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US Fishing
U.S. waters — rivers, coasts, lakes, and the methods people actually use. Full archive — the homepage keeps a brief for 24 hours after it is published, and it stays on this page after that.
WDFW reopens sport crabbing seven days a week Oct. 1–Dec. 31 in Marine Areas 4, 5, 6, 7 North, 7 South, 9, and Area 12 north of Ayock Point. Areas 10, 11, 8-1, and 8-2 stay shut for now; summer catch cards are due Oct. 1.
Jack MacDowall of Hancock, N.Y., took the $20,000 Fall Lake Ontario Counties Trout and Salmon Derby grand prize with a 30-pound, 13-ounce Chinook caught the second day out of Oswego with mate Nathaniel Murteza.
Maryland DNR’s Sept. 30 weekly has the main Bay near 70°F and falling, stripers along the shores and the Bay Bridge, speckled trout in the lower Bay, a red drum run at Assateague, and crabs still producing large fish.
Maryland DNR opens the 2026 fall trout program the first full week of October, with hatchery rainbow, brown, and golden rainbow planned for 26 waters and more than 15,000 fish. Anglers 16 and older need a license and trout stamp.
Outdoor News reports the Bass Fishing World Championship is on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Oct. 1–3 — the 20th edition of the globally sanctioned event, with a large field of nations and a continuing push to put bass fishing in the Olympics.
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission will stock about 114,700 adult rainbow, brown, and brook trout in 117 waters from Oct. 1 through mid-December, WGAL reported Sept. 29.
Maryland DNR named Jason Koontz of Frederick the 35th FishMaryland Master Angler on Sept. 29 for 10 trophy fish of different species, including a 31-inch snakehead and a Monocacy River smallmouth.
Clint Knight of Russellville, Kentucky, won the Phoenix BFL Music City Division finale on Old Hickory Lake with 10 bass for 30 pounds, 8 ounces and $10,920. Co-angler Sam Lemons weighed 10-11.
Adam Boehle of Warrenton, Missouri, won the Phoenix BFL Okie Division finale on Grand Lake with 10 bass for 32 pounds, 13 ounces and $13,100. Co-angler Thad Hewitt weighed 19-15.
Colby Schrumpf of Highland, Illinois, won the Phoenix BFL Illini Division finale on Rend Lake with 10 bass for 28 pounds, 9 ounces and $11,500. Co-angler David Workman weighed 16-0.
Hayden Seabolt of Dawsonville, Georgia, won the Phoenix BFL Bulldog Division finale on Lake Lanier with 10 bass for 37 pounds, 8 ounces and $4,830. Co-angler Adam Johnson weighed 17-1.
WAFF counted roughly 75–100 dead fish near the John Stewart Jr. boat ramp on Lake Guntersville. Major League Fishing said a college and high school event ran there over the weekend and that at least some of the dead fish were left by competitors.
Jason Barnes of Concord, North Carolina, won the Phoenix BFL North Carolina Division finale on Lake Gaston with 10 bass for 37 pounds, 13 ounces and $10,880. Co-angler Landon Dorman weighed 16-15.
News4JAX reported Sept. 25 that fishermen say hundreds of trophy trout, redfish, and other species died at Guana Preserve in Ponte Vedra Beach. Commissioner Clay Murphy met with FDEP; water sampling is planned, and a restoration proposal is expected in October or November.
Kenny Priest's Sept. 24 North Coast column: Andy Martin says Chetco mouth catch rates are already near peak, with big kings sliding in and out on the tide. Trolled anchovy and herring are the program; the adult bag is two, with no more than one wild Chinook.
Michigan DNR, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, and UPPCO moved 27 lake sturgeon out of isolated pools below Victoria Dam after North Country Trail hikers called the Report All Poaching line. The largest fish was 55 inches.
Heat and drought wiped out roughly 70% of Armstrong Hatchery trout since June, so NCWRC’s usual October Delayed Harvest plants slip toward November.
Maine’s rare Arctic char are showing orange-red spawn colors as cooling lakes pull them shallower — and most heritage char waters close to fishing Sept. 30.
A Sept. 18 Fort Pike release put about 10,000 hatchery red drum into the Rigolets as Louisiana’s nonprofit-led redfish stocking pilot passed 150,000 fish coastwide.
US FishingNews deskNOAA set the 2026 South Atlantic federal recreational red snapper season for Oct. 9–11, one fish a day and no size limit. Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina also hold exempted fishing permits for a longer Oct. 9–22 season.
Michigan DNR nighttime young-of-year walleye surveys run from late September into mid-October on inland lakes statewide. Give the electrofishing boats room: they run bright lights and generators, and waders will be asked out of the water.
A Sept. 22 WDFW release says drone flights over the Quillayute system and the Hoh will start in late September 2026 to count recreational anglers and improve salmon and steelhead catch estimates.
Georgia WRD’s Sept. 18 fishing report says a new handicap-accessible public pier is in on Lake Burton at the Moccasin Creek boat ramp, and the lake received its first fall brown trout stocking since 2023.
Minnesota DNR's Sept. 17 Lake Superior report: slow 18- to 29-inch lake trout from Duluth to Two Harbors, a flat upper shore after west winds, and light pink salmon in the Brule and Temperance. Pinks remain a small but expanding part of the fishery.
