The little boy, fishing from a wooden bridge, was dangling his line in fast-running water along a gorgeous stretch of the Mettawee River in Pawlet.
Just 10 years old and with his grandfather at his side, the boy fished with a cheap, closed-face reel and a coffee can of worms.
Another angler, this one an adult male, was fishing a few hundred yards upriver, methodically casting a nymph with a fly rod. The guy had on $300 waders, an expensive SUV parked nearby and brandished a fly rod that was worth more than my pickup truck.
Guess who caught fish that morning?
This is not meant to be a knock on the fly fisherman. Angling with a fly rod in early April is about as challenging as hunting ruffed grouse in October without a bird dog.
But even more striking than that scene is what has transpired, come the opening day of the Vermont trout fishing season, over the past decade.
Twenty years ago, the opening day (this year, the season opens on April 9) of trout season was heralded as a time to shake the winter doldrums. Streams and rivers saw thousands of anglers fishing for brook, brown and rainbow trout. But over the past decade, the opener has seen a serious decline in anglers.
The traditional opening day, it appears, is no longer a tradition for many anglers.
While the numbers may not be as impressive as they once were, plenty of Vermonters will be out there, on the water, come opening day.
John Hall, a spokesman for the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, says that opening day of the trout season “is the real first day of spring for many of us who enjoy the outdoors.”
“Being streamside on opening morning after a long winter is as important for an angler as being in the woods is for a hunter on opening day of deer season,” he says. “It’s an annual tradition that, in most cases, we have enjoyed since childhood.”
Catching fish, Hall says, is really not the point.
“It’s not that we really expect to catch a limit of trout, but it’s the first day of another year to create good fishing memories with friends, family or alone,” he says. “And, on some of those days, we are bound to catch enough fish to keep us looking forward to next year’s opening day.”
Whoever came up with the idea of holding opening day during the cold days of early April must have been some kind of sadist. On some openers, deep snow lines the banks of streams and rivers, the water is frigid and the fishing action can be downright dismal.
While thousands of anglers will wade streams, fish along the banks of rivers or cast from fishing boats, not that many trout will end up in the frying pan. As popular as opening day is for some Vermont fishermen, the conditions for catching trout are far from ideal.
That can be explained in two ways — the water is almost always running higher than normal and the water temperatures are still very cold. It is the colder water that makes trout less energetic — almost lethargic —than they will be, say, in mid-May or June.
Nevertheless, anglers will be throwing lures, shiners, flies, weighted nymphs, spoons and an assortment of other goodies on the first morning of trout season. But the lowly earthworm and his bigger cousin, the night crawler, will catch more trout on opening day than all of the other offerings combined.
The late Tom Evanoika, a talented fisherman and for years the owner of Tom’s Bait in Bomoseen, talked about the impact of worms on opening day.
The great thing about fishing with worms or night crawlers is that is about as basic as it gets, when it comes to trout fishing, he said.
“Even a kid can put a worm on and go fishing,” Evanoika said. “You don’t have to be an expert.”
Worm anglers take careful consideration of the species of trout they are pursuing when deciding whether to fish with worms or crawlers, according to Evanoika.
“A lot of guys use small trout worms when they’re after those small brookies,” he said. “The brown trout fishermen will take a large crawler because they’re after bigger, heavier fish.” Large worms or crawlers also work very well for rainbows, Evanoika said.
One of the demands of the job — and it’s no big deal — is that I must often approach perfect strangers and talk with them about their fishing tactics and success. Sometimes, things don’t go all that smoothly.
One morning, I parked the truck at a pull-off, just above the Poultney River. While the calendar proclaimed it opening day, it felt more like early March, with a cold, slate-gray sky that threatened freezing rain or snow.
I spotted an angler maneuvering his way around a pile of large boulders below a bridge abutment, working his way downstream.
When I got about 30 feet from him, he noticed the camera dangling from my neck and gave me a dirty look.
“Don’t take my picture,” was all he had to say. Then he worked his way further downstream.
Who knows? Maybe he was playing hooky from work. Perhaps he told his wife he had to run some important errands. Or maybe he was simply camera-shy.
Many years ago, on one cold, early opening-day morning — and what opening day isn’t cold? — I set out very early, hoping to catch some early-rising trout fishermen.
I spotted a young angler, seated along the bank of the Castleton River, just above a small bridge where the water current is slowed by deeper water — just the kind of place where a fisherman could hook into a big, hungry brown.
It was Stan Patch, who grew up in Castleton, who now works as a logger and who has grown into an accomplished bass fisherman and deer hunter.
What struck me most about that morning was the fact that this dedicated, young angler was fishing by the light of a Coleman lantern, for daylight was still a good 15 minutes away.
It takes all kinds of fishermen to make up the trout opener and, if you spend enough time talking to trout fishermen, you will come to one big conclusion: They all love their opening-day fishing.
Beyond that, however, the differences can be as varied as a boy with a fishin’pole and a can of worms and a man with a fly rod, fishing the river of his dreams.
Dennis Jensen is the outdoor editor for the Rutland Herald and a member of the board of directors of the New England Outdoor Writers Association.
