Boom time: Trout opener boosts economy, outdoor fun

Isaac Versaw calls trout season the “money months.”

The 19-year-old works at Allegheny Angler in Tarentum, a one-stop shop for licenses, bait, tackle, rods and reels of all kinds.

He said the shop, which is next to the Tarentum Bridge about a block from the Allegheny River, attracts a special kind of madness in the weeks leading up to opening day of trout season — which is Saturday.

“It gets pretty chaotic. There’s a lot of notes flying, and everyone is running in circles,” he said. “We have one (worker) at the minnow tank, one handling licenses, one line winding and one at the register.”

Big business

But the season doesn’t just provide an opportunity for fun. It’s an economic boon to the state.

A 2020 Pennsylvania study for the American Sportfishing Association, the most recent major study in the state, found outdoor recreation of all kinds accounted for more than $58 billion in economic output, supported more than 430,000 jobs and provided total salaries of nearly $20 billion.

The study found the state’s more than 1.5 million anglers spent $422.4 million to go fishing that year.

A 2023 nationwide study by the association said America’s 52.4 million anglers contributed $148 billion in economic output and supported 945,500 jobs across the country, while also contributing $1.8 billion toward conservation.

Jobs supported include the manufacture and sale of fishing equipment, as well as additional industries such as hotel lodging, restaurants and charter boat trips.

The popularity of trout fishing provides an early-year kick-start to the state’s fishing industry.

“Business is going great. Last year was phenomenal. This is even better,” said Doug Yocabet, owner of PA Fly Co., a fly-fishing store in Mt. Pleasant Township.

Yocabet, an avid fisherman whose business has cut into his own trout fishing time the past four years, said his customers are snapping up his selection of flies — tiny lures designed to look like a variety of aquatic insects or fish.

Unlike buying online, Yocabet’s customers can see the fly they are buying up close at his shop.

“I kind of direct them to where they can make their own decision” as to which is the best fly for them, Yocabet said.

Opening day is a mass call to anglers to shop for new gear, said Steven Hegedus, president of the Lower Burrell-based Tri-County Trout Club.

“This is stuff they’ve put away before, and they need to get it out and look at it and make sure it’s ready.”

It’s a time of year when the bait business booms.

“Fishing is a big, big thing. It gets real busy with trout season,” with fishermen buying lures, bait, wax worms, maggots and butter worms, said Scott Boytim of Ruffs Dale, owner of River’s Edge Bait Shop, which sits on a hill above the Youghiogheny River in West Newton.

Boytim, 54, runs a machine shop adjacent to his bait shop that is stocked with flies, rods, reels and live bait in a refrigerator. He has been open since last April, shortly before the beginning of trout season.

“We needed one around here” because another bait shop had closed, said Boytim, a lifelong fisherman.

Anglers spend a lot of money on fishing in general, and specifically for the trout opening day, said Larry Myers, president of the Forbes Trail Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

“They will load up on live bait such as minnows, worms, maggots and purchase jars of artificial salmon eggs and what’s called ‘Power Bait,’ ” in addition to paying for a Pennsylvania fishing license, Myers said.

Ligonier Outfitters in downtown Ligonier expects to be busy with the advent of trout season on Saturday, said Logan McMaster, whose family owns the store.

While inflation has boosted the cost of so many products, McMaster said fishing equipment and gear has remained pretty much the same this year.

The bait needed for the first day is the tip of the iceberg, Myers said.

“They need waders and boots, vests, always another rod or two, landing nets and tons of new artificial lures. They have to gas up the truck and buy lunches and coffee,” Myers said.

While some anglers will stop on the way home for dinner, others will stop at a watering hole, “where the length of the longest fish of the day will grow 2 inches with each beer consumed,” Myers joked.

While the opening day is a boost to the local economy, it is dwarfed by what anglers spend the rest of the year, he said.

“We’re out there all year round, not just for the first few weeks in April,” Myers said.

Even though the traditional first day of trout season is so named because most streams stocked by the fish commission are closed to fishing in the months prior to opening day, Myers said, trout season runs the rest of the year in the state’s streams because of all the special regulation streams in the area.

One of those year-round anglers, Mike Zezzo of Latrobe, was in Loyalhanna Creek in Ligonier Township this week, fishing the section of the creek near Ligonier that is a delayed-harvest section where only artificial lures can be used to catch the trout. The designation also means that section of the stream is open to fishing year-round.

Zezzo said he does not plan to be fishing Loyalhanna Creek near Ligonier on Saturday because it will be so crowded.

“It’ll be crazy here (on the Loyalhanna). I will go to Laurel Hill State Park,” Zezzo said.

“Anglers in general stimulate the local economy as much, if not more, than other outdoor enthusiasts,” Myers said. “We go out for our own pleasure, but many businesses reap the benefit.”

The majority of Allegheny Angler’s inventory is dedicated to trout season, Versaw said.

“We order everything for trout season,” he said. “We count bait for months. After (trout season), all the bait’s gone and the fishermen are gone and it’s just us and the river in the summer.”

Around 75% of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s operations are funded by fishing license sales, said Mike Parker, the commission’s communications director. More than 767,000 fishing licenses were sold statewide in 2024. Of those who purchased a license, about 66% also purchased a trout permit. That adds up to almost $22 million from license and permit sales alone during trout season.

The commission’s trout stocking program and all the expenses included in the process will receive an average of about $6.6 million from trout permit sales.

“It’s our most popular season by far,” Parker said.

He estimated about 1.5 million people of all ages are expected to be on the water Saturday.

By the numbers

This year, the commission will stock approximately 3.2 million trout in 691 streams and 130 lakes open to public angling. These include about 2.4 million rainbow trout, 693,000 brown trout and 125,000 brook trout. Stocking will occur two to three times throughout the season. Parker said each fish costs the state between $2 and $3 by the time they’re ready to be released.

Private sportsmen clubs also partner with the commission to help stock trout. These partnerships will add 1.2 million trout for the season.

The average size of a trout produced for stocking is 11 inches, with an average weight of about half a pound, according to the commission.

Since stocked trout are not native to the area, anglers have almost no limitations when choosing a bait, according to Parker. While anglers are limited to keeping five trout per day, they are encouraged to take their catches home since the streams will become too warm for the fish to survive in the summer months.

“It’s like a temporary residency,” Parker said. “It’s really just a way to provide a recreational opportunity that people have paid for with their trout permit.”