Outdoor News Daily

Ever wish you could see a map of Arizona showing all the places to go fishing, along with what types of fish you can find and maybe even something about the facilities at each lake, river or stream?

Well, just wave a magic wand over your computer because your wish has been granted – thanks to a little computer magic from the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

The Game and Fish Department now has a computerized interactive fishing hole map of Arizona on its Web site at www.azgfd.gov/fishing under “Where To Fish.”

Most of the information for the interactive computerized map was taken from the popular “Arizona Fishin’ Holes” booklet published by the Game and Fish Department.
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Trout fishing in the high country during summer can enter the daytime doldrums, but monsoon-generated rain showers can radically alter the equation.

“When those billowing thunderstorms start building in the mountains, the barometer drops, the insects come out but fly low in the sky, prompting the trout to feed actively. That means it’s time to grab your fishing pole and go catch some tasty salmonids for dinner,” said Rory Aikens, the Fishing Report editor for the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

Aikens said the most active trout will be near the surface to gobble up flying insects that have fallen into the water, or those flying just above the surface. Most traditional trout fishing techniques will work at this time, but the best fishing techniques will mimic the conditions.
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The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said today that the lobster “V-notch” program has achieved the level of success needed to delay – for at least one year – an increase in the current minimum legal size for lobsters that are taken from the waters of Long Island Sound.

Under the “V-notch” program – which was designed to monitor and improve the Long Island Sound lobster population – fishermen from Connecticut and New York returned the equivalent of more than 58,000 mature female lobsters to the Sound between December 2007 and July 2008. This represents more than 100% of the goal established for the first year of the program.

As a result of an agreement with the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, the “V-notch” program was approved as a viable alternative to an increase in the minimum size for purposes of attempting to restore the Sound’s lobster population. The Commission had agreed to certain milestones – and delaying an increase in minimum size for a year was the recognition agreed to once at least 90% of the goal of the initial phase of the “V-notch” program was achieved.
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OLYMPIA - Columbia River anglers will be able to catch chinook salmon throughout August during this year’s “Buoy 10″ fishery, but will be required to release any chinook they intercept upriver to Bonneville Dam until Sept. 1.

Also, for the first time, mark-selective fishing rules will be in effect for chinook jacks on eight Columbia River tributaries, requiring anglers to release chinook salmon less than 24 inches long that are not hatchery fish marked with a clipped adipose fin.

Those are just a few of the new fishing rules that will take effect Aug. 1 on the Columbia River and its tributaries, where anglers can expect some changes from last year, said Pat Frazier, regional fish manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
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Salmon fishing in Idaho closed for the year at the end of the day Thursday, July 17.

Jeff Thomasen had been fishing from the rocks at Sunbeam Dam since fishing opened on the last day of the first season in 30 years on the Upper Salmon River. He and his fishing buddy Mike Nelson hauled in two jacks and a nice female Chinook. Nelson also hooked a wild fish, and they let it go.

“It’s a big damn deal,” Thomasen said. His parents bought the Sunbeam store in the 1950s, and he grew up fishing at the dam. But with the demise of salmon fishing they sold the store and it has since closed.
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