As often happens in Chenango County, the Spring Equinox doesn’t equate to the physical arrival of Spring-like weather, and while this may aggravate everyone, it’s especially bothersome to those anglers looking eagerly to the opening of the trout fishing season on April 1.
Of course fishing is only half the equation; catching a trout is the other half. With trout streams often flowing high and cold from snowmelt, that “catching” part is often a pipedream for many. But you can bet they’ll still be out there, bundled up against the cold, even wading through as much bankside snow as water – hoping to catch a fish that seldom exceeds a foot in length.
Why do they do it? Call it an escape of sorts to trade snow-blowing and shoveling for an activity that is oftentouted as a Spring one. It’s somewhat their way of telling Winter “in-your-face-cold-and-snow, I’ve had enough of you.” Even if they get skunked, they persevere. And even in defeat, that little rebellion feels pretty good, despite cold hands and feet and a runny nose. Pneumonia seems such a small price to pay for telling Winter to “stick it!”
For the most part, the opening day anglers that actually catch trout will be the ones who’ve learned to adapt their fishing?not to that of Spring?but to Winter, which is realistically the conditions the trout are living in on opening day. They’ll likely target the smaller streams and headwater tributaries where the water-flow rates are less and water temperatures are a bit higher. Since most of these small flows are inhabited by brook trout, any they dupe to the hook are apt to be brookies and not brown trout, which will still be on the lethargic side until waters warm up later in April or early May.
With over a week to go before the opener, there’s plenty of time to make a few scouting trips to some of your favorite trout streams to monitor their conditions as the opener grows closer. A heavy rain or late snowfall can change their conditions in a heartbeat. The same can happen if we a get a stretch of warmer weather with no appreciable precipitation. A few dry days with sunshine can do wonders for streams, lowering their levels and warming their waters, and increasing trout activity. Just don’t be heartbroken if a heavy rainfall or snowfall and plummeting temperatures the day before the opener throws the proverbial monkey wrench in your opening day plans. It often happens that way.
Probably the best advice to opening day trout anglers is “hope for the best but plan for the worst.” I know that philosophy has worked quite well for me over the years.

New Trout Regs Easier To Understand
Some anglers have complained that New York’s statewide general trout regulations had become overly complicated, and to some extent, I’d tend to agree. But this year they’ve returned to a more basic and easily understood format. He old regs put a daily limit on trout that mandated the angler could keep five of any species (brook, brown and rainbow) plus five additional brook trout of no longer than 8 inches. This year anglers can keep five trout of any size per day. In fairness to DEC, those previous bonus brook trout regs reflected the fact that these trout are plentiful in smaller flows, but seldom get to 12 inches in length there. So protecting the larger trout (usually hen fish) better insured natural reproduction there.

Recent Posting a Major Block To Fishing Access
According to a recent survey of anglers by Southwick Associates, over 32 percent of survey respondents said the water they fished or the land they used to access a particular body of water had been posted preventing them from fishing that location. No doubt much of these were along trout streams that flowed through private land.

Repealing Salt Water Fishing License Could Hamstring Marine Management
If NY bill S 3638, which would repeal the mandatory recreational salt water fishing license is passed by the Senate, there will be no General Fund money to operate the $3.5 million per year marine district, most of which is located in Long Island. Without a license fee there would also be a loss of $7.48 per license sold in reimbursement from federal funding which also helps the marine district. If that happens, New York would be one of the few states that doesn’t require a license to fish in salt water.
Also, if the marine fisheries units did close down, it would mean a loss of approximately 50 jobs at this time and another 8-10 jobs more when the peak season marine district is fully manned. It’s questionable if the lack of funding would be acquired from the NYS Conservation Fund, which is largely generated from mandatory hunting and fresh water fishing license sales.
The stumbling block on a salt water fishing license seems to be that salt water anglers want their license money to go strictly for marine fisheries and access management while fresh water anglers don’t want to see their license money siphoned off to benefit salt water anglers.