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COVID: impact on your fishing?

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jjdbike

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Hey everyone,

I am asking you  this as I am trying to process this myself.

More and more states are telling everyone to stay home for everything other than necessary, life sustaining activities such as buying food or other crucial supplies. This includes NY to our north, NY to our East, DE to our south east, and OH to our west.

Are you folks still venturing out to fish? Are any of you postponing fishing until this subsides? I don’t mean obvious solitary situations such is on your own private land, in you own private boat alone, etc. I’m thinking of public land, e.g., along a stocked trout stream. I went out last Weds to a stocked special regulation stream off the beaten path. It was crowded w/ fishers, exercisers, families, etc. Thankfully most practiced distancing, but certainly not all. Even those who try, can make a mis-step and accidentally get too close, e.g., on a narrow path.

I personally am struggling. Walking along a beautiful wooded trout stream fishing is a meditative, mindful endeavor that stands to enhance physical, mental and emotional wellness. It can also be a risk.

I live with a wife that is in the high risk catagory and would be in serious trouble  if infected. I was looking forward to getting out this week, but now I’m thinking I need to stay home out of caution to protect my wife form exposure. 
What are you folks doing?

JD

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I will be fishing and morel hunting alot. Thing about everyone not working now. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a rod in his garage has be hitting the special reg. Streams hard. Hit 2 this weekend at false dawn and by the time I worked my way back to the truck there were guys everywhere. 

Think I'm gonna concentrate on the river and maybe seriously panfish. Something I haven't done in years.

Still bummed about pafc changing the opener date.  

As far as health concerns even tho I know this is serious im not to concerned. Even if they issue a stay at home order for my county. I'll still be in the woods and on the water. Else I will go insane!

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14 mins ago, Haycreekrambler said:

I will be fishing and morel hunting alot. Thing about everyone not working now. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a rod in his garage has be hitting the special reg. Streams hard. Hit 2 this weekend at false dawn and by the time I worked my way back to the truck there were guys everywhere. 

Think I'm gonna concentrate on the river and maybe seriously panfish. Something I haven't done in years.

Still bummed about pafc changing the opener date.  

As far as health concerns even tho I know this is serious im not to concerned. Even if they issue a stay at home order for my county. I'll still be in the woods and on the water. Else I will go insane!

Yup, agreed on the Tom, Dick, etc..

I don’t really have anything around me but trout streams. The public access rivers are just as crowded w a different sort of folk who  most def do not practice social distancing & keep everything they catch, no matter size or species. 
JD

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1 min ago, jjdbike said:

Yup, agreed on the Tom, Dick, etc..

I don’t really have anything around me but trout streams. The public access rivers are just as crowded w a different sort of folk who  most def do not practice social distancing & keep everything they catch, no matter size or species. 
JD

What county are you in?

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I'm going to fish my areas that take measurable effort to get to, and abandon the easy access places to stay away from the new crowds. Wanted to head to MD to fish stripers before the season ended but I don't know what is going on really and with times turbid and travel being restricted I'm thinking staying in state is the safest option. But I may not even be able to do that.

 

I live in Chester county and have a lot of places I love on the Susquehanna, but I don't know if I'll be able to travel that far. Don't know if Wolf's new order will allow fishing as outdoor activity so long as I stay away from people, which I always do anyways. Just need a bit of time to digest the literature. This was the year I wanted to fish harder than ever before. Pretty depressing.

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12 hours ago, RedGreen said:

and abandon the easy access places to stay away from the new crowds....and with times turbid and travel being restricted I'm thinking staying in state is the safest option. But I may not even be able to do that.

 

I live in Chester county and have a lot of places I love on the Susquehanna, but I don't know if I'll be able to travel that far. Don't know if Wolf's new order will allow fishing as outdoor activity so long as I stay away from people, which I always do anyways. Just need a bit of time to digest the literature. This was the year I wanted to fish harder than ever before. Pretty depressing.

Yup,

Agreed.

JD

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19 hours ago, RedGreen said:

Don't know if Wolf's new order will allow fishing as outdoor activity so long as I stay away from people, which I always do anyways. Just need a bit of time to digest the literature. This was the year I wanted to fish harder than ever before. Pretty depressing.

