Rule of rod
How to catch fish, not COVID-19
With less than three weeks before the start of Pennsylvania’s trout season, families and friends with opening-day traditions are weighing the need for social bonding against the need for social distancing as COVID19 threatens to upset fishing camp culture.
Two weeks ago, the state Fish and Boat Commission canceled the early regional trout opener and regional Mentored Youth Fishing Day in southeastern counties where the disease has hit hard. Changes to trout stockings and fishing license purchasing procedures were intended to separate Fish and Boat employees and licensing agents from anglers.
A combined statewide Mentored Youth Fishing Day will be held April 11. Combining preseason and in-season stockings means that when the season opens April 18, all 3.2 million trout raised in agency hatcheries, and another million raised by volunteer cooperative nurseries, are expected to be stocked and waiting for anglers.
Stay-at-home orders in some counties, including Allegheny, make exceptions for outdoor exercise and recreation. Fishing isn’t specifically mentioned in Gov. Tom Wolf’s mandate, but during a conference call interview Wednesday, Tim Schaeffer, executive director of the state Fish and Boat Commission, said the state considers fishing to be a “passive” recreational activity that can be safely done by following what he light-heartedly called, the “rule of rod.”
“Hold a fishing rod out. That’s about the distance — 6 feet — that you should keep between you and other anglers,” he said. “Do that and other best practices — refrain from carpooling, avoid crowds and sharing gear, follow the same handwashing, coughing and sneezing precautions as you would anywhere else and you’ll probably be in good shape.”
Fishing camp members should follow the same recommendations, said Mr. Schaeffer, and decide how to handle opening weekend on a case-by-case basis. They will make decisions, he said, “based on travel restrictions, the number of people, size of the space and other considerations. These are circumstances we’ve never had before. This will be a different year.”
One angler concerned about complications to fishing camp culture looked at the bright side.
“The good thing about fishing is you can do it by yourself,” said John Arway, Mr. Schaeffer’s predecessor at Fish and Boat. “And when you do it with other people, it’s even better if you’re far apart.”
Mr. Arway worked with the agency for 38 years including eight as executive director. Now retired and a “full-time grandfather,” he still fishes from a Forest County cabin set up by his uncle near the bank of Tionesta Creek in 1964. He was there when reached in an intermittent cell phone connection on Monday.
“I’ve been coming here for hunting and fishing for 40 years. It’s a fishing camp for friends and family, now including grandchildren,” he said. “It’s part of our normal lifestyle. I hope it doesn’t get interupted by the virus.”
Distant from an urban environment, Mr. Arway said he’s probably safer breathing the air near the crossroad community of Lynch. But like many fishing camps, the Arway homestead is clustered near other camps and socializing is part of the opening day tradition.
“My camp is in a village of camps. My house is more isolated,” he said. “That camaraderie [includes] people coming in before opening day, helping to open camps, going to the creek to throw bread in to see if there are any fish there. All of those things go along with the tradition of fishing camp.”
Not to mention sharing air during a long drive, bait shop stops, buying food and other situations where social distancing is difficult. Mr. Arway said the fluidity of COVID management has made it impossible to make April plans in March. Much will depend on governmentimposed travel restrictions.
Even a less traditional fishing “camp” of tents pitched on an island could be in jeopardy. For 11 years, Chris Ungvarsky of Beaver County and members of his family and friends have rented a group campsite literally surrounded by Yellow Creek at the family-owned Yellow Creek Campground in Indiana County. This year, he said, the campground is currently closed as per Gov. Wolf’s recommendation, and the owner is likely to wait until April 15 to decide whether to open for the weekend.
“If the campground is open and I’m still healthy, I’ll plan on going,” said Mr. Ungvarsky. “As for staying home? The only way I’m passing on tradition is if the decision is out of my very well-washed hands.”
Mr. Away said making trout fishing plans in the year of COVID may be difficult for all anglers, but fishing camp members have more to consider.
“It’s hard to say what will happen this year. We’re still trying to figure it out,” he said. “If [the state] wants everybody to stay home, it doesn’t matter whether they want to fish at camp or stay closer to home to fish. I’d tell my family to just kind of give up on going opening day and fish later when it’s safer to travel.”
Fortunately, said Mr. Away, we’re talking about fishing in Pennsylvania.
“We have 86,000 miles of water to fish, plus the lakes, and they sell 860,000 licenses,” he said. “That’s what? Ten anglers per mile. Plenty of room to fish.”