Not going never occurred to me.
When I was growing up in Mass I looked forward to opening day for trout even more than I looked forward to opening day of baseball. Probably because they let me fish for trout but never let me play for the Red Sox. When they stopped having opening day in Mass on the 3rd Sat in April, a great tradition was lost. Although you now can go whenever you want, it's still great, but not with quite the same anticipation as it once was.
Rhody's opening day is a great tradition and I always go now that I'm a RI resident. It wasn't very crowded this year where I went but the fish were nice and I met some of the same ole guys I see there every year. Not too many kids seem to go anymore and that's too bad. There were a few kids but I think most have too many other electronic distractions now.