What's everyone's opinion on the warm weather? Do you think this will have a major effect on bug life/trout activity?

Yes.

IMO we are only seeing the beginning of a massive climate change that will eventually kill off many PA wild trout streams.

For now it has the trout and bugs more active than usual.

I agree with Sal.
Some of the streams I fish are already warm and the flows are low. It may seem that this is going to be a good season but I think that by the end of June, the water will be to hot to fish.
I have already seen dead fish that were over played in these warm water.

It's gonna be a bad year for fleas and ticks. Even worse than last year.

It didn't get cold enough or cold enough for long enough this past winter.

While I'm not quite as pessimistic as Sal and his "end of all PA trout fishing as we know it" scenario, I do think this year will be pretty dang hot.

Hard to say though, isn't it? Just as this winter never got brutally cold, maybe the summer won't get brutally hot.

Quote:

yes it is! went for a little hike in the game lands right down the road and had ticks crawling up my pant legs when I got back to the car. I've hiked in those game lands for years, in all seasons, and have NEVER seen a tick.
already have mosquito problem in our backyard and it's freaking march!

I'm loving this March: fine fishing, not burning oil, etc.; but I am afraid that if this is true climate change and not just a long-lasting shift of the jet stream, then sal is right. Ticks around here are bad, too; my wife is good about Frontlining our dog, but others who don't have been complaining about tick-infested dogs.

To hot to early!!! Don't get me wrong better than 30's and snow but 80's in March is hard on these fish, especially fish that just got stocked. I caught a 23" bow yesterday and even though I had to play it for a while to get it in it took over 5 min. to revive it. If it stays warm like this we are gonna need alot of rain to keep alot of creeks from drying up. Took water temp yesterday at stream and it was 56 degrees already, not good!!

Thanks for all the comments, we'll have to see what mother nature decides to give us this spring/summer. Hopefully everything works out and summer is nice to us.

OMG, teh sky is falling, the sky is falling!!!!

Have ya'll actually looked at the forecast??? 50's & rain this wknd, 50's & rain next wknd. With talk of a pattern shift thru April which will re-allign the jet stream back to it's normal flow, ushering in cooler spring temps....enjoy these couple of days, the end is not near.

Overplaying a fish in 50-60 degree water isn't the problem., overplaying a fish is. I'm not as concerned as some... the weather can turn easily. This weekend we're supposed to get a soaking rain over 2 days with temps in the 50s and 60s.

CBS Philly says a warm winter does not necessarily mean a hot summer.

CBS Philly

I am concerned about streams warming up too soon or an early end to trout season in S.E. PA.

I did not mean to sound like the sky is falling or that its an end all to pa trout fishing. At least no this year or even many years. I do believe though that in 40 years a lot of streams will fall off the natural reproduction list.

Hope I'm wrong and would be glad if I was. :)

and i thought we were going to get buried this past winter, what with the snow for halloween.

Fished Conewago Fly stretch this PM. Fish stocked two weeks ago are keyed into size 24+ midges or no see ums. This is March 22 and water is at Summer lows and fishermen at 6x tippet and flies too big at #20!!! Not very fun at this time of year.