Opening day could be a tough time for finding fish

This is the third time in the last decade where this retrograde in water temperatures has occurred. Depending on when in the season it occurs, major temperature drops can have a devastating effect on spawning of some species (such as bass) or simply have a negative effect in delaying the progression of the various species that turn on during the spring fishing period.

Lakes tend to be stocked earlier than streams, because they are more stable environments and not as prone to being affected by flooding or poaching.On the bright side, the rains have stopped, though temperatures have remained cool to cold through Thursday, maintaining that damper on fishing in general throughout the region.It's not like fish are impossible to catch right now. They are getting antsy after a long winter, daylight is increasing and their metabolic rates will increase with every degree in water temperature, so they will have to start feeding soon.It was warmer during the first three weeks in January, than it has been during the first two weeks of April.

Cold nights and hard, chilling rains have literally driven water temperatures down from near 50 degrees Fahrenheit to the low 40s and swollen rivers and streams to flood stage and beyond. This combination of adverse conditions has served to put our fisheries into temporary suspended animation. I couldn't catch a trout from a heavily stocked private club pond Wednesday.

State hatchery trucks place roughly 400,000 trout in little more than a month, so lakes and places that are less likely to be plagued by preseason poachers are often the first locations that are stocked. Unfortunately, streams that were stocked early in the season are more prone to having the fish moved around by flooding conditions, which can spread the fish downstream and, in some cases, out of easily accessible or open fishing areas.

However, trout are a species that evolved to live in streams and have the body shape and required strength to withstand strong currents. They don't sit in the hard-flowing water and literally bull their way against the current to maintain their position in the water. That would take too much energy.

Due to the high viscosity of water and friction between the stream bottom with its uneven surface -- with rocks and pockets -- there is a sort of dead zone of much slower moving, much less violent water in the bottom few inches of any stream (or ocean for that matter), where fish and other organisms can find refuge. This is where the trout will probably be around 6 a.m. Saturday for the opening day of trout fishing season, so fish deep and slow.

Cast around banks:Cast baits and flies along the banks rather than out across the main current while fishing trout streams any time early in the season, but especially when water flows are higher than normal.

Cold-loving species such as trout, pickerel and yellow perch will be active even when waters are in the high 40-degree range, while bass, calico bass and sunfish will simply be less active and more difficult to catch. Fish generally are not actively feeding and turned on with post- or pre-spawning activities like they should be by the third week in April.

But with sunny skies and warm temperatures predicted for the next few days, fishing on all fronts -- including trout streams, bass lakes and rivers where the stripers are beginning to feed -- will be turned on and probably hot by this time next week. (By BOB SAMPSON For the Norwich Bulletin)