Obviously, we outdoor types pay close attention to opening days, especially the opening of trout season and the deer gun hunting season. While the opening of the gun deer season is still a ways off, our trout season is now underway.
I’ll be honest, I don’t trout fish on opening day because I like to have some space around me when I’m working with my flyrod. The other reason I don’t hit opening day is that I have already been on the trout stream, fishing the special-regulation catch-and-release sections on certain streams.
That said, a good number of fishermen are hitting the trout waters on the opening morning, and from what I’m hearing, the fishing has been fairly productive in several locations.
Apparently, some of our larger streams, like Pine Creek, were a bit more difficult to fish due to higher water levels, making wading more challenging.
Still, the smaller streams were flowing well and apparently quite productive.
While there is still a pretty good number of people lining the banks of our lakes and streams, it does not appear to me that those numbers are anywhere near what they were years ago.
Speaking of lower participation, it certainly seems the same is true of our opening day of gun deer hunting season. A good number of folks believe that the lower participation on opening day of the gun deer season is largely due to the change in the opening day.
Since 2019, the opening day has been the Saturday after Thanksgiving, rather than the Monday following Thanksgiving, as it had been for many years. There appear to be many hunters who feel that change has had a negative impact not only on hunting but also on many businesses that depend on hunters coming into hunting territory and staying at many of our hunting camps. Those businesses probably included gas stations, grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and any others that hunters used when arriving for those first few days of deer hunting season.
What’s interesting is that two bills have been introduced to change that opening day; one bill proposes returning to the Monday after Thanksgiving, and another proposes separating opening dates for the northern and southern parts of the state.
Republican Senator Gene Yaw and Democrat Senator Lisa Boscola have introduced a bill that would, in fact, move our opening day of deer gun season from the Saturday following Thanksgiving back to the Monday following Thanksgiving. The Game Commissions plans to finalize regulations for the 2026-27 season at the April 11 meeting. I’m sure this meeting will get a lot of attention from hunters.
In the meantime, I hope to get back out on some trout streams, especially if things warm up again and the water levels drop a bit on our larger streams.
