Opening Day 2026 - Who Else Out with Fly Rod?

[Mike]

Many people probably overcook their trout. Dry trout is lousy trout. The meat should be very moist, so moist that you can see the shine of water in the meat and it will easily fall off the bones when encouraged only the slightest bit with a fork. The difference between overcooking and undercooking is about 1-1.5 min so the cook really needs to pay close attention.

When pan frying with just enough oil to keep the flour covered fish from sticking to the pan, covering with a lid for part of the process helps keep the moisture in the meat and aids in preheating the top side before flipping the fish over. Sprinkling some rosemary or lemon pepper in the body cavity beforehand is an extremely simple way to enhance the flavor as well.

 

[derkoberko]

Went out with the fly rod, wanted to stay somewhat close to the house incase the kids got out of hand for my wife. Fished until about 10:30, managed two of four, went to a different section of the creek in the afternoon and was lucky if I had even a sniff on the bugs.

 

[tjsingle]

I usually avoid the most stocked streams until a week or two after opening day. I like fishing the DHALO's and other special regs if I do, just because they usually are ghost towns.

This years opening day I was up at Penns on Fri/Sat. Decent first 2026 overnight trip. Hatches are just getting start, mostly a nymph/streamer bite. Didn't get into a ton, but the first one was about 16-17", which I was happy with.

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[laszlo]

Hadn't planned on fishing opening day at all since I had to work half the day at our store in Gettysburg and wanted to cut the grass after that. But the wife gave me the go but be home by five so I drove the 45 min. to Mountain Creek. By then the crowd had dwindled and the afternoon was quite comfortably warm. I was the only one with a fly rod and managed 7 in the 2 hours fished. Fished a tamden of egg pattern and lively legs. The rainbows took the egg and the browns the lively legs. Did not witness any other fish caught.

 

[Roofin' Trouter]

I was out on Opening Day. It was a very nice day to be outside. Walked down to the crick around 730. Took a few casts with my buddy at 8am, saw a beaver,some mergansers, and a pretty big painted turtle before walking home for breakfast. Went back out around 11 and tried a few spots. I caught a few, watched others catch fish, met nice people from different towns around the Commonwealth, enjoyed the sunshine and warmth, but didn't get any of the Straub or Trout a thon tagged fish

 

[JK Reed]

The wife and I always eat the stockies we catch up here in the Laurel Highlands. We stuff them with lemons and butter with some seasonings, grill them whole for about 4 minutes each side. The skin peels right off and the meat falls right off the bones. We only keep two for each of us and makes for a great meal. The little rainbow pictured swallowed the hook or would have been released.

 

[troutbert]

I just fry stockies and add lemon, salt and pepper. They're OK.

Not nearly as good as bluegills, but OK.

 

[DomR]

Trout suck, especially fresh stockies. I rarely keep any.

 

[Bamboozle]

I finally got out yesterday for about 1.5 - 2.0 hours on a local STW that has been crowded all week.

Plan A was to fish the STW with flies on a Tenkara rod from the bank which is my usual MO at a particular spot popular with the spin fishing guys. This was only an option IF I could get "my spot" which gives me backcast room.

Plan B was to fish a nearby privately stocked, but open to the public local stream from the bank with spinning tackle. If the Plan B location was too crowded, Plan C was to go to another spot on the Plan A STW creek.

Plan D was to just go back home and have a couple of Martinis...

I got to the Plan A STW and NO ONE was there which was shocking. I rigged up the Tenkara rod with a 15+ foot level line and a beadhead Prince Nymph and two casts later landed a rainbow trout.

During the following 1.5 hours I landed another 3 cookie cutter rainbow trout on the Prince Nymphs and one on a San Juan worm (only my 2nd EVER trout on a San Juan Worm) and lost two more for a total of 5 fish landed & released.

In between I smoked a cigar, had a couple of conversations with some spin guys, gave a kid I was chatting with a spinning lure, had a couple of beers and then I went home for those martinis. 😉

It was a good day in my book.