Before reading this thread I thought I was one of a few that thought opening day was over-rated, glad to see so many agree with me. Maybe I am mistaken but most of the fish I catch in the Mill River(Hamden) are very dull in color, which to the best of my knowledge meant they were stocked fish, on the flip side of that I have caught some beautiful 14" browns that looked like they belonged in a magazine photos. Wouldn't this suggest that these more colorful fish had survived for some time in that river? That said, maybe without the mass number of fish be taken on opening day the quality of fish we do have the priveledge to catch would be much more rewarding.
Life is to short....I need to figure out how to fit more fishing in
My opinion is to leave well enough alone-Many folks use opening day as a high point in the cold season-Yes there are slobs out who dont know about or have never seen a pristine trout stream in the early dawn hours but they pay their money and are entitled to enjoy the resourse as they please.The rest of us just have to accept these facts and work with them. Carry a plastic bag and enjoy the day. To those of us who fish the rest of the year in good westher and bad thanks for cleaning up and have a successfull opening day
I've also given some thought to the 60% number. Honestly, it doesn't bother me at all. If that is true, and we lose a few hundred thousand fish in the first two weeks, then I'm ok with that. Least we forget that the DEP has a different management plan for every body of water. In waters that are incapable of holding fish over, it is managed as a put and take fishery. Just a rough guess, but probably over 80% of the water and a good portion of the fish stocked fall into this category. If it's put and take, then isn't the ultimate goal for every single one of those fish to be caught, kept, and enjoyed by somebody? I don't understand why this is so apalling for some people. I have no problem with it. These fish will die anyway with the summer heat. They're put there to be caught. The bulk of that 60% number is coming from places like this, not from the Farmington or whatever your favorite TMA may be.
If you consider the TMAs, well that is a totally different management plan all together. Obviously geared more torwards overall trout survival. The infamous report does NOT say what percentage are are removed from any of the TMAs. I think it's safe to say that it's nowhere close to 60% of the fish. Especially since the TMAs are catch & release or have a limit of 2 fish.
Let's just get our facts straight here. That's all I'm saying. It's easy to get the wrong idea when figures start flying around.
I had not intended to go out to the average local “put and take” places, but my young nephew (a former Zebco-slinging plastic bobber-using yahoo) wanted to give it a try so I said sure. Now I don't know where you all went, but on Opening Day I saw no drunken fist fights or garbage piles. What I did see was people having a good time catching a few fish. Average folks. They knew their chance of catching something was pretty good and that made them even happier. You know what?…These average folks acted every bit as good stewards of the water they were fishing (if not better) than some of the Thomas and Thomas toting posers I saw on the TMA above Lake Mohegan that day. How can I say this? From what I witnessed I guess it’s okay to cull your limit for bigger fish when your wearing Orvis and slinging a 6 weight?? I guess that’s considered justifiable homicide if you’ve spent more on your equipment than an average guy takes home in a week. All I know is that quite a few “floaters” drifted down from the upstream direction of the “no kill” elite. Let’s get real here fellas. Our fishing in this state is pretty good (despite the yahoos and their Zebcos). Be fair when you consider stuff like this. The fish are raised to be caught. If some of them hold over GREAT! But let’s not kid ourselves. The stocking of fish is for fishermen not a grandiose plan for replenishment of the species. Opening Day as we know it should not be done away with. This has nothing to do with tradition, pie-eyed litterbugs, or anybody’s earned rights to the fish. We are talking about basic fairness here and common sense. The stocking program is for ALL people. Just because everybody doesn't have the time, desire, or resources to fish all year doesn't mean they don't enjoy it as much as you or I do when they finally manage to make the time. If you’re going to think that way then you're not going to be creating very many future “avid” fisherman. This is a road you don’t want to go down. This is the life blood of the industry and the bug that bit us so many years ago. Go ahead and set the bar too high. Make it less appealing to a novice or less-than-avid fisherman. Over time you will fail to spark interest by more and more people and that will end up with less money spent in all kinds of stores, less sales tax collected, less revenue from licenses, and finally but worst of all… less money spent by the state. All sorts of programs are already being gutted. How much justification do think will be needed when several thousand less licenses are sold. Give the early guys their good Opening Day stockings, but keep stocking throughout the year, and do MUCH more to improve enforcement and water quality. ….just my $.02 tjd
Not sure where you fished tjd251, but good for you and glad you were amongst reponsible outdoorsmen. Unfortunately you were likely in the minority. Many here that oppose an opening day would support a childrens opening day, say up until 10 or 12 years old. An example is Stratton brook in Simsbury. They have a trout park and the kids get to help and see fish stocked then break out the gear and fish for them. I know I personally got a kick helping stock Salmon Brook a few times when I was a kid.
