2016: A Tough Year for Trout - Your Thoughts in Retrospect?

[Swattie87]

salvelinusfontinalis wrote:
The climate in pa is changing.
I totally get what you are saying though, however I expect more droughts in the years subsequent to the 2016 drought.

Yep, successive years like 2016 won't be a good thing. Hopefully that doesn't happen. We had actually run better than average with Summer rain in most of PA from 2013 - 2015.

Most of the state has rebounded nicely this Fall. Hopefully that trend continues into Spring and the few areas still behind on rainfall get caught up.

 

[Hook_Jaw]

Mother nature is in charge and does what she wants you just take what is dealt and soldier on.

 

[dgshannon2000]

I agree. 2014 and 2015 were good for the fish. Hopefully that helps.

 

[Prospector]

I've kept records off and on over the last 40 years but have been very detailed and consistent since 2008, so I'll use that timeframe for the comparison

- On average I fish about 14 different trout streams every year in the following counties: Lawrence, Butler, Venango, Forest, Warren, Elk, Clinton and Potter.

- I generally go from opening day until about the 3rd Saturday in June (when water temps force me to quit) From 2008 to 2015, I averaged 24 fishing days per year and 178 fish caught per year (7.4 per day). So I trout fish about 24 days out of a 66 day stretch.

- 2015 really was a super year so those averages were helped by my 33 fishing days and 470 trout caught (14.2 per day). The streams were full of water into August and temps were great, so I fished more than usual.

- To answer your question about 2016, it was my second best year in the last 9 seasons. 32 fishing days, 17 different streams, 326 trout caught (10.2 per day) but I had to shut it down on June 18 due to stream conditions. I should mention that the warm conditions on larger streams did drive me to fish a very cool wild trout stream one day where I landed 60 in a few hours but even without that day it was my second best year in the last 9 years.

 

[dryflyguy]

I had some of my best fishing ever in spring of 2016. I made my plans to fish a certain hatch on whatever stream, and - for once - things worked out just like I wanted. Can't remember having to change things up because of blown out creeks.
Had some good early summer fishing as well, before the streams started to get quite low.
By august , I switched tactics, and quit fishing brookie streams. And spent time on the yough tailrace for awhile.

Fall fishing was not very good for me at my usual haunts. Streams that usually start picking up again by mid/late sept - didn't. Even though the water had definitely cooled down, the fish - trout - just didn't seem to be as plentiful. I caught lots of fall fish and bass in stretches where I usually catch only trout