My 2 cents - It should be about the kids...

I took my 13yr old son out on opening day this year - Crappie fishing. We had a place to ourselves, had a great time and he caught over 25. Beats all the opening day nonsense.

The year before we tried to fish the Mill river in Hamden. Usually it's stocked well but it was tough to find any fish. After much walking and looking for both trout and a fishable bank space and then driving, parking and more walking and looking, we finally found some trout just before his short attention span reached it's end.

He caught two trout while I stayed out of his way. Within minutes, the splashing trout drew a crowd that began fishing over and around him in this little hole that was no more than 10ft wide and 12ft long. These were grown men, who you'd think would know better, than to jump into a small hole and elbow out a 12yr old kid in the process.

The year before that we went to Chatfield Hollow, the upper pond around 11AM after finding our primary spot had not been stocked at all only to find this area filled with adults and a line in the water literally, every 4ft. We looked around for a place to squeeze in but we didn't find one. We hung around hoping someone would finish up, but to no avail. We eventually left to do more diving and looking elsewhere to try and salvage the day. That spot, should be a kids and handicap only area IMHO. And do those anglers really need to fish there for 5+ hours to limit out?

My opinion, opening day should be about the kids. They should open the season a week earlier for kids under 14 and only for kids.

The negatives surrounding the opening day experience, outweight the positives in my book and once a year, it's a great example of what fishing is NOT about. However, since that's what it always looks like - that's all some people have come to know. If losing opening day would mean we would lose the once a year hacks with no regard for the fish, the river, private property or other fishermen - than I'd be more than willing to sacrifice it. Besides, while we all have to wait for the opener, we are losing out on some great fishing in the weeks just prior anyway.

The positives, like getting together with family and friends on an annual basis and any other traditions that are important, can be handled on our own - we don't really need the State of CT. to take care of that, do we?