Unprecedented flooding caused a slight decline in North Dakota fishing license sales during 2011. According to North Dakota Game and Fish Department’s annual angler survey, resident licenses were down 2 percent compared to 2010. However, angler participation and effort actually increased.

The survey indicated 111,000 (up 9,000 from previous year) resident anglers fished open water, while 48,000 (up 15,000) residents fished through the ice. “Access was the key for the big increase in winter anglers,” Power said. “We didn’t have the severe winters like we had the previous three years.”

Major North Dakota fishing destinations include Lake Sakakawea, Devils Lake and the Missouri River/Lake Oahe. Numerous small lakes and rivers play a large role for anglers as well. According to North Dakota Game and Fish Department, 300 small lakes, reservoirs and rivers in the state receive nearly 50 percent of all fishing effort.

source: North Dakota Game and Fish Department

During summer, hot, dry weather and low water levels can trigger fish kills in ponds, lakes, and rivers. Although summer fish kills rarely affect entire fish populations, these events can impact local ecosystems, disrupt fishing, and alarm the public.

Summer fish kills are often caused by low oxygen levels in the water. When periods of excess heat occur along with little or no rainfall, water levels and oxygen levels can drop, resulting in increased stresses on fish. These same conditions can trigger algal blooms which further deplete oxygen levels in bodies of water.

In North Carolina, Lake Norman has experienced an increase in spotted bass populations. According to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, introductions of spotted bass into the 32,475 acre reservoir may have been undertaken by well-intentioned anglers who want to "improve the bass fishery." Fishery managers discourage such measures, noting that introductions of non-native fish into waters where they are not found can have unintended effects.

According to biologists, spotted bass often compete with other black basses and alter their genetics when they interbreed. In some areas, spotted bass can replace a largemouth bass fishery. Kin Hodges, a biologist with the Commission’s Division of Inland Fisheries, warned against private introductions of fish into state waters, saying:

"... we run the risk of seeing diminished black bass fisheries in the future unless anglers quit moving spotted bass into new lakes where they frequently have negative impacts on the existing populations of largemouth or smallmouth bass."

According to the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, the stocking of fish in public waters of North Carolina without a valid stocking permit is illegal.

source: N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission

A cooperative survey of Ohio River anglers will be held through October 20, 2012. The survey will be conducted by the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR), the Ohio Division of Wildlife, and the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources.

Anglers fishing along the three states’ common borders will be asked questions concerning fishing effort and the types and numbers of fish they have caught and harvested. The survey will also focus on residency and overall angling participation and experiences.

The Ohio River Creel Survey typically take approximately five minutes, according to researchers. Data from the survey will be in fisheries management along the Ohio River.

source: WVDNR

In January, 2012, the Great Lakes Commission and the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence Cities Initiative released a joint study of invasive species. The research focuses on stopping the movement of invasive species between the Mississippi and Great Lakes basins.

The study is the first major effort to provide failsafe solutions to preventing the movement of aquatic invasive species between the two watersheds. Among the solutions presented are ways in which the Mississippi River and Great Lakes basins can be re-separated,

Scientific evidence indicates that bighead and silver carps would find portions of the Great Lakes basin to be suitable places to live and reproduce, likely causing ecosystem disruption, and loss of valuable fishery resources. Science behind the Asian carp threat adds pointed urgency for action on the separation study.

"Science indicates that, like the sea lamprey and zebra mussel, bighead and silver carps are likely to become permanent components of the Great Lakes if they become established in the system. We simply must not let new species—particularly ones as large and prolific as the silver and bighead carps—into the Great Lakes" said Robert Lambe, chair of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.

source: Great Lakes Commission

Anglers fishing on the Middle River in Maryland should be on the lookout for tagged largemouth bass. In the fall of 2011, Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Inland Fisheries biologists along with volunteers from the Maryland Bass Federation Nation released 250 largemouth bass in Middle River as part of the state's bass fishing enhancement program.

DNR staff inserted red identification tags into 200 of the fish as part of a study to find out if the bass remain in the river. Any angler who catches a tagged fish and provides the date and location along with the tag number to DNR will earn a collectable Largemouth Bass Program Volunteer hat. The DNR Bass Program return address is printed on the tag along with the four-digit code. Anglers may also call Joe Love with the information at 410-260-8257.

This is the third consecutive year that DNR has released adult, 4- to 12-inch largemouth bass in Middle River. This year, approximately twenty percent of the fish came from the State’s Joseph Manning Hatchery in the Cedarville State Forest near Brandywine. The rest of the fish came from a Maryland-certified commercial hatchery in Arkansas.

For more information on the program, visit dnr.maryland.gov/fisheries/bass/

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released a new report, Trends in Fishing and Hunting 1991-2006: A focus on Fishing and Hunting by Species.

The report provides a detailed look at fishing and hunting by species and offers a wealth of information on national and state fishing and hunting expenditures, participation rates, and demographic trends.

The report is an addendum to the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife Associated Recreation. It represents a comprehensive survey conducted by the Service’s Wildlife Sport Fish and Restoration Program (WSFR).

The report includes the following summaries:

For fishing, participation has dropped for nearly all types of fishing (i.e., freshwater and saltwater) and species of fish. One species for which fishing hasn't significantly dropped is flatfish.

The declining numbers of anglers have increased their average days of fishing so that overall fishing effort has remained stable.

To download a complete copy of the report please visit:

http://wsfrprograms.fws.gov/Subpages/NationalSurvey/reports2006.html

source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service