Opening Day of Trout Season on Butternut Creek, April 1, 2016

Opening day for us really just meant being able to fish South of Route 20 in Lafayette. Fish were released by the hatchery a few days before and we were able to get plenty on the North side of Route 20. I will make a personal comment that I find it a little sad to fish recently released hatchery fish. They don't know to be afraid of humans so they don't hide when you walk up to the bank and they don't know know what the wild has to offer for food yet. Some people fish with bait that looks like the pellets they were fed at the hatchery, which doesn't seem like a real sport to me. Luckily, it doesn't take long for a few of them to make it through opening week and realize they need to avoid humans and bait that doesn't look like real food, and it becomes a sport again.

Here is a full map of DEC fishing locations for Butternut Creek: http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/fish_marine_pdf/r7buttnutpfr.pdf, Butternut is stocked with brown and brook trout for opening day.

Throughout the day I used trout worms on a #8 hook (I prefer red hooks), 4 pound line, one medium sized split shot 1-2 feet up from the worm, on a ultra light spinning pole. The first spot we hit was the Palmer Road bridge at about 6:30 am. We were the only ones there and got a few bites but nothing significant. The second spot we hit was Daley Road. It was raining and we walked a bit down the trail. I caught a nice brook trout at the first small pool I found that was under a fallen tree.

We headed back toward Clark Hollow Road and bypassed both spots on that road because one spot had a lot of cars there (we found out the next day it is because the fish were pretty much in one large pool under the bridge. We walked for a long time that day through brush and found one hole that no one else had ventured to and caught a 13-14 inch brown.) and because the other spot has a fish mailbox, a parking spot, and a don't trespass sign all with the DEC sign nearby, so it is very confusing. So we went to another heavily populated spot, Cascade Road. There was really good brown trout fishing there. We caught several, especially because we were willing to walk far through the mud and rain to get to spots.

After catching our limit, we topped off the day with some drinks at the Beak and Skiff tasting room.