
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, October 10, 1994                   TAG: 9410140011
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RICHARD PAULEY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SHOULD WE KEEP OPENING DAY?

MY GUT FEELING IS THAT THE MAJORITY of trout fishermen really don't know what is about to happen to their sport. They won't be heard from until they have fished a couple of streams after opening day has been eliminated and find those streams scoured clean by the hatchery-truck followers. When the realization hits home, it's going to be harder to find somebody in favor of a year-round season than to get somebody to admit they voted for Bill Clinton.

The debate over a year-round trout season centers squarely on the put-and-take fishery, which is the meat and potatoes of Virginia's trout program. The vast majority of trout fishermen pursue stocked trout, and do little or no fishing when stocked fish aren't available. Having an opening day as we do now, everyone has equal access to stocked streams and there is a reasonable expectation that trout will be caught.

We already have many year-round fishing opportunities, which makes the furor to eliminate opening day hard to understand. Anglers in Virginia are permitted to fish special-regulation streams, native waters, many impoundments and growing numbers of privately owned fee-fishing areas throughout the year.

The appeal of opening day is a deep one, going to the very soul of an angler. After being cooped up all winter, fighting ice storms and snowdrifts, the anticipation and planning for opening day brings great comfort. Who hasn't sat around the fireplace on a January evening poring over the new tackle catalogs wondering what new offerings to purchase? How many youngsters got caught up in the same excitement when they learned they would be able to go trout fishing on opening day for the first time?

I remember as a young man, the night before opening day, not being able to sleep, and counting every hook, split-shot, spinner and nightcrawler a dozen times. Opening day was a magical time, and now that I have children of my own, I have seen that magic transfer to them, and I must say they are all better for the experience.

Kids want to see results when they take on a new sport or hobby, and the desire to catch a fish is natural. Of all the people who fly fish today, how many do you think caught their first trout on a Royal Coachman? Not many! Opening day provides the ingredients for a youngster to learn to fish and be successful. If a year-round season eliminates one child from the angling ranks, I feel the cost will be too high.

At the Game Department hearing in Roanoke on the year-round season, the meeting seemed to polarize between the opinions of fly fishermen and your everyday, garden-variety trout anglers. Everyone should realize that the people advocating equal access to stocked trout through the opening day concept fund the trout program at an equal or greater rate than those primarily interested in special-regulation streams.

The most sobering consideration of this proposed change is: Where will the money come from to support the trout program? Money now isn't adequate. It's hard to figure how having fewer people involved will help the funding dilemma.

When fishermen figure out that the whole season comes down to truck followers and streams stocked one morning and nearly empty the next, will they still buy licenses? Most people have jobs, and students go to school. When will they see the benefits of a year-round season?

Some say people like myself haven't evolved quite as much as we should have, and I've been told my attitudes about opening day are old fashioned and childish. I'm kind of proud of that, actually, and I hope that little boy in me always feels a rush of nostalgia when the warm winds of March stir the urge to be on a trout stream.

I read something recently that I want to share: "It's the first of April, but the shoulder-to-shoulder opening day circus isn't for you. You've found a stream that is all your own - at least for a little while. And as your line hits the riffles for the first time since September, you feel a winter's worth of worry lift from your shoulders. Every moment on the stream is special, but the months of anticipation have made this day a little sweeter."

Those words are in an advertisement for Trout Unlimited in the Spring issue of "Trout" magazine. They are entitled "Opening Day." Makes you wonder doesn't it?

Richard Pauley is a Nationwide Insurance agent in Daleville.

by CNB