At its quarterly business meeting held Tuesday at the Tom Ridge Environmental Center, the Fish and Boat Commission unveiled plans to expand its popular Mentored Youth Fishing Day Program across the state in 2014.

Launched this past spring as a pilot program on the Saturday preceding the regional opening day of trout season, Mentored Youth Fishing Day was an immediate hit with adult anglers and the kids in their lives. More than 3,700 adult anglers registered 5,110 kids for the fishing opportunity.

“This new program turned out to be very popular with anglers and their friends and family,” said PFBC Executive Director John Arway. “We had a great turnout at every location and we received a lot of thanks from participants, who said they were happy to have a special day to fish with their children in advance of the opening day. We expect the same level of enthusiasm and turnout when we expand it statewide this spring.”

For the 2014 fishing season, the first Mentored Youth Fishing Day will be held on approximately a dozen waters on March 22, the Saturday before the regional opening day of trout season in 18 southcentral and southeast counties. The second one will be held on approximately two dozen waters on April 5, the weekend before the traditional statewide opening day of trout season.

“We are still finalizing the exact number of waters and will publicly announce the list in December before the holiday season, sort of our gift to anglers,” added Arway.

A follow-up survey of participants found that 89 percent of the registered youth fished that day; a majority of mentors were family members; and more than 80 percent of the mentors said they were satisfied with the experience.

All total, the kids and their mentors fished 7,727 hours and reported releasing 4,405 trout and harvesting 1,183. Nearly 80 percent of the mentors said they usually fish the opening day of trout season. However, more than one-third of respondents said that they do not typically take youth out on opening day.

In other action, Commissioners:

-- Gas Leases: Approved a Non-Surface Use Oil and Gas Cooperative Agreement with Abarta Oil and Gas Company for the development of oil and natural gas at the PFBC’s Hereford Manor property in Franklin Township, Beaver County. Abarta has offered the PFBC a three-year primary term, a $3,000 per acre up-front bonus payment of $1.34 million and a royalty rate of 18 percent. The bonus payment and all royalties will be deposited into the Fish Fund where they will be used to fund efforts to revitalize and repair Commonwealth-owned high-hazard dams managed by the PFBC.

-- Class A Wild Trout Stocking Policy: Proposed a change to the stocking policy for Class A wild trout which would permit stocking to continue on certain Class A waters that meet specific conditions. Currently, stocking is prohibited on all Class A waters, which represent the best of the naturally reproducing trout fisheries. The PFBC has identified nine waters which meet Class A standards, but are currently stocked and receive heavy angler use.

The proposed policy amendment would allow stream sections which are designated as Class A after 2013 to remain eligible for fingerling stocking or preseason-only stocking of adult trout by the PFBC or cooperative nurseries as long as certain conditions are met. The stream section must have been stocked during the year immediately prior to its Class A designation, and angler use in the stream section must equal or exceed the 75th percentile, statewide, of angler use for the opening weekend of trout season as documented by PFBC staff.

The PFBC is soliciting public comment on the proposal for 90 days. If adopted, the amended statement of policy would go into effect on January 1, 2015.

-- Wild Trout Streams: Added to the list of wild trout streams one new water in Somerset County. The list can be found on the PFBC website.

-- Class A Wild Trout Streams: Added to the list of Class A wild trout streams four waters in Centre, Jefferson and Somerset counties. The list can be found on the PFBC website.

-- Endangered Species: Approved a final rulemaking to move the Eastern Spadefoot toad from the Endangered Species list to the Threatened Species list.

-- Aquatic Invasive Species: Approved a federal pass-through grant of $374,016 to the Regional Science Consortium in Erie to conduct a comprehensive barrier assessment and prioritization of barriers for removal in Pennsylvania’s Lake Erie tributaries. In the Great Lakes, barrier removal or modification can impact not only the movement of sport fish, such as steelhead, but also aquatic invasive species, like sea lamprey and round goby. The funding comes from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

A complete copy of the meeting schedule and the full agenda for the meeting can be found on the Commission’s website.

10/7/2013