A huge crowd of anglers flocked to the state Fish and Game Department headquarters in Concord Tuesday night to express their concerns about planned changes to fishing regulations in New Hampshire.

The proposed regulations, which are still being tweaked and ultimately require legislative approval, could potentially reduce the number of ponds and rivers where fly fishing is currently restricted. In addition, start and end dates of the fishing season could be changed and allow fishermen to keep a larger share of the fish they catch in certain waters.

Officials with the Fish and Game Department say such changes are necessary to streamline the state’s fishing regulations and better manage the pressures placed on the waters of New Hampshire’s more than 150,000 licensed anglers, who are also at risk from warmer weather conditions.

But at Tuesday’s hearing, speaker after speaker said the proposals currently posted on the Fisheries and Fisheries Administration’s website could harm the industry and the fish stocks regulators are trying to protect. Some also argued that the state had not disclosed the science it is basing its new proposals on.

At the public hearing on Tuesday, state officials said they wanted to seek input from New Hampshire anglers when drafting any reforms.

“Help us,” Dianne Timmins, director of the state’s inland fisheries program, urged those in attendance before the hearing began. She described the meeting as an opportunity for fishermen to “actually be part of our program.”

Sensing the tension in the room, Timmins joked that she hoped no one poked her on the way out the door, referring to the practice of killing or immobilizing animals with a stick or needle.

There was no criticism, but a lot of grumbling about the new rules.

Under the initial draft of the proposal, the number of trout ponds in New Hampshire currently designated as “fly fishing only” would decrease from 29 to 5. In addition, all stretches of river currently designated for fly fishing only would be opened to the use of artificial lures and spinning reels.

The start of the fishing season would move from late April to April 1 for some waters. However, the last day of the trout fishing season would also move from October 15 to September 30 on some rivers, and for some ponds the end would fall on Labor Day.

“Where is the simplification with all these changing closing dates?” asks Steve Angers, owner of North Country Angler, a 55-year-old fly shop in North Conway.

Angers said the loss of Columbus Day weekend fishing in some waters would have an immediate impact not only on his business, but also on the lodges, guides and restaurants in the area that specialize in fishing tourism.

“By the end of the season on September 30, we will have suffered tremendous economic damage in the Mount Washington Valley all the way to the border,” he said.

Angers said his biggest concern about the proposals is not the new end date of the season, but the proposed change to waters designated as “catch and release,” which include three ponds and a stretch of the Androscoggin River near the Maine border that he says can produce unforgettable catches.

Allowing anglers to keep their catch – even if it’s just two per person per day – ultimately reduces everyone’s chance of catching bigger fish, Angers said.

“Ultimately, what happens is, now that there are no more 20-inch fish, no more 10-pound fish, people start keeping 18-inch fish. And then they keep the 16-inch fish and then the 14-inch fish,” he said. “And now you’ve destroyed a fishery.”

In an interview Wednesday, Timmins said all proposed regulations are still under active review. She stressed that any changes in the management of the state’s ponds and rivers would be based on both biological considerations and the input regulators receive from the fishermen they want to work with.

“We will use the feedback to refine the proposal,” Timmins said.

During Tuesday’s public hearing, she said the state relies on data to better manage trout ponds and rivers. She also said existing regulations and approaches to fish management are outdated given the continued growth of the sport and the impacts of climate change on the waters.

“We basically try to look at the science and then make the best use of the waters we can within their capacity,” she said.

She cited the increase in severe storms and warming waters as reasons for the pressure on fish populations. This makes it more difficult to manage ecosystems that are heavily fished or rely on large-scale fish stocking programs.

For many of the fly fishermen participating Tuesday, sharing rivers and ponds with anglers using spinning reels and artificial lures is more than just a nuisance: They see it as a threat to valuable waters in the northern part of the state, including the Connecticut River in Pittsburg.

“Opening up the fly-fishing-only area that is the jewel of the state is wrong,” Eric Turcotte of Lee said during Tuesday’s hearing. “It’s a fly-fishing haven.”

Other anglers spoke of how crowded fly-fishing-only rivers can become during the relatively short season. Adding more fishing styles, they said, would only further degrade the experience.

Another public hearing is scheduled for Wednesday evening in Lancaster. Written comments will be accepted through Sept. 6. Once a set of formal regulations is drafted, the public will have another opportunity to comment before the plans are ultimately presented to a legislative committee, which will make a positive or negative decision.