I was looking at the Pa fishing and boating website and I saw that in the 18 counties that are in the southeast corner of the state, trout season will start on march 31.  But for the rest of the state the opening of trout season will be as normal in april.  Now I am not sure what to think about this idea, so I welcome opinions from other people on what this change might mean to pa trout fishing.  There is a real good possibility that the trout streams will be frozen over still by the 31 then what will they do?  The more I think about it the less I think I like it.  

Matt

Not sure if I'm for or against it as of yet... They(the dnr) dumped a bunch in the stream by my house friady and there were folks already stopping and checking out the stream 20 minutes after the truck left, and saturday was almost elbow room only, but no ignorant folks out.. Which is good in my book...

Tux

I think that it would have been a gret decision had the weather stayed warm like it was the first couple days. But it got really cold and the fish just seem to have shut down or slowed down greatly. It helps retails stores though with the two waves of opening day especially if you are close enough to both regions that guys around you fish them both avidly. I  still have yet to figure out how it helped anything at all.

If I lived in the NE, I'd get my skiis back out of the closet!!!    Fishing season may start late and go later.

I thought I'd wait till after the second opening day to reply and put in my 2 cents. Either way my opinion didnt change. I love the two different opening days. I think it was a great idea. For a number of reasons. Now I get to fish some local creeks for two weeks before I head to Centre County for the second opening day. Moving the start of the season up two weeks ,for those 18 counties, means more time to fish before the creeks all but dry up. As far as the creeks being frozen over for opening day, I think there is more of a chance of them being flooded.

Thank-you for your opinions on the subject now that both starts have come and gone I must say that I am still undecided as to whether or not I am for the new starts.  Living in a border county like I do the first opening day was a zoo with people from the neighboring counties coming down and swamping the streams around my town.  Also the stream that I usually start in with my son on the first morning was not stocked the local trout club decided not to stock for the new opening day so I had no where to go with my son so for the first time in his life ( he is 5 yrs old) he missed the opening day of fishing with his dad.  That was not the state's fault, but I did not enjoy the first starting day this year it was just not the same without my boy.  I did not take him to the other streams because it would have been a disaster with all the other people trying to fish.  I will be taking him up to a lake that is well stocked with trout here in the near future he can catch his then.

Matt