Outdoors: Saturday's season opener soured » .By BOB SAMPSON
Saturday’s trout season opener saw 40 degree, damp, drizzly weather. By noon, these miserable but fishable conditions had deteriorated into a cold front, pushed by a 15-plus mph north wind that brought with it some difficult fishing conditions, especially for those fishing the region’s many lakes.
The 2010 trout season opener got off to a slow start. All the local tackle shops reported seeing fewer fishermen in their stores and on the water at our many local trout-fishing access points.
The low turnout this season obviously was a result, in part, of the cold, miserable weather. A 65 percent reduction in license fees two days before the season started happened too late for some anglers to make or change plans.
Case in point: Steve Smith, owner of Mike’s Bait and Tackle of Voluntown, who owns one of the state’s direct license-purchasing machines, said in the past his business has sold about 40 out-of-state licenses during the course of an average opening weekend.
Before the rollback, our-of-staters refused to pay the old $80 price. Last weekend, Mike’s Tackle sold three out-of-state licenses.
In time, we will see the revenue stream, the initial doubling of license fees by our legislators back in October 2009, was designed to create and how serious the damage was to in- and out-of-state license sales. My guess is the stream will be a trickle or stagnant swamp, rather than any sort of “stream” coming into state coffers.
Contests
Mike’s Bait and Tackle and The Fish Connection held their usual opening day big trout contests. Jack Balint of the Fish Connection said this year not a single person walk through the door with a trout to submit.
The fact that they had a 16-inch minimum length requirement for this year’s contest may have been a factor, but it is not the entire story.
Smith, in the heart of some excellent trout fishing areas, said the largest trout entered in his popular opening-day contest was a fat, 7.25-pound, 24-inch rainbow trout, caught by Chris Sabrowski of Preston on an Al’s Goldfish from the Quinebaug River.
Their child’s prize winner was a 14-inch, 1.25 pounder, a more typical “good sized” stockie, that hit a mealworm in the Pachaug River.
Most years, both shops see so many big trout they don’t even bother telling us about the 2- to 4-pounders brought through the doors by customers to enter in their opening day contests each year.
Mike’s weighed in four trout that were heavier than 8 pounds, and many more 4-plus-pound fish during their opening day contest of 2009. Chris Sabrowski’s 7.25 pounder was the only big fish they saw all opening weekend this year.
Problems?
Did something go wrong in area streams this season?
Certainly, high stream flow rates resulting from the major floods that struck the region a couple weeks ago probably had some sort of negative effect, not only on anglers’ ability to fish properly, but in spreading fish around within a given river or stream.
However, stream flows dropped rapidly shortly after the rains stopped, and many of the rivers in this area were stocked under high, but not super-flooded conditions.
Did something go wrong with stocking this year?
I called Bill Foreman of the Department of Environmental Protection to find out if the agency had held off stocking some of the big, excess brood stock fish because of the floods.
In talking with Foreman, who called up stocking schedules for many rivers in this region, it appears most were stocked later in April, when high waters had come down to more reasonable flow rates.
For instance, the Pachaug River received 19 brood stock trout on April 15, along with 2,200 other catchable fish. Maybe the fact that Mike’s Tackle didn’t see any big trout from its hometown river could be because those fish might not have acclimated to their environment and thus not active on opening day.
The Quinebaug River received about 57 jumbo trout between Killingly and Lisbon for opening day, along with thousands of other trout, stocked after the floods.
Maybe the lack of trophy trout brought into our local shops last weekend had more to do with lack of angler participation and poor fishing conditions, than a lack of fish.
Most of those lunker-sized trout are still out there to catch.
Saturday’s trout season opener saw 40 degree, damp, drizzly weather. By noon, these miserable but fishable conditions had deteriorated into a cold front, pushed by a 15-plus mph north wind that brought with it some difficult fishing conditions, especially for those fishing the region’s many lakes.
The 2010 trout season opener got off to a slow start. All the local tackle shops reported seeing fewer fishermen in their stores and on the water at our many local trout-fishing access points.
The low turnout this season obviously was a result, in part, of the cold, miserable weather. A 65 percent reduction in license fees two days before the season started happened too late for some anglers to make or change plans.
Case in point: Steve Smith, owner of Mike’s Bait and Tackle of Voluntown, who owns one of the state’s direct license-purchasing machines, said in the past his business has sold about 40 out-of-state licenses during the course of an average opening weekend.
Before the rollback, our-of-staters refused to pay the old $80 price. Last weekend, Mike’s Tackle sold three out-of-state licenses.
In time, we will see the revenue stream, the initial doubling of license fees by our legislators back in October 2009, was designed to create and how serious the damage was to in- and out-of-state license sales. My guess is the stream will be a trickle or stagnant swamp, rather than any sort of “stream” coming into state coffers.
Contests
Mike’s Bait and Tackle and The Fish Connection held their usual opening day big trout contests. Jack Balint of the Fish Connection said this year not a single person walk through the door with a trout to submit.
The fact that they had a 16-inch minimum length requirement for this year’s contest may have been a factor, but it is not the entire story.
Smith, in the heart of some excellent trout fishing areas, said the largest trout entered in his popular opening-day contest was a fat, 7.25-pound, 24-inch rainbow trout, caught by Chris Sabrowski of Preston on an Al’s Goldfish from the Quinebaug River.
Their child’s prize winner was a 14-inch, 1.25 pounder, a more typical “good sized” stockie, that hit a mealworm in the Pachaug River.
Most years, both shops see so many big trout they don’t even bother telling us about the 2- to 4-pounders brought through the doors by customers to enter in their opening day contests each year.
Mike’s weighed in four trout that were heavier than 8 pounds, and many more 4-plus-pound fish during their opening day contest of 2009. Chris Sabrowski’s 7.25 pounder was the only big fish they saw all opening weekend this year.
Problems?
Did something go wrong in area streams this season?
Certainly, high stream flow rates resulting from the major floods that struck the region a couple weeks ago probably had some sort of negative effect, not only on anglers’ ability to fish properly, but in spreading fish around within a given river or stream.
However, stream flows dropped rapidly shortly after the rains stopped, and many of the rivers in this area were stocked under high, but not super-flooded conditions.
Did something go wrong with stocking this year?
I called Bill Foreman of the Department of Environmental Protection to find out if the agency had held off stocking some of the big, excess brood stock fish because of the floods.
In talking with Foreman, who called up stocking schedules for many rivers in this region, it appears most were stocked later in April, when high waters had come down to more reasonable flow rates.
For instance, the Pachaug River received 19 brood stock trout on April 15, along with 2,200 other catchable fish. Maybe the fact that Mike’s Tackle didn’t see any big trout from its hometown river could be because those fish might not have acclimated to their environment and thus not active on opening day.
The Quinebaug River received about 57 jumbo trout between Killingly and Lisbon for opening day, along with thousands of other trout, stocked after the floods.
Maybe the lack of trophy trout brought into our local shops last weekend had more to do with lack of angler participation and poor fishing conditions, than a lack of fish.
Most of those lunker-sized trout are still out there to catch.