New Kensington-Arnold 5th graders enjoy morning trout fishing at Valley High School

Stocking the trout certainly helped, but they didn’t seem to be needed for some fifth graders from Roy A. Hunt Elementary School to enjoy a morning of fishing in Little Pucketa Creek outside Valley High School.

Some students were as happy catching the numerous itty bitty fish in the creek — possibly creek chubs — as they were any of the 130 rainbow trout that were dumped in moments before they started casting lines Monday.

While some caught chubs while trying for trout, it was the other way around for 11-year-old Patience Black.

“I was trying to catch a minnow,” as she called them. “Because they’re all after my food.”

Two dozen fifth grade students from Roy A. Hunt, three from each of the school’s eight homerooms, were chosen to participate based on their hard work and were deserving of a reward, Principal Todd Kutchak said.

“It’s a nice thing,” Kutchak said. “It gives the kids an opportunity to do something they might not ever do.”

They were helped by 17 high school students. High school Principal Patrick Nee said they looked for interested students among those with 3.2 or higher GPAs.

Nee said the “Teach a Kid to Fish Day” got started years ago when he, former school resource Officer Joe Locke and Arnold police Chief Eric Doutt were standing on one of the school’s bridges over the creek and the idea came up of stocking it to teach kids how to fish.

The event hadn’t been held in recent years, first because of the covid pandemic and, last year, because of rain.

Students helped to get the fish into the creek. The trout, all more than 12 inches long, came via truck from Laurel Hill Trout Farm in Donegal.

The Arnold DARE program paid for the fish, Nee said.

A net was put across the creek to prevent the trout from swimming away, but many seemed content to group up and swim in circles.

After some light rain Saturday, Nee said, the creek was in good condition for fishing, not too high and not too low. It also was sunny and comfortable, with no worries about heat or humidity.

Steve Litz, a fifth grade math specialist, was among teachers from Hunt who came to help.

“They’re having fun,” he said. “It’s a new experience for a lot of them.”

While in the past fish that were caught were donated to Knead Community Cafe, this year’s event was all catch and release, Nee said. The net was removed Monday night, after which the trout will find their way downstream and likely become food for wildlife.

After they were done fishing, the students enjoyed lunch at the high school — which was pizza, not fish.