Opening Day
In middle America we celebrate lots of Opening Days. But where I live, two in particular stand out. The opening day of deer (rifle) season and today, the opening day of trout season.
In early-to-mid April, pot-bellied men will stand elbow to elbow at “prime” fishing spots. Starting bright and early, they’ll drown nightcrawlers, thread canned corn or Powerbait dough onto snelled hooks and catch as many farm-raised trout as they can in as short a time as they can. When done, they’ll hang up their beige fishing vests and rubber hip boots until the same time next year.
As for the trout? Well they were just unceremoniously dumped into this water a few days ago. Their brief dance of freedom is about to end with a stringer hook through the gills.
I don’t begrudge anyone, for any of this. I’m not playing the ethics card. You can’t tell me that catching these hatchery fish out of a stream and eating them is any less ethical or humane than buying whatever the last shrink-wrapped piece of meat was that you bought from the supermarket.
And the elbow-to-elbow part? Well, that’s the cost of doing business on this particular April day. It might be the one time this spring that you get outdoors and watch the sun come up. It might be the one time this year that you can drag your son or daughter outside and get them to spend a few hours without a phone in their hands. You might even get to use your phone to snap a few photos of them. Silly photos that will mean more to you than they’re capable of understanding just yet.