Anglers age 15 and under are looking forward to Mentored Youth Trout Day being held for one day on March 28. This annual event gives youths the opportunity to catch trout before the opening of the regular trout fishing season for adults on April 4.

Youngsters who are avid anglers have their fishing tackle and fishing clothing and boots ready to go. They also have the required Mentored Youth Permit or a Voluntary Youth Fishing License. These documents are available online from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission at HuntFish.pa.gov

Youths are not required to buy the trout permit that adults who want to fish for trout must purchase for $14.97. Adults also must have a general fishing license that costs $27.97.

A youth must be accompanied on Trout Day by an adult mentor having a fishing license. An adult is a person age 16 or more. A mentor may accompany multiple youths. A mentor with a fishing license and a trout permit is permitted to catch but not keep trout March 28.

According to the 2026 “Pennsylvania Fishing Summary” that an angler receives upon buying a fishing license, Mentored Youth Trout Day is provided as an “opportunity for youth to fish with their mentors, and is not intended as a way for mentors to get an early start to trout season.”

If you are a mentor, you should read the additional details that apply to Mentored Youth Trout Day on page 21 of the summary. You will learn, for example, that trout that a mentor catches must be released.

Ideally, trout caught and released that day or any other day will survive in which case the fish can be caught again. However, trout caught that sustain injuries may die after they are released. Such trout are wasted.

To avoid that waste, the commission should consider requiring mentors to fish only with artificial lures or flies on Trout Day held for youths. Most fish caught on small lures or artificial flies are hooked at the front of the mouth and can be released basically unharmed.

A mentored youth on Trout Day is permitted to keep two trout that are seven or more inches in length. Ideally, a youngster will keep the first two trout caught and quit fishing for trout that day. That way the youngster won’t catch and injure additional trout that either might die or be in no condition to bite when the regular trout fishing season opens a week later.

Adults who have purchased a general fishing license and a trout permit deserve to fish for trout on April 4 that are in good condition. Adults are as interested in catching trout that day as mentored youths are on March 28.

Regardless of a youth’s age, he or she can begin to learn about fishing methods and regulations that help to conserve fish. Kids who are taught conservation practices may decide to practice conservation. That said, harvesting fish for food can continue. For many anglers who fish for stocked trout, meals of freshly caught trout are their goal.

Some mentored youths will fish with earthworms bought at sporting goods stores or convenience stores. Worms are excellent baits for trout. Worms can be cast into the water repeatedly and remain hooked if the youth casts carefully without whipping the rod forward.

An earthworm or night crawler can be fished near the bottom of any flowing waterway or in a lake stocked with trout. At a lake a bait also can be fished beneath a bobber. Youngsters like fishing with a bobber attached to the fishing line because the bobber can be watched. When a trout takes the worm or other bait, the bobber will twitch, be pulled underwater or move on the water surface as the fish carries the bait. That’s exciting for a kid to see.

Another popular bait that is doughy that comes in a variety of colors and scents is sold in small containers with lids. Molded with the fingers into a ball slightly smaller than a marble, this bait is best fished on a small treble hook. The three hooks attached to the same shaft keep a doughy ball in place better than a single hook used to fish worms. If the doughy bait is carefully cast, it will stay on the treble hook long enough for a trout to find it, provided a trout is present.

Depending on a kid’s age and fishing experience, the mentor may need to assist by baiting the hook and casting the bait. The youngster and not the mentor then is required to pull the rod and set the hook to actually catch a fish that bites. That and other requirements are explained in the summary.

The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission as well as parents and guardians of youngsters are interested in having more youths enjoy fishing and become anglers for many years. The commission needs their support and participation, and parents want their kids to pursue wholesome pastimes related to the outdoors.

Not every kid is cut out to be an athlete or gifted in other ways. Nearly every youngster, however, can become an angler provided the youth is introduced to fishing and receives assistance early on from a mentor. Once a kid learns the basics, he or she can fish either alone or with other anglers.

It is my understanding that a young fellow who will graduate from high school this spring plans to study fisheries biology at a nearby college. His career choice is understandable because he learned about fishing from his dad and brothers when he was a lad in elementary school. Over the years, they caught, harvested and ate trout and other fish. Studying fisheries biology, he will learn about conservation practices as well as how the aquatic environment can be protected and improved to ensure that trout and other fish have adequate habitat.

Pennsylvania has many waters clean and cold enough to hold native trout that reproduce. Those waterways and trout need to be managed and protected. Mentored Youth Trout Day will be even more successful if it leads youths to want to ensure that wild trout have a bright future.