The first day of the 2022 trout season was a fabulous one for Oscar Padilla.
Padilla, 44, of Roaring Spring — who was fishing the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River with his sons Caelan, 13, and Mateo, 11 — landed a massive trophy rainbow trout about 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Padilla fooled the fish on a nymph, and the trout gave a spirited battle before Padilla was able to bring it out of the water and on to a stringer.
“I have light tackle,” said Padilla, pointing out that both of his sons had caught one smaller trout apiece as well. “It took me 10 minutes to get the fish in. It kept running and running. It’s great. It’s wonderful — I enjoy fishing with my sons.”
At Canoe Creek, the customary elbow-to-elbow opening day crowds and stringers full of fish were nowhere to be seen on a couple popular spots off Beaver Dam Road.
Greg Householder, 65, and his son, Jason, 43, both of Altoona, weren’t having much luck at mid-morning in a deep pool at which they were the only people fishing.
“It’s the slowest I’ve ever seen on the opening day,” said Greg, who had landed a footlong rainbow trout on a nightcrawler. “I don’t think they stocked this area heavily this year. I have heard that they had a hard time getting (volunteers) to help stock.
“It’s all about patience, but I’ve been fishing this spot since I was 18 years old, and in some years past, I’ve caught my limit here by 9 a.m.,” Greg added.
Saturday’s weather was quite nippy for the 8 a.m. start of the season. By mid-day, however, the sun was out, and the temperature had warmed up into the middle 50s.
“The weather was on the chilly side early this morning — maybe that had something to do with it,” Jason Householder said of the slow fishing and lack of people surrounding the stream. “After two hours of fishing here and not getting much of anything, I don’t want to stay here much longer.”
Benny Port, 44, and Jinnette Gibson, both of Altoona, weren’t having much luck much further downstream, either.
Port caught a 15-inch rainbow trout on a spinning lure shortly after 8 a.m., but that was the extent of their luck.
“I got just that one,” Port said. “The fishing was good last Saturday when we were here for the Mentored Youth Trout Day, but not today.”
Jinnette added that “One person passed us this morning, and said he had gotten only one bite.”
The crowds were heavier up on Canoe Lake, but the fish weren’t much more active.
“Things are a little bit slow,” said Barry Claar, 79, of Duncansville, who was fishing with Dan Snyder, 52, also of Duncansville. “I had one bump on my line earlier, but the fish went out and back.”
The two were headed to the nearby creek later Saturday.
“We’re afraid that the creek might be high because of all the rain we got earlier in the week,” Snyder said.
Zeth Osborn, 22, was fishing with his father, Dan, 63, both of Altoona, on the lake.
“We’ve had nothing yet,” Zeth said. “We started up at the stream but didn’t get anything. We figured that people here would be catching fish. If nothing else, if we weren’t catching them here, we just like to watch others catching them.”
Dan was thankful for the gradual warm-up in temperature.
“We’ve had some bites,” Dan said. “At least the weather is getting decent.”
John Burk of Duncansville was having some luck with salmon eggs at Blairs Creek near the Sunbrook Manor Apartment complexes at mid-morning on Saturday.
“I caught two and released them,” Burk said. “I don’t eat them, and I figure that if you don’t eat them, why keep them?”
Burk’s grandson and granddaughter had both caught some fish on the stream early Saturday morning, but the chilly temps gave Burk a reason to start fishing later.
“It was too cold for me,” Burk said. “I stayed in my car for a while and drank coffee.”
Bobs Creek
Bobs Creek in Bedford County is a popular trout stream, with cars pulled off along the road and fishermen along the banks at frequent intervals on Saturday morning.
In Osterburg, the area where Bobs Creek Road crosses over Bobs Creek draws a significant number of fishermen and women throughout the year.
On Saturday, more than two dozen people from Greensburg and local towns gathered early — about 6:30 to 7 a.m. — to get prime spots for opening day.
While the water was high, those gathered said it wasn’t as high as years past. One year the group from Greensburg said the water crested up to the road, making the area unsafe. That year, they headed back to camp and went back to bed.
Those scattered along both banks of the creek said the fish were biting for about a half hour after the 8 a.m. opening, but the bites tapered off until a little after noon, when several were able to reel in keepers — though few ended up actually keeping the fish.
“We usually keep a couple of the really big ones,” John Testa of Greensburg said. Fish deemed big enough will be taken back to base camp where they’ll be cooked over the campfire, group members said.
Testa said the group of friends have been gathering along Bobs Creek on opening day for years.
“It’s a tradition,” he said, adding that it goes back 30 or more years.
On the opposite bank, a group of friends from the local area said they’ve been fishing together on opening day for probably four years.
The group — Quentyn Riggleman, 18, of Bedford; Justin Dull, 15, of Pleasantville; Logan Montz, 18, of Osterburg; Daniel Moore, 18, of Hyndman; and Nason Gomez, 18, of Fishertown — made an early morning stop at Sheetz for snacks before heading to their favorite fishing hole.
While they had some success reeling in fish, they didn’t always snag trout, with one of the group catching fall fish one after the other.
Sitting and standing along the bank and talking across the water to the group from Greensburg, the teens said they like fishing, but without any big bites, they were getting ready to call it a day by 1 p.m.
“We like fishing,” they said, but admitted they were getting hungry.
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