Mike,

I'm not sure I follow your logic on out of state anglers. Why would a lack of opening day attract more? Has MA sold considerably more non-res licenses since they did away with opening day?

As far as lobbying for more $$$ for DEP, that's iffy at best. License buying fishermen probably make up no more than 5% of the population. Politicians are probably not going to be to willing to listen to such a small group. As it stands, they haven't listened to us too much in the past.

I never thought of that. Good point. I'd be interested to know the amount of OT created by stocking relative to the DEPs budget.

Let's not forget that those fish are put in to be caught, and (mostly) kept. 90%+ of the trout fisherman fish for the first two weeks, then are gone. Since they take only 40-60% of the fish in those two weeks, I figure we're ahead of the game.

With less trout to go around, I'm not sure that would be the case.

Trout fishing in CT is mostly artificial anyway. It may not ruin it, but could cause less opportunities for trout fishing.


The Farmington and Housatonic are it. Other than the TMA designation and stocking the snot out of them to make up for deficient natural reproduction, it's the rivers themselves, not the DEP, that has made them "world class". The Farmington with its' cold water releases, and the Housatonic with its' limestone substrate.

Really they're here due to the Farmington and the Housatonic. Not much will change there.

Jeff