Avid trout fisherman Arnand Latour doesn’t mind taking off work to drive about 70 miles from his home in Glenshaw to Linn Run State Park east of Ligonier so he can fish for trout.
“I like to go fly fishing. There are so many aspects to it. You need knowledge of insects, food sources and habitat” of the fish, Latour said.
He also noted he could walk thousands of feet in day as he casts into Linn Run.
What Latour has a problem with is fishing on the opening day of trout season — when stream banks across the region are expected to be crowded with first-day anglers. That day is Saturday.
“Heck no,” Latour said of opening day. “That’s for amateurs.”
But John Albright of Youngwood said he likes fishing on opening day.
“It about tradition,” Albright said.
But Albright steers away from the crowds along popular streams and lakes. He opts for a private spot along Yellow Creek in Indiana County, which is a Conemaugh River tributary.
Saturday’s opening day of trout season is expected to attract thousands of trout fishermen trying their luck.
They’ll be able to select from 684 streams and 130 lakes where the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has stocked 3.2 million trout before the opening of the season, according to the fish commission.
The state’s large trout stocking schedule is complemented by another 1.12 million trout stocked by cooperative nurseries.
Of the species of trout being stocked, rainbow trout is the most plentiful, with 2.3 million stocked, the fish commission said.
While the opening of trout season is Saturday, and the season runs until Sept. 7, anglers can actually fish for trout in approved trout waters pretty much year-‘round, said Larry Myers, former president of the Forbes Trail Chapter of Trout Unlimited.
The daily limit is three trout, compared with five between Labor Day and opening day, Myers said. From Sept. 8 to the following Feb. 15, no harvesting of the trout is permitted in waters that were not stocked, the fish commission said.
The weekend forecast
Anglers should be prepared for a slight chance of rain Saturday morning, with an increased chance in the afternoon and evening.
The National Weather Service Pittsburgh predicts a 25% chance of rain between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. and 45% between 2 and 8 p.m.
Meteorologist Mike Kennedy said most of Saturday should be dry with some scattered showers starting in the afternoon and increasing that evening.
There’s a good chance of severe storms overnight Saturday and into early Sunday. But the weather is expected to clear sometime Sunday morning.
The weather service forecasts Saturday’s morning temperatures in the 60s with the high in the low 80s. Rackley said Sunday afternoon looks clear but cooler.
Sunday morning temperatures are forecast to be in the low 50s and rising slightly with the highs in the mid-50s.
Economic impact
The artificial flies and live bait anglers use when casting for trout can create a small ripple in the water, but the economic impact of trout fishing — the licenses, rods, reels, clothing, lures and live bait — has a huge economic impact worth millions of dollars.
The state collected $22.9 million in 2025 from the sale of close to 759,000 fishing licenses of all categories — resident, nonresident, senior citizen and tourist.
An additional $6.27 million in revenue went into the state’s coffers from the sale of close to 440,000 trout permits last year,according to the fish commission. For most anglers, the trout permits cost almost $15 for those age 16 and older.
Typically, between 65% and 70% of those who buy fishing licenses also buy a trout permit, said Michael Parker, a fish commission spokesman.
“That is very consistent year to year,” Parker said.
Busy time for bait shops
The 1.1 million people who fish in Pennsylvania spent an average of $490 on fishing-related expenses, according to a 2020 analysis by Southwick Associates of Fernandina Beach, Fla.
For shops selling bait and lures, this is the time of the year to make money.
“This is like Christmas in April,” said John Andrejcik, an employee at Allegheny Angler in Tarentum, formerly Allegheny Bait and Tackle.
Fishermen are buying wax worms, meal worms and live minnows, he said.
Andrejcik said the one downside to the ramping up of trout season is a factor no one can control — the weather.
“Business is a little off because of the weather. Heavy rain does not bode well for trout fishing,” Andrejcik said.
David Barnhart, owner of A Capital Bait & Tackle Shop in North Huntingdon, said he has been busy as customers are looking to buy jumbo butter worms, maggots and minnows, among other bait.
He also is concerned about the weather, noting all of the money he has sunk into the various kinds of bait he has purchased.
“It will take me down under,” Barnhart said, if there would be heavy rain on opening day.
Thinking like a trout
Fish rely heavily on sight, and muddy water reduces visibility, so they can’t easily spot insects drifting by, said Richard Yaksic, president of the Forbes Trail Chapter of Trout Unlimited.
“If fish can’t see your fly or bait, they’re less likely to strike,” Yaksic said. “You’re basically fishing blind, and so are they.”
Fast, turbulent water makes it hard to get a natural drift, as the fishing line gets pulled and the fly — if fly fishing — moves unnaturally.
“Fish get suspicious,” Yaksic said.
Sticks, leaves and sediment are constantly moving, so fish have to avoid getting battered or displaced, he noted.
“They shift to edges near the bank, behind rocks or logs or slow-moving pockets,” Yaksic said. “So your usual fishing spot might just be empty.”
Trout stream health
“Overall, I think the commonwealth is holding its own in terms of stocked trout steams. I believe Trout Unlimited and its partners might actually be gaining ground in terms of protecting wild trout streams,” Myers said.
Much of the chapter’s attention has been on conserving, protecting and restoring cold water fisheries and their watersheds, Myers said. It has focused efforts on the Loyalhanna Watershed, particularly upstream from Kingston Dam in Unity, and the tributaries like Mill Creek, Four Mile Run and Linn Run.
He said a threat to the region’s trout streams are improperly managed and insufficiently permitted development for industry, commercial facilities and housing developments. Uncontrolled runoff carries silt that covers the stream bed and kills the trout’s bugs. Fertilizers, lawn chemicals and industrial waste are a constant threat. Drainage from abandoned coal mines still pose a pollution threat.
“We want to restore the natural reproduction of wild brook trout,” Myers said. “The Laurel Highlands is a unique landscape with mountain streams that support wild brook, rainbow and brown trout. It’s the wild trout we are most concerned about.”