I guess it’s a sign that I’m getting older, but it seems like changes are coming more frequently than they did in the past. As an outdoorsman involved in the business of hunting and fishing for most of my life, in my early years, it seemed like rules and regulations seldom changed much, if at all. I must admit that the regulation booklets that we now get with the purchase of a hunting or fishing license have gotten thicker and the information somewhat more complicated, and the changes keep coming.

I don’t have room to get into all the new updates and changes that are coming in the 2022 fishing season, but fishermen should be aware of the change on the opening day of trout season. In the past, we had one opening day for trout, but not too many years ago, two opening days were created; a Regional Opening Day for trout was set for 18 southeastern counties, and then the Regular Trout Season opener that was set to open a couple of weeks later for the remainder of the counties. Well, guess what, we are back to a single-day opener for the entire state. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission recently set the statewide opener for April 3 for the coming season; that’s two weeks earlier than what we have had for many years in this part of the state. There will also be a single statewide Mentored Youth Trout Day to open on March 27.

I’m guessing that the reason for creating the earlier opener in the southern part of the state was that favorable weather conditions came to the southern half of the state sooner than the more northern portion of the state. Possibly cutting down on travel and added pressure with a single opening day may have contributed to the two separate openers as well. Be that as it may, we are now back to the one opening day for the entire state.

For many anglers, myself included, moving the opening day of trout season up a couple of weeks won’t change my early season trout endeavors much at all since I often took advantage of the opportunities offered by a number of different special regulation areas. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission offers a half-dozen different venues that are open to year-round trout fishing. Still, in many of these situations, no trout may be killed, and a number of different special regulations apply. These areas include; Delayed Harvest Artificial Lures Only, Catch and Release Artificial Lures Only, Catch And Release Fly-Fishing Only, Catch and Release All Tackle, All Tackle Trophy Trout and Trophy Trout Artificial Lures Only. These areas are carefully monitored, and regulations vary from one to another. If you decide to take advantage of these special regulation areas, I highly recommend reading the information on page 21 of your Pennsylvania Fishing Summary/ Boating Handbook.

With the earlier opener, weather may be a bit more of a factor, especially here in the northern part of the state. Efforts are being made to get the trout stocked sooner, so plenty of fish should be available. I doubt that starting two weeks earlier will change much in the way of presentations and techniques; trout prefer the cold water and will likely take the same offerings as in past opening days. As a fly fisherman, I’ve found several nymphs using the “high stick” method to be very effective even during those cooler, earlier season outings. I’m sure live minnows and many other live baits will do well as well as spinners and several other minnow imitating lures.