To help reduce crowds on opening day in this time of social distancing, our governor has opened fishing season early. Fishing on rivers and streams usually isn’t open until the second Saturday of April (with the exception of a few year round class 1 trout management areas that are open year round with restrictions). It reminds me of a quote from Arlo Guthrie - “you can’t have a light without a dark to put it in”
I guess I am staying up late to tie some flies.
Wow.
I feel that CT is being wildly irresponsible here.
CDC says stay at home, yet DEEP opened the doors on blackfriday early and encourage people to drive around the state… Planted trout tend to stick to where they were dumped, I can guaranty that fisherman will be grouped up on those pools.
I don’t disagree with you.
I think the thinking was that by opening it up immediately it would reduce the huge opening day crowds. I don’t usually fish on opening day, or even opening week for that matter because of the crowds. There are rivers near me that normally have people camped out all along the banks so they can start fishing as soon as the sun comes up on opening day. I’ve seen places where people are standing shoulder to shoulder fishing. I don’t get it, but it happens every year. Opening the season effective immediately will certainly alleviate a lot of that. As far as people congregating at the stocking locations, well that was still going to happen in two weeks anyway. Luckily where I usually fish, I hardly ever see anybody else. Probably because I tend to fish at the worst time of the day to be fishing.
I am the same way, so it does not affect me. I will stay clear even more so now.
They should have just closed the season until this virus passes. The curve on the spread is exponential over here near the NY border. Closing the season would make sense and would have been the best action.
Delaying the season probably would have been in the best interest of public health. I think the “problem people” would have just gone fishing anyway and claimed ignorance. Luckily, for the average angler, fishing is normally a social distancing sport even in normal times.
I also must concede that your area of the state is experiencing this at a whole different level than the “quiet corner” where I live. Still, I tend to play things safe, I have a wife and two young children. I will stick to the overgrown streams that nobody else wants to navigate.
Stay safe over there.
Interesting. In VA we have year around trout fishing and thankfully no opening day. We started the year around fishing back in the mid-1990’s. Before this, fishing ended on Dec.31st and started again on the 3rd Saturday of March. The crowds were ridiculous back then and the behavior was even worse. I delayed my fishing until the end of April just to get away from the madness. I think VA decided to dissipate the pressure and crowds by spreading the trout fishing season over the entire year. Stocking occurs in the Winter, Spring, and Fall with a set schedule. People that follow the trucks are fined. This also helped with the trash that often littered the rivers and streams back then. Thankfully, the virus does not harm trout or other fish species (I’m trying my best to stay positive during these troubled times). Maybe the preppers were a lot smarter than we thought. 
In Minnesota the season runs from Jan 1 - April 15(aprx) for catch and release and then catch and kill is from aprx April 15 til Oct 15. I’m lucky in that I live within 1 hour of about 20 trout streams and rarely fish on weekends. Plenty of those streams are gnarly enough to keep most people away. We have a “Stay in Place” going into effect at midnight Friday. However outdoor activities such as walking, running and fishing while staying apart are fine. I fully intend to fish at least twice a week and sometimes with another person. It’s pretty easy to stay about 10’ apart when trout fishing.