Latest news with #anglers
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Low flow blues: springer fishing made tougher by below-average flows on Clearwater River
Jun. 1—By the time you are reading this, the spring chinook fishery on the lower end of the Clearwater River may be fading. It is the first day of June and the tail of the run should start to get thinner and thinner as biology urges the fish upriver and closer to their spawning grounds — be it hatcheries or natal streams. At the same time, fishing should pick up closer to the hatcheries and acclimation sites where the fish were released as juveniles. Late last week, Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Lewiston, speculated that about 75% of the adult chinook bound for the Clearwater River had already passed Lower Granite Dam. At the time, he was hopeful that a bump in flows related to warmer weather would deliver a corresponding bump in catch rates during what has been a tough season for many anglers on the lower Clearwater. Despite the best run since 2016 that has produced an estimated harvest share of more than 4,800 adult chinook, anglers had caught only about 800 adult chinook as of the last update. There is much speculation about what is causing the low catch rates but the leading theory behind them and the one DuPont adheres to is that fishing is more difficult when river flows, measured in cubic feet per second, are low. "I would say once flows drop below the upper 20-thousands, we see catch rates drop in the pass-through fisheries," he said. "It's very evident, when flows go down, catch rates go down." Higher flows will push chinook to the edges of the river. But DuPont said his experience, which spans four decades starting as a guide in Alaska to his job now, tells him chinook prefer deeper water far from shorelines. "Something is ingrained in them. It has to be a safety type thing. It comes with the depth and probably staying away from the shoreline. The low flow theory shows up, he said, at places like Big Eddy where fishing can be hot during high flows when fish confused by the strong and swirling current stall and stack up. But during low flows, they plow through and fishing quality drops. It shows up at the Hog Line — the string of boats across the Clearwater just above the Railroad Bridge at Lewiston. Daily headlines, straight to your inboxRead it online first and stay up-to-date, delivered daily at 7 AM "When flows drop, the center boats are the ones catching," he said. The Clearwater River was forecast to flow at a rate of about 30,000 to 34,000 through Monday before starting a steep slide. The next run update, expected early this week, will show whether the higher flows did indeed help anglers. DuPont said the Nez Perce Tribe has reported that its gillnet fishers are also having a tough season. As of last week, about 240 chinook had been caught in gillnets. Even if fishing is tough here, the strength of the run should lead to better angling farther up the Clearwater where chinook concentrate at places like the North Fork of the Clearwater River and the area in front of Clear Creek. Fish stack up at both spots as they seek to return to the hatcheries from which they were released as juveniles. Likewise, the South Fork of the Clearwater, which is much smaller than the main Clearwater, should give anglers a better shot even if chinook travel up the middle instead of along the edges. Rapid River On the Salmon River, the estimated harvest share jumped last week following genetic analysis of fish trapped at Lower Granite Dam, which showed a better-than-projected return to Rapid River that fuels fisheries on the lower Salmon and Little Salmon rivers. The harvest share had been pinned at about 800 but is now estimated to be about 1,200. Lower Snake The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife will allow four more days of fishing on the lower Snake River. The fishery at Little Goose Dam will be open Tuesday and Friday and the Ice Harbor fishery will be open Wednesday and Thursday. The days were added when the return of hatchery spring chinook to the Snake River and its tributaries was upgraded. Barker may be contacted at ebarker@
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
MDC invites young anglers to Kids' Fishing Day on June 7 near Branson
BRANSON, Mo. – In conjunction with Free Fishing Weekend, young anglers will have opportunities to go fishing at the Missouri Department of Conservation's (MDC) Kids' Fishing Day on June 7. The event will from 9 a.m. to noon at the Bella Donna Education Pond at MDC's Shepherd of the Hills Fish Hatchery near Branson. The event is open to anglers ages 15 and under. Sunfish and channel catfish will be what anglers will be trying to catch at the pond, which is east of the main hatchery complex. Signs will direct people to the event. A few loaner fishing poles will be available, but participants are encouraged to bring their own fishing equipment. MDC staff will provide worms for bait, but participants can bring their own, too. No registration is required for this event. For more information, call 417-334-4865, ext. 0. Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery is located at 483 Hatchery Road in Branson. This event is being held in conjunction with Free Fishing Weekend, the annual event in June through which fishing permits are not required at any state-managed fishing location. All other fishing regulations (length limits, possession limits, etc.) still apply for Free Fishing Weekend. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CTV News
18-05-2025
- Sport
- CTV News
Fishing derby returns to Wentworth Park in Sydney, N.S.
