Harvey Bumbarger with Bellefonte Regulation hatchery fills buckets with trout to restock North Branch Slippery Rock Creek on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
All across Pennsylvania, freshwater lakes are being stocked with new supplies of trout in advance of the start of statewide trout fishing season, which starts Saturday, April 5.
Although trout season doesn’t start for more than a month, the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission is already busy stocking waters across Butler County. Between Thursday, Feb. 20, and Tuesday, Feb. 25, eight trout stockings took place within Butler County — at Cornplanter Run, Bear Creek, Harbar Acres Lake, Silver Creek, Bonnie Brook, Little Connoquennessing Creek and two at Slippery Rock Creek.
“From mid-February through the opening day of trout season, we're doing what we call pre-season stockings,” said Mike Parker, communications director for the Fish & Boat Commission. “We’re putting catchable-sized trout into hundreds of streams all across the state. These are streams that just don't have the habitat to support naturally reproducing wild populations because the water gets too warm during the summer.”
Before the trout are brought to lakes and streams for stocking, they are raised at hatcheries across the state. Most of the trout that have been stocked in Butler County lakes over the past week were raised at the Corry hatchery in Erie County and the Bellefonte hatchery in Centre County. These hatcheries are dedicated solely to raising trout.
“They’re netted out and placed into stocking trucks, which are aerated. So it's essentially like a big closed fish tank,” Parker said. “It has multiple compartments in it, so that we can separate different species and sometimes different sizes.”
While 3.2 million of Pennsylvania’s trout come courtesy of state hatcheries, another 1.2 million trout will come from cooperative nurseries, many of which are operated by sportsman’s clubs.
“A lot of the sportsman’s groups across our state have these small co-ops where they raise thousands of fish,” Parker said. “We give them the small ones. As part of their club activities they grow them into a larger size and they stock them in their local waters.”
In total, about 4.4 million trout are expected to fill Pennsylvania waterways this season, a number which Parker says is consistent with previous years.
“Those numbers have stayed the same for the past 15 years or so,” Parker said. “We used to stock more than that, but the fish were smaller. The anglers said they prefer bigger fish and fewer of them as opposed to more fish and smaller ones.”
The unofficial start of trout season is Saturday, March 29, with the statewide Mentored Youth Trout Day.
Emil Bosiljevac pours buckets of trout into a portion of the North Branch Slippery Rock Creek during a trout restocking event on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Gene Nini, left, and Emil Bosiljevac work to haul buckets of trout to a portion of the North Branch Slippery Rock Creek during a trout restocking event on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Phil Nini loads buckets filled with trout onto his truck to drive it across an icy bridge and restock a portion of North Branch Slippery Rock Creek with trout on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Harvey Bumbarger with Bellefonte Regulation hatchery empties the trout tanks of water after finishing up a trout restocking event along the North Branch Slippery Rock Creek on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Pennsylvania Conservation Officer Luke Walter pours trout into a portion of North Branch Slippery Rock Creek during a trout restocking event on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Harvey Bumbarger with Bellefonte Regulation hatchery empties the trout tanks of water after finishing up a trout restocking event along the North Branch Slippery Rock Creek on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Pennsylvania Conservation Officer Luke Walter pours trout into a portion of North Branch Slippery Rock Creek during a trout restocking event on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Emil Bosiljevac hauls buckets of trout to a portion of the North Branch Slippery Rock Creek during a trout restocking event on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Emil Bosiljevac pours buckets of trout into a portion of the North Branch Slippery Rock Creek during a trout restocking event on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Emil Bosiljevac pours buckets of trout into a portion of the North Branch Slippery Rock Creek during a trout restocking event on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Harvey Bumbarger with Bellefonte Regulation hatchery empties the trout tanks of water after finishing up a trout restocking event along the North Branch Slippery Rock Creek on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Emil Bosiljevac pours buckets of trout into a portion of the North Branch Slippery Rock Creek during a trout restocking event on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Harvey Bumbarger with Bellefonte Regulation hatchery hands Phil Nini, left, a bucket of trout to restock North Branch Slippery Rock Creek on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Pennsylvania Conservation Officer Luke Walter pours trout into a portion of North Branch Slippery Rock Creek during a trout restocking event on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Pennsylvania Conservation Officer Luke Walter pours trout into a portion of North Branch Slippery Rock Creek during a trout restocking event on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Harvey Bumbarger with Bellefonte Regulation hatchery hands Phil Nini, left, a bucket of trout to restock North Branch Slippery Rock Creek on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Harvey Bumbarger with Bellefonte Regulation hatchery clips a fish bucket onto his truck during a restocking of North Branch Slippery Rock Creek with trout on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Harvey Bumbarger with Bellefonte Regulation hatchery hands Phil Nini, left, a bucket of trout to restock North Branch Slippery Rock Creek on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Harvey Bumbarger with Bellefonte Regulation hatchery clips a fish bucket onto his truck during a restocking of North Branch Slippery Rock Creek with trout on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Harvey Bumbarger with Bellefonte Regulation hatchery fills buckets with trout to restock North Branch Slippery Rock Creek on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
Emil Bosiljevac pours buckets of trout into a portion of the North Branch Slippery Rock Creek during a trout restocking event on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle
Morgan Phillips
