Plenty of fish and less competition will greet anglers at Missouri’s annual trout opener March 1.

Those who brave the weather to wet a line on opening day at the four trout parks also will find some regulation changes.

State officials are trying to spread trout-catching opportunities more evenly among anglers by lowering creel limits this year. The daily limit on trout will be four.

Under the old creel limits, some anglers took home five fish while others caught only one trout or none at all. Lowering the limit to four daily will give less successful anglers a better chance of getting in on the fun.

The four-trout limit applies to most waters statewide, not just trout parks. Some areas have more restrictive rules.

Also new to all four trout parks is a 15-inch minimum length limit on brown trout. This is aimed at taking advantage of the fish’s growth potential.

The trout opener is a tradition for thousands of Missourians and more than a few out-of-state anglers who rise before dawn, sometimes in beastly weather, and line the banks of spring-fed streams at Bennett Spring, Montauk, Roaring River and Maramec Spring state parks.

Attendance at the trout opener varies from approximately 8,000 to more than 14,000.

Attendance soars in years when March 1 falls on a weekend. This year’s Tuesday opener may mean below-average attendance.

Missouri fishing permits expire the last day of February.

Permit-buying lines are long at trout parks on the opening morning, so savvy anglers purchase their permits before arriving.

Higher flows from springs also have helped boost the number of fish Conservation Department hatcheries can produce.

That will enable the agency to return to its normal stocking rate of 2.25 trout per angler at trout parks.

For the past three years, the rate has been two trout per angler.