Trout trifecta in PA

[Doug Vitale]

I hit the trifecta a few weeks ago in the Claremont TCA, and today I had an even better day on my favorite wild trout stream in Pennsylvania. Conditions for troutin' were perfect all around, and consequently the fish were aggressive. The temperature was around 68 degrees, sky was mostly cloudy, water temperature was 55 degrees and the stream level was high thanks to recent rain, but the water was not discolored at all.

The last time I visited this WTS in 2015 I was concerned because I hardly caught any trout unlike the previous year, so I was afraid that something had happened to cause the native brook trout population to plunge. My fears evaporated today as I was getting strikes from feisty little brookies in almost every holding area.

I caught almost ten brooks, and I had at least 10-15 missed strikes. I also caught a few wild brown trout, and in the river that the WTS flows into I got a nice rainbow and several smallmouth bass. Can I say I hit the "grand slam" with all three trout species and some smallmouth, or would I need to get a tiger trout too? All fish were released healthy.