The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is getting ready to role. With the amount of snow remaining on the ground, however, it may be more difficult to spot the large white tanker trucks the PFBC uses to stock trout.<\/p>\n
Stockings, however, are ready to begin the week of Feb. 16 and a listing by counties is available on thee PFBC website at www.pfbc.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n When PFBC executive director Tim Schaeffer and District 8 Southeast Region commissioner Rich Kauffman, whose area includes Schuylkill County, spoke at a recent Schuylkill County Sportsmen\u2019s Association meeting they talked about the 2026 trout season. Schaeffer said the trout stocking schedule is searchable by county, lists the waterways in alphabetical order, and indicates stocking dates, meeting locations for volunteers and the species of trout that are planned to be stocked at each location.<\/p>\n In 2026, Pennsylvania\u2019s statewide opening day of trout season is April 4, a week after the single, statewide mentored youth trout day on March 28.<\/p>\n Anglers should note that fishing is not permitted on lakes and streams designated as Stocked Trout Waters from Feb. 16 to 8 a.m. on the opening day of trout season, with the exception of the mentored youth day unless waters are included in the Stocked Trout Waters Open to Year-Round Fishing program.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2026, the PFBC will stock approximately 3.2 million adult trout in 684 streams, and 130 lakes open to public angling,\u201d Schaeffer said.\u00a0\u201cThese figures, which are consistent with the number of trout stocked over the past decade, include approximately 2.3 million Rainbow Trout, 698,000 Brown Trout and 128,000 Brook Trout.<\/p>\n \u201cAs with past practice, the average size of the trout produced for stocking is 11 inches in length with an average weight of .58 pounds. This year anglers will have an excellent chance to catch large, trophy-sized trout because the PFBC will stock approximately 72,000 trophy-sized brood fish, which are 2 \u00bd year-old and 3 \u00bd year-old hatchery-raised Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout and Brook Trout measuring 14-20 inches.<\/p>\n \u201cRoughly 75% of these large fish will be stocked into streams and lakes during the preseason prior to opening day of trout season, and 25% will be stocked during in-season replenishment stockings. Approximately 18,000 golden Rainbow Trout will be stocked during 2026, and in addition to being stocked during the preseason period before opening day, these highly prized fish featuring vibrant golden-orange pigmentation and weighing an average of 1.5 pounds will be stocked during in-season replenishment stockings.<\/p>\n Approximately 75% of golden Rainbow Trout will be stocked during the preseason, and approximately 25% will be stocked in-season. In addition to trout raised at state fish hatcheries, PFBC cooperative nurseries operated by sportsmen\u2019s clubs and other groups across the state will add another 1.1 million trout to waters open to public angling throughout the year.<\/p>\n Anglers looking for stocked trout fishing opportunities ahead of the opening day should explore\u00a0Keystone Select Stocked Trout Waters, a program where sections of 24 streams across the state are stocked with large trout measuring 14-20 inches and managed under\u00a0Delayed Harvest Artificial Lures Only\u00a0or\u00a0Miscellaneous Special\u00a0regulations. Under the program, approximately 10,000 large trout will be distributed among the streams. \u201cThese trout will be stocked at a rate of 175 to 225 per mile of stream, which is comparable to the numbers of similarly sized fish in Pennsylvania\u2019s best wild trout waters,\u201d Kauffman said. \u201cVolunteers are welcomed to help distribute approximately 3.2 million hatchery-raised adult trout to hundreds of waterways statewide throughout the 2026 season, and we are proud to partner with conservation groups, schools and walk-up volunteers to help spread out the trout in local waterways.<\/p>\n \u201cVolunteers are asked to keep the safety of PFBC staff and other volunteers in mind and obey traffic laws while following stocking vehicles. Individuals or small groups of volunteers (1-4 people) do not need to register to help stock trout, but larger groups should coordinate stocking plans in advance by contacting their regional PFBC law enforcement\u00a0office\u00a0to ensure they can be accommodated.\u201d<\/p>\n Anglers are reminded that to participate in trout fishing and keep trout, those age 16 and older are required to possess both a fishing license and a trout permit. Anglers and boaters can start preparing for opening day of trout season right now by purchasing their 2026 Pennsylvania fishing licenses, launch permits and boat registration renewals using the\u00a0www.HuntFish.pa.gov<\/a> online portal or by visiting one of approximately 700 retail license issuing agents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is getting ready to role. With the amount of snow remaining on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[708,28,30,29,726,289,802],"class_list":{"0":"post-114236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-outdoors","9":"tag-pennsylvania","10":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","11":"tag-pennsylvania-news","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-things-to-do","14":"tag-top-stories-cvc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}