I actually don’t think I’m in the minority when I say I didn’t see drunks or fist fights or piles of garbage. I’m sorry to hear the opponents of Opening Day had such a tough time on the water that day. The places I went to were really nothing special at all. I actually would have liked to see more fish stocked than what clearly was though. That’s what tells me doing away with Opening Day is not such a great idea. All due respect, but your kinda splitting hairs. Okay so kids under 14 are cool for an Opening Day event, but where? Are you going to make sure that the fish are spread evenly and fairly across the entire state? How do you manage that? What sort of planning are you proposing the DEP undertake to stock just enough so that only the kids on that day have a quality experience? I can take my kid there that day, but I can’t fish…okay, but can we both fish there together sometime? The next day, the next week?? I’m sorry, but you still have to give me more than this. I haven’t gone out on Opening Day for some years now (this year being the exception), but even though it won’t hurt me much, I could never favor a set of rules that hurts the average Joe fisherman. We have always undervalued their contributions. Without the power of numbers these people have brought to the table (our table) and will continue to bring, we’ll become the poster child for special interest groups and sound like one hand clapping when we want people to listen to us. There is already too much being yanked out from under the average guy. How easy might it be to cut things even further if there were even less fishermen to please? When you consider stuff like this you can’t just think how it affects one portion of fishermen. You have to apply this equitably across the entire group. One guy may buy a $100 St Croix rod and a license, but don’t leave out the 100 guy’s who bought $1.00 bobbers and their licenses. Like it or not we all gotta fish/live together and along with bad behavior there is good. Opening Day can be a very cool event in peoples lives. Why not first try to make it even better? As far as making sure there are more opportunities for kids to fish… GREAT. Double the amount of designated Trout Parks for starters. tjd
#667957 - 04/27/0604:20 PM
Re: Abolish Opening day of Trout season
Pistol
BIG Yellow Broom Stick
Registered: 05/06/05
Posts: 6432
Loc: South Reading, VT
Personally, I don't fish opening day any more, I stopped about 5 years ago, when I hooked into a massive brown trout( brood stock ) at Salmon River, and some ( fisherman ) actually helped me not to land it!!!! I won't go into depth, but it was a bad scene, and it happened right in front of my 14 year old son, who is a big trout fisherman as well. Pretty much after the line was ( Broke ) and the fish got away, this group of guys said, oh well... we want to catch that fish, besides we were here first!! It's everyone for themselves. I was totally amazed at this attitude!!! I couldn't, and still can't imagine it. So, I don't personally care if there is an opening day or not! But, I do realize that the eve of opening day is like Christmas eve for the sporting goods, and bait stores, and I wouldn't want to take that away from them. I used to enjoy the excitiment of opening day, the occult following opening day gets, and everything that goes along with it....but not anymore! Maybe, there will be a time I'm over this... But, I know that after opening day when I approach other anglers, it is alot different than it was that day. There is respect, and friendship.... the last opening day I went out I didn't see too much of that, and that my friends is pretty darn sad.
I miss my Uncle Lewie....However; I know he's with me on every fishing trip.
2009 CT Saltwater Angler of the Year ~> CT DEEP 1st Place 2009 Team Tuesday Fluke Off
My wife Claire with the Red hair is: A Flukin Princess Get Outdoors and Enjoy Life! Lifetime member of the NRA
I actually don’t think I’m in the minority when I say I didn’t see drunks or fist fights or piles of garbage. I’m sorry to hear the opponents of Opening Day had such a tough time on the water that day. The places I went to were really nothing special at all. I actually would have liked to see more fish stocked than what clearly was though. That’s what tells me doing away with Opening Day is not such a great idea. All due respect, but your kinda splitting hairs. Okay so kids under 14 are cool for an Opening Day event, but where? Are you going to make sure that the fish are spread evenly and fairly across the entire state? How do you manage that? What sort of planning are you proposing the DEP undertake to stock just enough so that only the kids on that day have a quality experience? I can take my kid there that day, but I can’t fish…okay, but can we both fish there together sometime? The next day, the next week?? I’m sorry, but you still have to give me more than this.
