PA Trout Fishing Report! 4/6/13

Well April 6th marked the opening of the trout fishing season in Delaware. So what did I do? Go trout fishing right over the line in PA! My fishing day started around noon because I had to help out a friend with his boat and do some things around the house. But I couldn't pass up the awesome weather and had to fish.

I am a Delaware resident and have both licenses so after driving over the Chambers Rock Road bridge of the White Clay and seeing cars lined up on both sides and fishermen standing shoulder to shoulder, I decided to head just up stream into PA and fish by myself.

The PA season opened the Saturday before (for the SE region) and I had tried during the week after work with little success (one rainbow in 3 hours of fishing). But I knew the trout were there and after a couple of days of warmer weather I thought they might be feeding a little better.

I started off in a deep slow moving hole fairly close to the DE line. I like to fish mostly lures, I do fish bait when they just wont hit a lure, but I love catching trout on lures. (You can see my top 5 favorite trout lures here.) I had my silver Niti-1 Trout Killer and on the second cast I was hooked up. A nice 10inch rainbow put up a great fight and as I got him next to me I realized that I had left my net at home. He inhaled the lure and despite almost slipping out of my hands I got him on the stringer.

Over the next half hour I caught 3 more rainbows all around the same size, but with no net and standing in thigh deep water, getting them on the stringer was a challenge and I ended up letting two go accidently.

It seemed after catching those 3 rainbows the rest of the trout in the hole got weary. I tried a number of different spinners, crankbaits and Niti-1's but I couldnt buy a bite. With only 2 trout on the stringer I decided to try some power bait.

The first three casts resulted in three hits, but only one stayed tight. This turned out to be my biggest rainbow (about 12-13inches).

After he put on a great show running up and down the hole and jumping a few times I knew the rest of the school would be spooked.

I then decided to hit a couple of sections of faster moving water closer to where my car was and managed to pick up 2 more rainbows on the Niti-1 on my way back.

All in all it was a great day. When I got back to the car I found out why my one leg was so cold. A slow leak in the waders had soaked my jeans underneath from my knee down and that water is still freezing!

When they stock browns the action should pick up even more. While I love catching rainbows, the fight and aggresiveness of the brown trout blows the rainbows out of the water!

My friend did catch his limit in Christina Creek in DE. He was using nightcrawlers.

Sorry no pics this time I had enough trouble trying to get them on the stringer I didn't bother trying to get my phone out for pictures.

Tight Lines,

Dave