NY Regs Question

[cmoran719]

I'm spending this upcoming weekend in a cabin in the Catskills, along the Esopus creek. I was originally hoping to do some fly-fishing on the esopus (since it will be my backyard!) but I found out I can't fish it until April 1st apparently?

I looked into the regs and saw that but am a bit confused. Trout season starts on the 1st, but certain other fish, like sunfish, can be fished year round. TBH, I would not mind at all just catching some sunfish, since I simply want to get a line wet and try out my new fly rod. So is there any way I can do that? Is it that you can't keep trout or that you can't target them? Is there a way I can "prove" that I'm not targeting trout while still fly-fishing lol ?

Thanks for any help