The opening of our trout season is still over a couple of months away. In the meantime, the Fish and Boat Commission has been looking into some changes regarding trout that an angler can keep.

At present, our trout season opens on April 4th and goes until September 7th. During that period, an angler may keep five trout, and the trout must be at least 7 inches long. During the Extended Season from January 1st to February 15th and September 8th through December 31st, only three total trout may be kept, but they too must be at least 7 inches long.

The Fish and Boat Commission is now looking into changing the minimum size limit from 7 inches to 9 inches.

Why the change?

The size limit change will, for the most part, only affect the wild brook trout population, and our wild brook trout primarily occupy our smaller, colder, and more mountainous streams.

The Fish and Boat Commission stocks about 3.2 million trout each year, most of which are rainbows, browns, raised brook trout, and golden trout. Of the 3.2 million trout, only about 4 percent are the brook trout. The number of brook trout raised and stocked has been significantly reduced since 2016 to protect our wild brook trout populations. The brook trout raised by the commission are primarily stocked in waters with low to no existing wild trout populations.

The change from a 7-inch to a 9-inch size limit will not affect the trout being stocked, since they are all above the 9-inch limit. The average stocked trout measures about 11 inches, and of the trout being stocked, 72,000 are “trophy size,” measuring between 14 and 20 inches.

So, how will this minimum size change go down with our trout fishermen? After conducting some surveys, the commission found that the majority of trout fishermen are satisfied with the increased size limit. Figures between 75 percent and 85 percent keep showing up in favor of changing the size limit to 9 inches.

Personally, I’m totally in favor of the change since it will help protect our state fish, the native wild brook trout. I’ll be honest, I probably haven’t kept a trout in over 15 years, and when I did, it was in very limited numbers on rare occasions, and they were only stocked trout. I tend to avoid taking trout home because, unlike a number of other species of fish in our waters, trout do not reproduce well in our streams, and thus maintaining their population is difficult. Rainbows don’t reproduce at all here in Pennsylvania, and browns probably at a very limited level. Obviously, our native brook trout can do well in the proper stream environments, but that pretty much rules out our larger streams.

It’s important to remember, too, that if you do catch those undersized trout, you should be very careful in landing and releasing them in order to improve their survival rate. Try not to play them too long and use a net or wet your hands before handling the trout; dry hands can cause damage to the trout’s skin.

If you are fishing in those native brook trout waters, it’s probably a good idea to avoid using baits that are too small and can be easily swallowed, since removing the hook and bait can cause serious damage to an undersized trout.

Well, the Fish and Boat Commission is apparently going to vote on the size limit change come April, and I’m sure all of us trout fishermen will be watching to see what the results will be.