You probably voted this past Tuesday, right? You walked into the booth and cast a ballot in this midterm election cycle for your state and local representatives. Or maybe you voted early. Maybe you mailed in a ballot. However you voted, it’s pretty easy to think that...
Today was full of colors well past their season. Patchy green grass lay beside dying moss on limestone, and a sprig of blushing maple stubbornly gripped its parent branch through early white frost. All if it was accompanied by wild trout in the richest oranges and...
Just two percent of Pennsylvania’s 83,000 river miles receive the state’s Class A Wild Trout designation. Two percent. Wild trout are rare. They are rare enough to be special, to be highly valued and protected. In short, we must be careful with the resource. The...
How often do you get the chance to positively impact the health of your favorite river? Most of us want to help, but conservation takes time. Sure, we pick up trash, release most of our trout and take care of the stream. Many of us also donate time and money, hoping...
Wild trout are the heart of Troutbitten. We chase these fish so we can be part of the extraordinary places where they're found, if just for a little while. Eventually, the environs become part of us, and we carry a piece of the river inside our own thoughts and...
“The river with all those railroad bridges.” That’s how many anglers identify the Little Juniata River. Ten massive, stone arch bridges sandwiched into five miles of the middle river are surely the identifying mark for the Little J. These impressive 19th century...
We need your help. River cleanup days for the Little Juniata River and Spring Creek are just around the corner. This may come as a surprise, but every day you spend helping a river earns you four months of good fishing mojo with the fishing gods. True story. That’ll...
A slate of 146 streams are proposed to be added to the Pennsylvania Class A Wild Trout Waters and Wild Trout Streams lists, but they need your help. Surprisingly, streams that have trout populations meeting the Class A requirement are not automatically designated as...
There’s an army of people out there working together to save and restore trout streams. They stand against pollution and impairment, and they improve the quality of water. They stop bank erosion from cutting away acres of property, and that helps keep private lands open to the public.
There are more people taking care of our rivers than I ever imagined. Until recently, I thought only about the fishing. I want healthy wild trout in the water. Same as you.
I think it’s our turn to start giving back. Here’s how . . .
Fish pictures are the grand compromise of catch and release. An Instagram feed with a full gallery of trout is replacing the stringer of dead fish for bragging rights. And that’s a good thing. They look better alive anyway.
Would a trout be better off if we didn’t take its picture? Sure it would. Moreover, wouldn’t a trout be better off if we didn’t set a hook in its mouth and drag it through the water? Yup. So I think we have to be a little careful how self-righteous we get. Point is, we all draw the line somewhere, and I firmly believe that a quick picture, taken responsibly (I’ll get to that), won’t hurt a trout.
Most of the fishermen I know who’ve spent a great deal of time with their boots in the water have caught on to catch and release. The bare facts stare you in the face pretty quickly if you start keeping your limit on every trip. You soon realize that a good fisherman can thin out a stretch of water in short order, and a group of good fishermen can probably take down an entire watershed.
So we take pictures instead . . .