Anglers are seen with their lines in the water in Wentworth Park in Sydney, N.S., during the second annual fishing derby.
Fox News
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Secrets of great McDonald's coffee, plus two fishermen making record-breaking catch
BETTER BREW: A McDonald's chef reveals why coffee from the fast-food giant tastes so good. PICTURE PERFECT: A new AI tool called FaceAge can estimate biological age and predict survival odds. BIG CATCH: Two lucky anglers in West Virginia break state fishing records on the same day. PRIME DEALS – Amazon Prime members get ready because Prime Days are back this July with bigger-than-ever savings. Continue reading… CALLING ALL CROSSWORD PUZZLE LOVERS! – Play our Fox News daily crossword puzzle for free here! And not just one — check out the multiple offerings. See the puzzles... Fox News FirstFox News Opinion
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Winter fishing pressure on Lake of the Woods falls short of record
May 10—Somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, fishing pressure this past winter on Lake of the Woods didn't set a record, despite ideal ice conditions and marginal snow cover that made it easy to get around. According to preliminary results from a winter creel survey conducted by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, anglers logged just over 2 million hours of fishing pressure on the big lake during the winter of 2024-25. While fishing pressure on Lake of the Woods was up from the winter of 2023-24, when anglers spent just over 1 million hours on the ice, the pressure fell well short of the record set during the winter of 2022-23, when anglers logged about 3 million hours on the ice. A late freeze-up and marginal ice conditions hampered fishing pressure during the winter of 2023-24, but conditions this past winter were favorable well into March. Ice road operators took advantage of the good ice and sparse snow cover, plowing roads of nearly 30 miles in length in some areas along the south shore of Lake of the Woods. The DNR in recent winters has implemented a new creel survey design to more accurately measure the extent of overnight ice fishing pressure on Lake of the Woods. Instead of a "roving survey," in which creel clerks traveled the ice by snowmobile or pickup truck interviewing anglers actively fishing, the DNR now uses an "access-based" design, setting up at popular access points and some of the larger resorts and interviewing anglers and fishing groups as they come off the lake. While anglers tallied more than 3 million hours of fishing pressure in 2022-23, the new creel survey design made the results kind of an "apples and oranges" comparison with previous creel surveys. "We're now accounting for overnight pressure," Matt Skoog , area fisheries supervisor in Baudette, Minnesota, told the Herald in September 2023. "There's no good way to get a directly comparable number" with the old roving creel surveys. Upper Red Lake, another popular winter fishing destination, uses a similar format, which provides better data on pressure from anglers who stay on the lake for extended periods of time, a trend driven by the growing popularity of deluxe wheelhouses or ice camping in portable hub-style pop-up shelters. According to Marc Bacigalupi, Northwest Region fisheries manager for the DNR in Bemidji, operators on other big lakes such as Leech and Winnibigoshish, along with smaller 5,000- to 10,000-acre lakes around the state, may be catching up with Lake of the Woods in terms of plowing ice roads. A phenomenal jumbo perch bite this past winter on Mille Lacs Lake also caught some traffic heading north, he said. "When we hit 3 million (in 2022-23), it was one of the main games in town because the ice wasn't as good in other places as it was up there," Bacigalupi said of the record winter on Lake of the Woods. "So, we were below the record levels (this past winter), but the catch rates were really good. Decent-sized saugers were getting harvested and so there was good poundage out there." Preliminary numbers show that anglers harvested about 175,000 pounds of walleyes and 150,000 pounds of saugers this past winter on Lake of the Woods, Bacigalupi said, up from about 75,000 pounds of walleyes and 102,000 pounds of saugers during the winter of 2023-24. Anglers kept about 94,000 pounds of walleyes and 121,000 pounds of saugers during the winter of 2022-23, the ice season with record fishing pressure. The DNR's "target harvest" for walleyes on Lake of the Woods — the poundage of fish that can be kept in a given year without adversely impacting the population — is 540,000 pounds annually, based on a six-year moving average. The most recent annual harvest, based on that six-year moving average, is about 400,000 pounds. A new fisheries management plan for Lake of the Woods that is nearing completion calls for changing sauger management goals from a target harvest to an "exploitation threshold," or percentage of the population that can be harvested in a given year. As the Herald reported in January, the exploitation threshold accounts for changes in sauger abundance. If sauger abundance goes up, more pounds of sauger can be harvested without affecting the exploitation rate — or vice versa. The exploitation threshold for this past winter is still being calculated. "We have been consistently harvesting over our (sauger) harvest poundage thresholds and not seeing any negative (biological) effects," Skoog, the Baudette area fisheries supervisor, said in January.