Al Raychard's Sept. 21 Bangor Daily News column says Maine's third prime stretch of the year — the fall landlocked salmon run — is starting as fish leave Sebago, Rangeley, Moosehead, and other deep lakes for natal rivers.
Cooler water led Colorado Parks and Wildlife to lift voluntary fishing closures on stretches of the Colorado, Fraser, and White rivers, Sky-Hi News reported Sept. 20. Restrictions remain on parts of the Eagle, Crystal, Elk, and Yampa.
On Sept. 18, FWC certified a new jaguar guapote state record: 3.02 pounds, 16 inches, caught by 16-year-old Xzavier Peon of Miami in the Westwood Lakes area on live bait. The previous record had stood since 2017.
More than 50,000 hatchery red drum went into Calcasieu Lake at West Cove Boat Ramp on Sabine NWR — the flagship drop of Louisiana’s first redfish restocking program, backed by CCA Louisiana, RFRI, and LDWF.
Maryland DNR’s Sept. 16 weekly: Bay surface temps in the upper 70s, stripers improving on the Flats and edges, snakeheads in the Susquehanna mix, and recreational crabbing still excellent. Albert Powell Hatchery is under a $15 million renovation.
AGFC’s Sept. 17 weekly: a 26-inch Beaver tailwater walleye on slow soft plastics, White River still on emergency trout limits, and a 3,000-rainbow plant from Calico Rock to Allison/Sylamore.
Great Days Outdoors’ Sept. 11–17 Delta report: Capt. Joey Lemoine says Grand Isle trout quality is up as water cools; Capt. Shawn Mitchell has white shrimp leaving Hopedale–Biloxi ponds and redfish on the drains. First 4–5°F front could lock in fall.
Randy Meredith’s Sept. 16 Navarre Newspaper pier report: water clearing at 83°F, NE wind 3–15, 1–3 ft seas. By 7 p.m. Spanish, king, ladyfish, yellowtail, and hardtail were on the sheet. Windows: 11:30–12:30, 4–6 p.m., and 9:30–10:30 p.m.
Osceola News Gazette, Sept. 17: the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Championship launches Friday–Sunday from Big Toho Marina on the Kissimmee Chain. Purse $453,000, top prize up to $135,000, plus a REDCREST 2027 berth. Drought has the chain low.
On The Water’s Sept. 17 upstate report: staging Chinook still feeding 60–150 ft on the lake, Niagara Bar kings on the drop in 60–70 ft, NYPA platform jigs and eggs, and a 33-pound Olcott king for Nathaniel Rey.
Vermont Fish & Wildlife’s Sept. 17 release: cooling water and shorter days put bass, pike, perch, walleye, trout, and salmon on a heavier feed with less boat traffic. Biologist Shawn Good points at weedbed edges, 6–8 ft transitions, and a late-morning window.
Fisherman’s Post’s Pamlico/Neuse September 2026 guide roundup: citation-class red drum from the ferry line into the sound on soft plastics, topwater, and cut bait; slot reds and a few specks in the river shallows; stripers still consistent up past New Bern.
A Sept. 15 USFWS story: biologists helicoptered into the Gila Wilderness after the Hummingbird and Sacaton fires, electrofished 78 genetically distinct Iron Creek Gila trout, and trucked them to Mora National Fish Hatchery at 100 percent survival.
ODFW’s Sept. 10 Northwest Zone report rates Nehalem Bay fall Chinook fair and consistent, with Nestucca and Tillamook starting to produce. Wild adult coho is open Wed/Sat/Sun through Oct. 28 in those three basins.
The Georgia Wildlife Blog’s Sept. 11 statewide sheet says Silver Lake PFA is fishing well — dock lights, vegetation-pocket bass, House Pond bluegill over 9 inches — while the Chattahoochee and Flint stay a catfish-and-bream play until water cools.
Green Cove Springs’ Cody Morgan took the MLF Phoenix BFL Gator Division finale on the St. Johns River at Palatka with 10 bass, 61 pounds 9 ounces, and $3,920 after a shell-flat program and a 12-11 on Day 2.
WDFW listed 40 tentative evening razor-clam digs Oct. 9–Dec. 27 at Long Beach, Twin Harbors, Copalis, and Mocrocks. Every series still needs Department of Health marine-toxin clearance, and Kalaloch stays closed.
Utah DWR’s fall kokanee viewing note: it is illegal to possess kokanee statewide Sept. 10–Nov. 30. Free look-ins at Strawberry Reservoir Sept. 19 and Fish Lake’s Twin Creeks boardwalk Sept. 26, plus DIY spots from Jordanelle to Sheep Creek.
Jules Lingenfelter in the Flathead Beacon (Sept. 14): Montana FWP wants an emergency catch-and-kill rule for brown trout in Flathead Lake and waters upstream after confirmed fish at Ashley Lake and likely reports at Church Slough. Comment through Sept. 24; commission Oct. 14.
US FishingNews deskFederal for-hire reef-fish boats in the Gulf get 147 days of red snapper in 2026, 19 days longer than last year, under a 3.38-million-pound quota.