Pennsylvania trout fishermen can look forward to a season similar to last year with only minor exceptions.

Following decades of excellent trout fishing in Pennsylvania, this means yet another great year of trout fishing. As usual, the weather will have the greatest influence on the fortunes of fishing during the first weeks of trout season. If we have an early spring and only moderate rain, most fishermen will be pleased.

"Our stocking numbers are going to be similar to 2005, about 4.2 million catchable trout," said Tom Green, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission's Coldwater Unit leader. "That's a ballpark number. Species composition will be about the same. Our big change is going to be in 2007. That's when we're going to see fewer but larger trout."

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has been holding meetings with representatives of fishing groups from different parts of the state. These people have repeatedly told commission members that anglers prefer quality over quantity.

State hatcheries are limited by the amount of biomass they can produce. This means they can only produce a specific number of trout by weight. This weight can be divided into larger but fewer trout, or smaller but a greater number of trout. For 2007, there will be 800,000 fewer trout, about 2.1 million adult trout, but they will be 30 percent larger by weight.

The stockings will still contain a few of the larger trout that we have been seeing for the past several years, and stocking allocations in the various approved trout waters should be about the same this year as last year.

"We've just wrapped up creel survey work on our stocked trout streams," Greene said. "We're working on those numbers right now."

If analysis of the creel survey indicates changes should be made in allocations, it will not happen until next year.

The biggest changes trout fishermen will see this year are changes on special regulations waters.

One example of the way special regulations will be consolidated is combining 26 Delayed Harvest Fly Fishing Only (DHFFO) and seven Heritage Angling into Catch-and-Release Fly-Fishing Only waters. These two special regulations were similar, differing only in that trout could be harvested during a specified period in the DHFFO sections. A large number of fly-fishermen are catch-and-release oriented, so this change should not meet with much objection, and it should improve fishing quality in affected streams while reducing the need for stocking these streams.

Waters designated as part of this program provide year-round fly-fishing with no harvest. Fishing will be permitted from one hour before sunrise to one hour after sunset. There will be no need for barbless hooks and no restriction on wading unless otherwise posted.

Also, last year, the Fish and Boat Commission voted to create a new program of Catch-and-Release All-Tackle areas that went into effect Jan. 1 this year. Waters in this program will be open for year-round trout fishing with no harvest and no special tackle restrictions.

Two waters currently under various special regulations (portions of Spring Creek in Centre County and Valley Creek in Chester County) were designated as Catch-and-Release All-Tackle areas.

A proposal to allow all tackle to be used in Delayed Harvest Artificial Lures Only areas during the harvest season of June 15 through Labor Day was not adopted.

Probably the most important piece of advice for trout fishermen as the new season opens is to look for "high-yield" trout streams. These are the streams that get the greatest number of stocked trout. To achieve high-yield status, streams should have plenty of public access, including at least 50 percent public land along the banks and good road access, and they should be medium-sized, meaning a width of 13 feet to 66 feet.