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Jeff Huntzinger got out of work late Friday night, slept for about two hours and then loaded up his kids and fishing gear with hopes of being first in line when the gate opened at Lake Frances in Nescopeck State Park.
He was fourth.
The Huntzinger family arrived at Lake Frances at 2:30 a.m. and, despite not being the first car in line, they were able to claim a good spot along the water and land several brook trout during Saturday’s opening day of trout season. There were four generations of the Huntzinger family at the lake, and opening the season there is not only a tradition, but a finely tuned routine as well.
By 9:30 a.m. they had fish on the stringer, venison and egg sandwiches cooking on a griddle and three kids excitedly watching bobbers in the water.
“We get here early because we don’t want to be split up and we want the kids to have plenty of space,” said Jeff Huntzinger, of Dallas. “All of the kids caught fish, and you can’t go wrong if the kids are having fun.”
The parking lot of Lake of Frances was filled for the 8 a.m. start time, as were the parking areas along Honey Hole Road where anglers accessed Nescopeck Creek. Trout were hitting right away at Lake Frances when the season opened, and slowed to an occasional bite later in the morning.
Still, space to fish was at a premium.
Waterways Conservation Officer Aaron Lupacchini said there were no parking spots left at Lake Frances in the morning, and people parked down the road and climbed up the dam to get to the lake.
Nescopeck Creek was just as crowded, Lupacchini said.
“And they were catching fish, too. When we stocked the creek, it was high and the trout really spread out,” he said. “At the entrance to Beech Mountain, they were doing extremely well, and we didn’t even stock there.”
Dan Giordano, of Freeland, took advantage of the prime conditions at Nescopeck Creek to help his stepson, Jude Pfeiffer, try to catch his first trout. By 10 a.m., Pfeiffer, 6, hooked two trout but lost them as he brought the fish to shore.
Still, he wasn’t giving up.
“It’s his first trout opener and a special day,” Giordano said. “The bite has been decent so far.”
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission stocked more than 3 million trout for the season opener and more than 850,000 anglers purchased a fishing license.
Waterways Conservation Officer John Cummings, whose district includes northern Luzerne County and part of Wyoming County, said turnout varied in his area. There were few anglers at Frances Slocum Lake, he said, Harveys Lake had an average turnout and Moon Lake was more crowded than previous years.
Harveys Creek had more anglers and the water was perfect, Cummings said, and trout were being caught. But at the lakes and even in the stocked waters in Wyoming County, the action was slow.
Cummings said the weather, while nice, wasn’t the best for fishing.
“It’s a beautiful day with no clouds, but that’s not always the best for catching fish. Overcast is better,” he said. “When the catch is consistently slow across the board, you have to consider the weather.”
At Lily Lake in Slocum Township, the turnout for opening day was light and the bite was slow. By 8 a.m. the shoreline was sparsely populated with anglers and approximately 25 boats were on the lake.
“It’s fun, but sometimes you have to work for them,” said Mark Welch of Pond Hill, who brought his two children, Mark, 8, and Callie, 5, for opening day. “It’s a beautiful day to fish, but things are really slow. This is a big lake and they stock it so far in advance that the trout spread out. You just have to wait for them to come around.”
Lupacchini said the fishing at Lily Lake was slow because the trout had plenty of time to spread out and seek deeper water. Plus, the high turnout at Lake Frances and Nescopeck Creek took a lot of angling pressure away from Lily Lake.
As far as violations go, Lupacchini said he didn’t have one problem in his district, while Cummings said the only issues he encountered were with anglers that didn’t have wearable flotation devices while fishing from boats.
“It was a successful opening day here, between the high turnout and people catching fish. Even though the bite shut down once the sun got bright, anglers were still out there,” Lupacchini said.
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