This is a great question.

I'm going to post this in a new thread.

JD

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4 mins ago, jjdbike said:

This is a great question.

I'm going to post this in a new thread.

JD

Looking forward to it. 

 

I would now argue it is safe to fish as long as you're not making it a social event, for which I cite the announcement that fishing is an accepted outdoor exercise option as shared in the NJ forum. 

 

But you don't know until you do. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Still stuck inside when i would normally be wayyy south of pa.

 

Not gonna risk any extra travel which means possible additional exposure just to fish.  Going to grocery store is scary enough for me.

 

I can fish alone just fine.  But at some point this means i need to get gas for truck.  If truck breaks down or gets into accident this means i get to meet a tow truck driver etc. 

Not worth exposing my family to possible deadly virus

Edited by Captain Ahab

I fish fine

look stupid 

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I'm in MD. I pretty much fish the GP river ,only the C/R section. Gov closed that section down plus all other c/r sections on any river and stream. Gov says you can only fish for food , so you would have to keep what limit you caught. I can flyfish the river I live on for pan fish and bass. But I prefer catching and releasing trout. My surf fishing is done, I can't go to the DE beaches, My surf tag is wasting away. Your state of PA seems the only place to really get into ff trout. I'm thinking of getting a PA license, But I feel funny ff in PA with all this going on.  I guesse I could fish the catch and take stocked water in MD, But I hate all the crowds and some morons you have to put up with.  I live in MD.

Edited by hunter123
Capt, Frank Mundus. The man, the myth, the legand.
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  • 7 months later...

Now that we’re getting to the end of the season- how did this year affect your fishing?
I fished a ton this spring for local trout.  Since I was working from home this year, I went before work each day. Decided to fly fish exclusively in feshwater and improved a lot.

My spring striper season was nonexistent due to COVID related travel issues.  Summer was down for me, fall picked up a bit.  These short days make it tough to get out with little kids, though.  

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12 hours ago, weekendwarrior said:

Now that we’re getting to the end of the season- how did this year affect your fishing?
I fished a ton this spring for local trout.  Since I was working from home this year, I went before work each day. Decided to fly fish exclusively in feshwater and improved a lot.

My spring striper season was nonexistent due to COVID related travel issues.  Summer was down for me, fall picked up a bit.  These short days make it tough to get out with little kids, though.  

 

I didn't miss a beat, had a blast, and caught a ton of fish.

 

The only effect was that more people then usual were out fishing in Spring and Summer, but those kind of anglers burn out rather quickly. They are not out any longer.

 

The past 2 months when I have been out fishing walleye and musky I have seen know one else 99% of the time.

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I had one of the best trout seasons ever this past year. I was off work the morning the season opener was sprung, so I was one of the lucky few out there early with tons of hungry fish and nobody else around. For about 3-4 hours it was like a dream! Then I was laid off for a month back in April-May. For that month I wrecked havoc on local trout. I was out every day. In the county I live, we are usually overrun with fishermen the 1st 2 weeks of the season since we get the regional early opening day. Then 1st week of May we are overrun again with the Lions Club Trout Derby in town. None of that B.S. went on this year. Even though the state shorted us by about half the fish they usually put in, there were still lots of nice fish to go after. The local sportsmens club did a fantastic job too this year and stocked more fish than usual.....and big ones! As far as covid concerns, I fish alone and I stayed at least 6 ft from everybody while fishing so no worries......and nobody in my household has caught it.....so far. My daughter is a nursing assistant at the local hospital and she had it about a month ago, also she passed it to her fiance' so they were both sick for about a week.....mild symptoms. After June I got busy at work and didn't have much time to go. Water levels were really low so not really ideal conditions anyway. I did get out a few times when Md did their fall stocking and caught a few. In November I went to Erie for Steelhead as usual and did pretty well. My work is gonna slack up after Christmas so I'm thinking I'll get more opportunities to get out there. Maybe even another short trip to Erie! (if I can get it past my wife) Looking forward! 

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