Independent site — not affiliated with or endorsed by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) or the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). Official sources are linked on every page.

Sources

Every dataset this site uses, with its version, when we retrieved it, a fingerprint (sha256) and what we changed. Data from the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) is used under PFBC's PASDA terms, quoted below.

Dataset and link	Version · sha256	Retrieved	What we changed
PFBC Lakes_Point map service, layers 0-3 fbweb.pa.gov	465 lakes `34b9ccdf2ffbba3c…`	Oct 4, 2026	Merged the four owner layers; cleaned names (PFBC status notes removed from the display name); county strings normalized and checked against county polygons; feature-page links kept only for allowlisted agency hosts (pa.gov, DCNR, USACE, county/municipal .gov/.us).
PASDA pafish Lakes_PFBCDatabase202411 www.pasda.psu.edu	202411 `23eec20ef801eaf2…`	Oct 4, 2026	Used for acreage cross-check and polygon centroids only.
PASDA pafish Lakes_Point202411 www.pasda.psu.edu	202411 `fe76a985a306fb54…`	Oct 4, 2026	Used for acreage cross-check and polygon centroids only.
PFBC Biologist Reports area pages 1-8 (Area 9 excluded: outside this site's scope) www.pa.gov	— `147004ce0cdbed5a…`	Oct 4, 2026	Report links, years and titles read from the pages; matched to lakes by name and county.
PFBC Biologist_Report_Listing map service, layer 0 fbweb.pa.gov	318 waters `285f5f79cc545e79…`	Oct 4, 2026	IDs only (coordinates not used: some are wrong, e.g. Bradys Run Lake).
PFBC biologist report PDFs (latest two per lake) per report (see reports.json)	188 documents `ed4cb51b07b7976d…`	Oct 4, 2026	Facts extracted in our own words; every number, species name and quote machine-checked against the report's page; nothing re-hosted.
PFBC BestFishingWaters_Statewide map service (lake layers) + PASDA BestFishingWaters_Lakes fbweb.pa.gov	2024-11 `19d5ae839a79d0da…`	Oct 4, 2026	Species badges per lake; rows for waters outside this site's scope excluded.
PASDA Fishing_SpecReg_Lakes_pt202603 (+ polygons, + Special_Regulations layer 3) www.pasda.psu.edu	202603 `e8f1b5b4b1d0e3df…`	Oct 4, 2026	Program values mapped to six program pages; rule text summarized from the Fishing Summary with page cites.
2026 Pennsylvania Fishing Summary (PDF) www.pa.gov	2026 `ff7fdf4303ed4730…`	Oct 4, 2026	Key dates and program rules summarized in our words (quotes 25 words or fewer) with page numbers.
PFBC Adult Trout Stocking schedule fbweb.pa.gov	2026 season `a22b926f3a21d566…`	Oct 4, 2026	Whole-water (section 0) lake rows only; each row keeps PFBC's date or week-of, species, meeting place and time; shown 'as published' with PFBC's subject-to-change notice.
PASDA Stocked_Trout_Waterbodies_pt202608 www.pasda.psu.edu	202608 `40b024a17d980527…`	Oct 4, 2026	Stocked-trout-water flag and year-round flag per lake.
DEP/PFBC Fish Consumption Advisory excerpt 2026 files.dep.state.pa.us	2026 list (updated 2026-02-27) `164f339ea0c64dba…`	Oct 4, 2026	Rows quoted verbatim; lake rows matched to lakes; stream rows never attached to a lake (shown only as nearby stream advisories); Great Lakes basin rows dropped.
PFBC Ice_Destinations map service, layer 0 fbweb.pa.gov	152 destinations `a1a35d1086bcea46…`	Oct 4, 2026	Species flags only; PFBC description text is not copied; waters outside this site's scope excluded.
PFBC lake habitat-plan links (Lakes_Point LHI_Link where LHI_Map = Yes) www.pa.gov	— `—`	Oct 4, 2026	Link only (PDFs are never copied or digitized); monthly link check.
PFBC Counties map service, layer 0 fbweb.pa.gov	67 counties `404bff26c05b8c0d…`	Oct 4, 2026	Generalized to about 30 m for point-in-polygon checks and maps.
PASDA LawEnforcementRegions201708 (6 PFBC regions) + LawEnforcement_Regions map service www.pasda.psu.edu	201708 `dd1a2fe26bebe2c6…`	Oct 4, 2026	Counties assigned to regions by centroid; region centroids used for sun/moon tables.
Computed locally (PHP date_sun_info + moon-phase algorithm) at the six region centroids —	per edition `—`	—	Astronomical data, not fishing predictions.

Dataset 2026-10-04, built 2026-10-05T12:11:37Z; imported Oct 5, 2026. Full sha256 values are in the dataset's MANIFEST.json.

PFBC data terms (PASDA)

“None provided credit is given to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) as long as the data is in its original unaltered state. If modifications are made to the data set, users are obligated to describe the types of modifications they have made. Users are not to misrepresent PFBC data sets, nor to imply that changes they (users) have made were approved by the PFBC.”

What we changed

We merged PFBC datasets by water ID, normalized county names and checked them against county boundaries, removed status notes from lake names, dropped streams and the Great Lakes waters, mapped program values to six program pages, summarized program rules from the Fishing Summary, and summarized biologist reports in our own words with page citations. PFBC has not reviewed or approved these changes or this site.

Fish-consumption advice

Fish-consumption advice: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania public health advisory (DEP with PFBC and the Department of Health), quoted word for word.

Fonts and images

Newsreader and Zilla Slab (SIL Open Font License). Fish pictograms drawn for this site. County outlines in the almanac are drawn from PFBC's public county boundary layer.