I saw a flier today at the bait shop in Brockway saying that their is going to be a big trout derby on the Clarion River on May 24.  I believe it is going to be between Heath Station and the Belltown Bridge.  I think it said it will be $7 for adults and $3 for kids if you aren't a member of the club.  They are going to have prizes for the three biggest fish caught. One thing I didn't catch was the starting time and ending time.  Anyone know?

i am thinking 7am to 7 pm was posted at the Hatchery when i was there a few weeks ago but dont hold me to it.

I plan on fishing the Clarion this Sunday and Monday but will most likely target the area near Portland Mills.

When I stopped yesterday (Tues) there was NOTHING posted at the hatchery and the fish are gone from the pond and small trout are in there now....

well that does mean that the Big fish must be swimming in the clarion.

MY BAD.....

I went over this morning and it would not stop raining and the wind was terrible..I did not fish but stopped at the hatchery again..


I must not have looked in all the small runways... the BIG ONES are all in one of the runways that I must have missed looking in...

Probably get stocked tommorrow..

BTW.. there is NO notice of any contest posted there....  

--Last edited by Dr Trout on 2008-05-22 11:11:11 --

Maybe they canceled the contest but the fish will still get stocked for the weekend.

I hope they plan on having it cuz I plan on being there.  Oh well, I'll be there either way I guess.  I'm surprised they put the fish in already though.  I didn't think they'd do that until Friday or even Saturday morning.

i'm on vacation next week. i'll be there a few days.

They put there fish in every few weeks during the season leading up till Memorial Day weekend.

Me and my friend Jay caught a bunch in the little stream that flows through Heath Station but nothing big.  We didn't fare so well in the river.  I caught a brook trout and a smallmouth and he caught two brook trout.  None of those were big either.  They're in there though.  I saw one guy walking with a stringer with three big ones on it.

I also saw a few nice ones that they put in the pond. I will be heading up that way after some lunkers in the following weeks.

Well you guys did better than I did..

fished a couple hours below Heath pump station on Monday and today (Tues) total of 4 hours and NOTHING.....

can't remember the last time (if ever) I got SKUNKED on the Clarion River, but it sure happened this week....

maybe the fish do not know what leeches are and are scared of them swimming around ??????

Dr. Trout i dont know about you but getting skunked looks sounds like a good reason to use some fat jucie night crawlers. They seem to be the ticket on the clarion whenever I bait fish.

Yeah I probably never should have bought them...

after all the Clarion is not the Allegheny River below Freeprot and trout are not Walleyes  

and the Smallmouth are not ready to really start hitting...

need a couple more weeks of warm weather for that..

I agree 100%..... night crawlers are the bait of choice for the Clarion...

minnows are great too but they are getting harder and harder to find around here, especially as the weather warms..most places can't keep them alive very long and stop selling them..

I know that is the case where I work.. the fish in the photo I posted on the front page were caught on minnows from our store.

The fish were hit pretty hard on Saturday.  I imagine it wasn't much better on Sunday and Monday either.  Maybe they'll start to bite if they're given some time.  A weekday would be best.  Of course I work during the week though.  

Yeah Weekends are tough up there during this time of the year the canoes really seem to mess the trout up.  I might be headed up that way Thursday in hopes of hiting a nice evening hatch.

sorry that it took so long to post these. a couple from the stocking.