Well, this is a first, On April 25, 2020, the first-ever “Trout opener, during a pandemic” took place throughout Ontario.

Although some areas remained pretty much status quo as previous opening days, others were extremely different.

The images below are from two popular south-central Ontario fisheries, the Bowmanville Creek and the lower Ganaraska River.

The Bowmanville anglers took advantage of the beautiful day and accessed the water and we assume, practiced physical distancing. Some of the images make the anglers appear quite close in proximity however it is difficult to determine from these angles.

BOWMANVILLE

Here are some shots of the Bowmanville Creek on Apr. 25, 2020:

PORT HOPE

This year’s opening day Trout season on the Ganaraska River in the town of Port Hope was a stark contrast to that of the Bowmanville opener. Normally it is very much a “spectacle” in terms of how many anglers can fish one stretch of water. That stretch of water is basically from the Jocelyn St. bridge south to Lake Ontario.

April 25, 2020, will go down in the Ganaraska River history books as never seen before and “hopefully” never to be seen again.

With the municipality of Port Hope closing all river access in town, there were ZERO anglers along the stretch. As in not one angler!

“I lived in Port Hope for many years,” says Pete Bowman “and these pictures honestly are mind-blowing!”

“In my opinion, opening Trout on the lower Ganny” Pete continues “is normally THE BIGGEST event in the town annually. Yes, there’s also the Float Your Fanny Down The Ganny, but as a weekend event, I think it pales in comparison to the Trout Opener. I feel so bad for the township losing all that revenue and as well, feel bad for the anglers that mark the Ganny opener as one of their favourite outings of the fishing season. It’s unreal!”

Here are some images of what hopefully, never happens again:

CLOSING

In closing, we would like to first off thank all the responsible anglers for doing their distancing part during their first crack at the fishing season. As well, thank you to all the anglers that respected the closed-off areas and either found places elsewhere to go or who stayed home during this trying time.

Although these images are only a small sample size of what actually took place during the 2020 trout opener in Ontario, all indications are that the angling community portrayed a good image to the general public.

If you have any reports, please leave us a comment below.