PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – This weekend marks the official start of trout season in Pennsylvania.

Allegheny County Parks Director Andy Baechle predicts that hundreds of anglers will turn out for the opening of trout fishing season at North Park Lake.

“The Fish and Boat commission has stocked in excess of 5,000 rainbow trout that might average about 11-inches in length. And then they have some breeders that they have. They can be up to twenty inches.”

It has been three years since the county teamed up with the Army Corps of Engineers on a $21 million dredging project in Allegheny County’s largest lake. They removed more than 300,000 cubic yards of sediment. The county added 65 acres of park land to deposit all that mud. And the fish?

“We removed all the big fish when we restored the lake,” Baechle says. “So we put in small fish of the warm season variety, and they need to grow to become big. So I would say four to five years from now, this will be the best place around for warm season fishes.”

It’s a lake for all seasons.

“A lot of things are coming together,” Baechle says. “So this should be a great fishing spot for a long time.”

Trout fishing season continues through Labor Day.

In order to fish for trout, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission reports that anglers 16 and older must possess a fishing license as well as a Trout/Salmon Stamp. A Lake Erie Permit is also necessary to fish in Lake Erie and its tributaries.

More information on these required permits can be found here.

Happy fishing!

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