Fishing Tackle Loaner Program Has Room To Grow

By Bob Frye 
Tribune-Review

Pennsylvania has more miles of rivers and streams than any state besides Alaska. It has a state park within 25 miles of every resident, many of them with a waterway of some kind. It’s got U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lakes, county park lakes, municipal reservoirs, frontage on Lake Erie and even tidal waters near Philadelphia.

That’s a lot of places to fish.

But how do you get started? Well, that’s the aim of the long-standing, if not very well-known, fishing tackle loaner program.

Sponsored by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, the program makes fishing rods — along with a tackle box and assorted tackle like hooks, sinkers and even some artificial baits — available to would-be anglers for free. The equipment is available from all kinds of partners statewide. A number of state, county, city and local parks participate in the program, as do public libraries, Indiana (Pa.)’s Punxsutawney campus and Erie National Wildlife Refuge.

It works much like borrowing a book from the library. You leave a name and contact information, sign out the equipment, go fishing, then return it that day when you’re done.

“It’s hoped that those making the loans will enjoy fishing so much they are hooked for life,” reads a description of the program from the commission.

But it’s all very much under the radar.

Keystone State Park has been participating in the program for years and has about 15 rods available for loan, all maintained by the Loyalhanna Bassmasters club, said environmental education specialist Pam McQuistan. Yet, despite events like Monday’s statewide Fish for Free Day — when anyone can try fishing without a license — rods only get borrowed 20 or 30 times a summer, she said.

“There’s pretty low usage,” she said. “I think it’s a matter of awareness. A lot of people don’t even know we have the poles.”

The same is true at Yellow Creek State Park, said environmental education specialist Mike Shaffer. The rods get used a lot during “Smart Angler” and family fishing programs put on for scout groups and others.

But they aren’t borrowed by the general public much, he said.

The program is not equally widespread around the state. The nine-county northwest region has 13 loaner sites, the 10-county southwest region just four.

Some counties like Allegheny, Washington and Fayette don’t have any participating partners.

If things take off at places like Keystone, though, maybe word will get out, McQuistan said. The gear is there to be used; all that’s needed are anglers.

“It’s a great program. I think all parks should offer it,” she said.