Why april?

I look at the sewer creek near my house and wonder why they wouldnt stock now instead of april.. The creek is actually flowing good! Actually it flows good all winter.. But then in april they stock the fish and as te creek drops the fish are corraled in the few deep holes.. The water warms up and they float away.. Either that or the herrings get em..
Just wonderin...

Poaching, that's why.  If they were stocked now.....the fish would be gone by April.

Trout About

Poaching, that's why.  If they were stocked now.....the fish would be gone by April.

I think they were referring to the opening date, why not move the date up to say early February, when the creeks are full and flowing. I agree with FishinGuy it's all a marketing scheme to set a date and boost sales. Hardcore guys will buy either way, but there prob is a large portion of license sales that are bought just for opening day and then never used again.

I agree. If they stocked in the fall, they would likely live about 9 months vs the 3-4 months they live now. At least in the streams that break 80deg in summer. Although i swear I saw a couple trout still hanging on in August last year in turtle creek while bait fishing. Wonder if they held over...

all of them  

Shoulda called the cops and they would have sent the fish commission to nail them.  Would have been a pretty good scene...  Also, I never understood why they have an opening day and stock so late sometimes especially creeks that are great from fall till spring and then turn to trickles in the late spring/summer/early fall unless we get a fair summer with some reasonable rain.  I get the scheme and hooplah but it's more of an annoyance... I'm just glad that they got rid of a lot of lakes from "Approved trout waters" when most of those lakes hold a lot more than just trout and quite a few were county/state parks.

but if they really wanted to save money, wouldn't stocking heavy in the fall, going catch an release till thier circus day in april, save them months of labor and food cost raising pen reared fish till march ? sounds better than cutting stocking allocations way back for cost savings

bubbaman

but if they really wanted to save money, wouldn't stocking heavy in the fall, going catch an release till thier circus day in april, save them months of labor and food cost raising pen reared fish till march ? sounds better than cutting stocking allocations way back for cost savings

 
Not really about saving money in this case, it's about making money.  You can't save it if you don't make it. And you gotta remember, the only revenue source the PFBC has is from license sales.  Who buys a big number of licenses every year?  The people that fish opening day, and maybe 1-4 more times throughout the year for trout.  No opening day circus = decreased revenue. 
 
I for one - and probably many others on here - would love to see something like that, but by April a lot of those fish would be gone from where they were stocked.  Incidental/Accidental kills by anglers, predation from birds and critters, ice flows and jams making trout patties, and natural dispersion on high water events.  And after a year or two, there goes most of your revenue when there aren't enough trout left in April for all the opening day circus clowns. 
 
I think eventually what will have to happen if the PFBC is to survive is to do away with trout stocking in significant portions of the state - like the drainage ditch down the street from my house that gets stocked with trout twice a year - and start promoting, funding, and maintaining sustainable opportunities for warm water fishing.  It may take a generation for such a focus to "stick" but the current trout plan where you spend money on an unsustainable resource to make money can't last forever and we're starting to see that unravel. 

While you are absolutely correct, there's simply no impetus to get rid of opening day. Traditions die hard. Sunday hunting still couldn't get off the ground in 2012.
 
Open seasons make a lot more sense for stocked fish, offer more opportunity (anglers can fish when they have time and the weather suits them, instead of lining up for opening day no matter what it's like), stretch out the fishing, etc. The best thing the West Virginia DNR ever did with their trout program was abolish opening day, which was as much a nightmare as it is in PA, and institute a year-round stocking program. You can read a good article about that here.
 
The best thing to do would be to focus on habitat restoration, to make rivers and streams suitable for fish that can actually thrive, reproduce and sustain themselves. But the chances of that happening in the current conditions are somewhere between nil and nada.