Published: July 13, 2008 11:54 pm            

Trout a major focus for commissioners

HARRISBURG — Meetings of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission are usually routine affairs that seldom create much of a stir among the state’s anglers.

But some of the items on the agenda for the two-day session that begins this morning have attracted a lot of interest because they may significantly affect the holiest day of the year for Keystone State fishermen – the opening day of trout season.

At a Fisheries Committee meeting last month in Bellefonte, the commissioners kicked around the idea of doing away with opening day entirely and making trout fishing a year-round affair. But, Commissioner Len Lichvar of Somerset County cautioned against reading too much into that.

“All that was was some very preliminary discussion,” he said. “There is not a proposal at this time as far as year-round fishing on rivers and streams. That doesn’t mean it couldn’t go farther at the commission meeting, but there is absolutely no proposal at this time.”

There is, however, a proposal to allow year-round trout fishing in lakes stocked by the fish commission. It was suggested at the Bellefonte meeting, and the commissioners were reportedly divided on whether it is a good idea.

Rivers and steams were specifically not included in the year-round proposal.

“As far as lakes, that’s a possibility, but that may not happen.” Lichvar said. “Most likely, it wouldn’t happen in 2009, if we pass it at all. More lengthy discussion will occur on that.”

The commissioners also will talk about trout season opening two weeks earlier than usual in several southwestern counties, as it does now in the southeast.

The reasoning is the same – that those areas get warm earlier and higher water temperatures shorten the lifespans of stocked trout. An earlier opening day, the reasoning goes, would give fishermen more time to catch those fish before they move or succumb to warm waters.

The proposal would included Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Lawrence and Washington counties, and would take effect in 2010.

Westmoreland County was originally on the list, but was removed

Fish commission staff members, asked to prepare reports on the probable effects of both proposals, have asked that decisions on them be delayed to allow more time for study.

Sentiment for making changes to the tradition-steeped trout openers is fueled by fish commission studies that show widespread movement and mortality among stocked trout. It is expensive to raise those fish and stock them, the reasoning goes, and if they have either died or left the designated streams where they were released before fishermen get to them, the time and money spent to produce them is largely wasted.

Among the other items on the agenda is final approval of a proposal to add catfish to the species that can be taken by bow and arrow statewide. Bowfishing for catfish already is allowed in the Delaware River.

“It is on the agenda for final rulemaking this time,” Lichvar said. “It almost didn’t pass last time, so I don’t know what will happen. There was some opposition among the commissioners the last time. I personally support it. I can’t find a resource reason it would be a problem, and our staff felt there was no resource reason to avoid that.”

It is likely also that the commissioners will spend much discussing their decision earlier this year to manage fisheries with a “resource first” approach.

Critics of the commissioners and the agency contend that putting what is best for fish and their habitat ahead of the wishes of sportsmen will result in an end to the stocking programs, especially for trout. The resulting controversy has been compared with the debate over the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s deer program.

“(State Rep.) Ed Staback, D-Lackawanna, has got a bill in the state Legislature to reverse that on us,” Lichvar said. “There seems to be a backlash against that because of misunderstanding and misinformation.”

Staback is the chairman of the House Game and Fisheries Committee.

        

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