River can be done in many locations but one  of the most popular areas to access the river system is in the Sunbury area.  The Sunbury area is where the two branches of the Susquehanna meet at a large damn.  You have the choice of either fishing the East Branch of the Susquehanna or the West Branch of the Susquehanna.  Often the West Branch of the Susquehanna is preferred over the East Branch due to water clarity and the bass population seem to be higher in the West Branch.  Some of the most popular location is running up the West Branch where the water begins to get shallow and bass can be picked up by casting tubes or jerk baits all throughout the river.  BE CAREFUL if you decide to run up the river there is old logging jams and large rocks and shallow spots where you could do some serious damage to a boats motor.  It isn't necessary to run that far up the river smallmouth can be caught by fishing a tube almost anywhere in the river system.  Other areas that attract good  populations of bass is the bridge pillars on both river systems and any of the structure along the banks.

The fishing in all the above fisheries are excellent choices in Pennsylvania but one of the greatest joys of fishing these areas is the beauty of being in the great outdoors in Pennsylvania.  Pennsylvania is one most spectacular outdoor destinations in the country and being outside with a fishing rod makes the experience even better.  Whether you catch fish or not there will be memories to take with you and stories to share.  And remember Take A Kid Fishing!  A fishing kid understands the importance of the outdoors and will protect our precious environment in the future.

• The Pennsylvania Wilds which is a large section of North Central Pennsylvania that includes such areas as the Allegheny National Forest, Parker Dam State Park, the Kinzua Dam, Elk viewing and much more.
• The Alleghenies and Her Valleys region that host areas such as Lake Raystown, Sayers Damn, the Nittany Area, and the great outdoors of the Allegheny Mountains. 
• The PA Dutch Country roads region where you can enjoy the Amish heritage, two world class amusement parks and the endless shopping in Reading and Lancaster.
• Philadelphia and Countryside areas offer a rich history of our country from the liberty bell, to the battlefields, and of course all that Philadelphia has to offer culturally.
• The Northeast Mountains of course is the home of the Pocono Mountains, where one can ski, see a race, and enjoy the endless mountains that make up the Poconos. 
• The Great Lakes region which will allow you to take in Lake Erie and all it's beauty.
• Pittsburgh and it's Country Side region where you can enjoy the rushing white water of Ohiopyle and all that the Pittsburgh area has to offer.

We have put together a large list of hundreds of campgrounds in Pennsylvania and have grouped them by the regions they reside in.  The listings include the ability to read, rate, and review all of the campgrounds in the State of Pennsylvania.  To browse the campgrounds click on one of the regions below we have included a map of the regions for you to better identify where the geographic locations of the campgrounds are.  Each listing includes contact information, website, and a map of where the campground is located.  If you have visited one of the Pennsylvania camping locations please feel free to rate or review the campground.

Pennsylvania Wilds Campgrounds

PA Great Lakes Campgrounds

Northeast Mountains Campgrounds

Philadelphia & Countryside Campgrounds

PA Dutch Country Roads Campgrounds

Alleghenies and Her Valleys Campgrounds

Pittsburgh & Countryside Campgrounds