Fishing during rifle seasons

[Forestfishin]

Asking this as someone who has never hunted. How do you approach fishing in areas shared with hunters especially during bear and deer rifle seasons. Do you avoid totally? Proceed with caution wearing proper amount of blaze orange?

For those of you that hunt is seeing others in the woods such as hikers or fisherman common or do you wonder why in the heck are they out there?

Not talking about on game lands or private property but other public areas like state parks, state forests, national forest etc

I’ve never trout fished much until after rifle season so wasn’t sure of the proper etiquette.

 

[hooker-of-men]

I just yesterday decided not to go out because the stream I wanted to hit was in state forest (the 15 mph wind also helped with the decision). I've done it on occasion with some orange on, but generally I try to avoid it both out of caution and so I don't screw up someone filling their freezer so I can release a 7 inch fish.

 

[jifigz]

My recommendation is to fish in places where hunters aren't going to be. Fish streams and rivers that are close to civilization where people can't be firing high-powered rifles. Do this out of respect for both your own bodily safety and for the people out there pursuing the deer. Blaze orange, trout fishing, and rather low water conditions are a pretty terrible combination if you ask me.

My next suggestion is this: grab a rifle and hit the deer woods.

 

[tjsingle]

I usually steer clear of most SGLs, SFs, and other public lands I know people are actively hunting. Their season is much, much short than the fishing season (year round C&R).

Make sure you wear blaze orange if you do go out, and be careful.

 

[Swattie87]

I don’t fish during rifle season usually. Those guys only get two weeks a year to hunt, and I get 52 to fish. Don’t want to be messing up their hunt in any way.

If I do fish, it’s in an area where hunting isn’t allowed. I probably haven’t fished during rifle season in many years though. Catch up on projects around the house, watch football, whatever.

Edit: I start wearing blaze orange when archery opens up in Sept, and wear it all the way through the late season closing in the following calendar year. I just have an orange ball cap, and beanie, and switch between the two depending on the weather.

 

[5footfenwick]

I actually wear orange year round. Keep it on my back so I don’t have to worry about fish seeing it. This way I never have to make any changes regardless of the situation or season.

I completely agree with Swattie and Jifigz. No sense going to the middle of nowhere and screwing up hunts. You don’t need to. This is two weeks where it seems like 99% of the fishermen are gone. Want to fish a popular central Pa creek without competition? These two weeks are your chance.

I used to always fish the three sundays around hunting season. There is almost no one fishing. One year i got a buck on opening day so I fished 5-6 miles of a super popular central Pa limestoner over the course of several days during hunting season just as an experiment. I fished about a mile a day for the rest of the week. I never saw another fisherman. The fishing was incredible to say the least. My three biggest trout ever from spring creek came in this short 5 day period. 21inch brown, 22 inch brown, 23inch rainbow. If you are going somewhere on the beaten path I say go for it man. Just don’t forget the hand warmers!
~5footfenwick

 

[Forestfishin]

Thanks for all the quick replies. Was never a concern before they moved the opener and Sunday hunting. Weekend after Thanksgiving at camp has been a thing for years. Great time to be in the woods but I’ve never had a desire to hunt for whatever reason.

Also thanks for the alternate suggestion of hitting a central PA stream but being lost in the woods is a big part of trout fishing for me.

Good luck to those of you who do hunt 👍

Also-did go out yesterday and fished a stocked/native roadside stream and then section of state park closed to hunting. Both areas were pretty quiet so can’t complain. Was nice to actually have fishable water.