Perhaps the areas you visited "being noting special at all" was a big factor in your positive experience. Any stream or body of water that gets stocked with a good number of trout is usually hammered opening day at any easy to reach pool. As always if you do a little hiking you can find some seclusion on the right streams. As far as not catching fish goes, that why it is called fishing and not catching. Some people did well others struggled.
The splitting hairs comment is a little bit of the pot calling the kettle black. I make a proposal and you pick it apart with what ifs.
OK, I'll try and clarify a bit if you insist although it was just an informal proposal and I'm not trying to pass it as a regulation with the DEP.
Even distribution - Currently the fish aren't evenly distrbuted. My proposal was stocking, with the kids there to watch and/or help, trout parks that would be child only areas that weekend to create a positive experience and get their interest in fishing peaked. We already have a good number oftrout parks and they are generously stocked, read the Anglers Guide. Stratton Brook already conducts what I proposed, so in all actuality it is very doable with a minimal amount of effort. It is nothing new nor something I am looking to take credit for. If there were no closed season on trout, as this thread discusses, anyone else would be free to fish wherever they please in any body of water and those areas would be stocked as normal. As far as you fishing together, it really isn't fishing if you are doing it for the child. Have you ever heard of a childrens fishing derby? Similiar rules would work. For example a parent can cast a line, bait a hook and so on, but the child needs to attaend to the rod as well as hook and land the fish. The last part of your post begs me to ask if you even read my post or if you did, did you just skipped most of it. The suggestion was for a kids OPENING DAY or OPENING WEEKEND. Meaning it is just as I typed it. The areas would be open to anyone after that date. Not that hard to understand I think, I could be wrong. Is the suggestion perfect? No, what ever is without being debated and reviewed. Would it be reasonable and provide a positive exposure to children? I thnk so and I'm sure others would as well.
Originally posted by Keith G: [QUOTE] that why it is called fishing and not catching.
Hey ...that would make a great bumper sticker!... Seriously though, all things considered, this is an open forum and anytime you’re going to suggest something be changed and the changes are clearly not in favor of everybody, then you pretty much have to expect you’ll be on the receiving end of at least some criticism. The red “REPLY” button is there for everybody. Did I nit-pick?…yeah I guess I did. Sorry. But I have yet to see anything that convinces me that this is something I can get behind. Conviction is commendable. Especially so when aimed at the concerns of children and how they can be exposed to more positive experiences (fishing and otherwise). Most honorable indeed. I’ll concede that point to anyone. But this can be done NOW and frankly creating opportunity for kids in and of itself does not justify doing away with Opening Day for everyone. As far as reading anyone’s entire post or The Angler’s Guide (basically the suggestion I hadn’t) … hey if that floats your boat fine. In fact maybe that’s not a bad idea….maybe it would be good if we all went back and read some of our own posts. I see a LOT of comments like… “Opening Day brings them out all at once”, “trash bags worth of litter all in one day”, “the littering slobs”, “ true fisherman”, “me and other avid fisherman”, “the guy who buys a Walmart Zebco combo, bobbers, hooks and worms once a year”. I thought about these and I just can’t get past them. I may just be on your side someday, but for the reasons I’ve seen so far, I highly doubt it. I’m not going to give up on the average fisherman. The great unwashed, miscreants, and evildoers don’t really bother me. They are few and far between and if you allow them to ruin your Opening Day they will. Quite honestly if there ever is a day when I’m trout fishing on Opening Day, and I get so pissed off at the world that I’d favor yanking Opening Day from everybody, even the people who do enjoy it and don’t abuse it … I think it’ll be time to pack it in, buy some sandworms, and just go flounder fishing instead. It is just called flounder fishing right?
I think that's well said tj. I would tend to agree with most of that. I have followed the discussion from the beginning and have tried to objectively listen to both sides of the argument...then ultimately changed my mind about this. While I think there are some minor positive benefits of having no opening day, I feel like it is not enough to justify a change. The advantages simply don't outweight the disadvantages. I think there would be a lot of hard feelings over it.
It's often been asked 'what's the argument in favor of opening day?' Well, when you think about it realistically, NO ARGUMENT IS EVEN NEEDED, it's just what we do. There's that little thing called past precedent, which basically implies that when you do what you've always done in the past you don't need to continually justify it over and over. The state clearly benefits from having an opening day, and the general public favors it, so why change what's working? That's not to say we bury our heads in the sand and never consider a different approach, but in order to make a change, a pretty darn good argument needs to be put forward. I just don't see it right now. Sure, opening day brings out some bad apples, but the simple solution for the average fisherman is just to avoid certain spots/situations.
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