State of the Nation...Fishing Related

[Big Sky]

FishfulT, I remember the opening day crowds as well for fishing season. However the numbers decreased pretty fast after opening day and by fall hardly anyone fished as they were too busy hunting. Just a little over a year ago if I fished around here after work on a weekday I rarely saw anyone else except during the summer. Now, as you mentioned, it doesn't seem to matter what day you go there is always a crowd. As for the local river here, it went mostly un-fished during the week prior to the pandemic and only was lightly fished on the weekends. It was a nice place to go after work and not have to deal with people. About the second week of the quarantine is when people started showing up. Large groups from California and Nevada. On any given day every parking spot had multiple vehicles parked there. About 13 months ago is was predominantly a brown trout river with a few rainbows for good measure. Catching a 18"-20"+ fish was expected to happen on nearly every trip. Now there are virtually no brown trout and if you do catch one it will be very tiny. What few fish a person will catch will be finless 10" or smaller rainbows from the most recent stocking. I've fished that river on and off for 30 years and it is as bad as it gets right now. Not even worth fishing at all. It's total demise is purely due to pressure and taking too many fish out of it. It won't be long before this trend will be noticed all across the state if not already.