BY TRAVIS BARRETT

Outdoors Writer

The calendar says its April 1, so the law book says today is the start of Maine's open water fishing season.

Of course, finding the open water will be the trick.

Most of central Maine's lakes and ponds remain covered by a thick blanket of frozen slush and ice, though the usual spots -- on Long Pond, at the Wings Mills Dam on Belgrade Stream and along Cobbossee Stream's shores -- will likely be frequented throughout the day by hard-core fishermen. Most will only stop by their favorite spot for a brief hello, as if they are catching up with an old friend.

Fishing conditions are not what one would consider ideal, as water temperatures hover just above freezing where there is open water and water levels are typically high from spring melt.

"What's the old saying?" local fisheries biologist Jim Lucas asks aloud. "'When the alders' leaves are as big as mouse's ears?' That's about right. You really won't start catching the trout until then.

"The ice has to go out and it has to get a little warmer."

Part of the reason for that, of course, is that the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife still hasn't begun stocking bodies of water with its spring supply of brook trout, brown trout, splake and landlocked salmon. Typically that activity doesn't take place until mid-April -- but any protracted delay in ice-out from a long, cold winter could also hold off the stocking program for several weeks. Of course, Maine's fishing "opening day" typically refers to lakes and ponds and not tributaries. Laws governing rivers and steams are usually varied from place to place, from one section of the same river to another. Stretches of the Kennebec River are open year-round to fishing, and Cobbossee Stream was opened this year for the first time year-round. But even where water runs, it's still high and extremely cold, at least 20 degrees colder than optimum feeding temperature for most salmonids.

Lucas encourages anglers to check fall stocking lists issued by DIF&W and focus their early April efforts on places where ice-fishing pressure was light throughout the winter or where fishing was particularly slow.

"We've found that the majority of these stocked trout are not harvested during the winter," Lucas said. "These waters should have a number of 'carry-over' trout."

Or, for today, fishermen could simply try wherever open water actually exists.

"In some places you'll hear about people catching a few fish here and there," Lucas said. "Most of the people out fishing (on opening day) are just fishing so they can say they did."

For license information, laws governing fishing, reports from biologists or stocking lists, visit the DIF&W Web site at http://www.mefishwildlife.com/fishing.

Travis Barrett -- 621-5648

tbarrett@centralmaine.com