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By Elspeth Mizner
Presque Isle was one of many places filled with anglers for the first day of trout season.
Ray Bierbower, an Environmental Educational Specialist with the DCNR said, “Waterworks ponds have quite the crowd around them for the first day of trout. It’s a nice place to come fish. It’s stocked well with a lot of nice brown trout, and it’s fairly accessible for a lot of young anglers to come out and fish with their families.”
Not only does the start of trout season, bring out some longtime fishers, but it also brought some beginners, too, who caught fish for the first time.
That was the case for Annabelle Anaya who caught a fish after trying since early morning. Anaya said she enjoyed her new hobby, “Very fun. It was very hard to catch it because it was like fighting away.”
She wasn’t the only one who caught a fish, other children had luck too, thanks to help from family members and the S.O.N.S of Lake Erie. As Bierbower explained, “We’re working with the S.O.N.S. of Lake Erie to hopefully introduce a lot of folks to fishing and start them young and, you know, no pun intended, would get them hooked on the activity. And you’ll see that they will be hopefully involved in the hobby throughout their whole life. It’s a great way to come out to enjoy nature, relax.”
After spending time in the sun, anglers could enjoy snacks and drinks to benefit veterans in the community.
Eric Cass, the Chapter Commander of the Disabled American Veterans explained, “We are definitely enjoying the weather and many years past, it’s definitely been cold and dreary out here. So with the temperatures being this it’s definitely helping us with having more people and hopefully helping us with getting more donations.”
They were passing out breakfast and lunch and were accepting donations to help veterans in Erie, Crawford and Warren counties.
The DCNR plans to host more workshops for fishing this summer, to learn more, click here.
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