FISHERIES

After the holiday cheermeister calls an end to a season of tinsel, lights and carols, the fate of many real Christmas trees is a gloomy trip down the garbage chute to Mount Crumpit, or the nearest landfill. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission has a second, far more meaningful life for these one-time-use evergreens as crucial underwater habitat for Arkansas's fish populations.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game stocks an eye-popping total of more than 30-million hatchery fish into Idaho waters each year. The Department uses all kinds of transportation to get fish to their final destination – including bikes, planes, and llamas.

Idaho Fish and Game is once again inviting burbot anglers to take part in the Kootenai River Angler Science Program—an effort that helps biologists gather valuable information to make burbot fishing even better. The best part? Simply participating earns you free swag and an entry into a raffle for great prizes.

Results from the 2025 Lake Erie trawl surveys revealed the walleye hatch as the sixth largest of the past 38 years, according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife. The 2025 west zone yellow perch hatch ranks as the seventh largest of the past 38 years, while hatches in the central and east zones were below average.

On Nov. 18, with funding from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Derelict Vessel program, in partnership with Martin County Environmental Resources, the FWC successfully sank the Borocho, a 227-foot derelict freight vessel, to create a new artificial reef. The ship now rests nearly 200 feet below the surface, in Martin County nine miles offshore of the St. Lucie Inlet. 

The Gulf of America federal red snapper for-hire season will reopen at 12:01 a.m., local time, on December 11, 2025, and will close at 12:01 a.m., local time, on January 1, 2026.

Any angler who catches a largemouth bass weighing 10 pounds or larger from Arkansas waters from Jan. 1-March 31 each year can call the AGFC’s new Lunker Line (833-948-2277) any time, day or night, and someone from the AGFC will meet them at the lake and take possession of the fish if it is healthy enough, return it to the AGFC’s Joe Hogan State Fish Hatchery in Lonoke and spawn it with genetically superior male bass to create improved fingerlings that will be stocked in the lake.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ fall egg collections have been completed for wild Chinook and coho salmon and for captive broodstocks of brown, brook and lake trout. Egg collection for rainbow trout will soon begin.

In an effort to enhance fishing in Utah and boost native fish populations, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources stocks a variety of fish species throughout Utah every year. In 2025, over 11 million fish were stocked into waterbodies across the state.

Many of the trout the Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) stocks into Idaho’s streams, lakes, and reservoirs cannot reproduce. Stocking sterile trout in these locations is an intentional management action.

The Georgia DNR Coastal Resources Division on Nov. 10 submitted a federal Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) request that would establish a two-month recreational Red Snapper season in federal waters off Georgia’s coast beginning in 2026.

If you are an angler participating in the angler science program on Lake Pend Oreille, the logbook submission period has ended, so be sure to turn in your completed logbook by Dec. 12 to receive your free raffle entry and a chance to win some great prizes.

Idaho Fish and Game has launched a new study to better understand largemouth bass populations in the eight Chain Lakes connected to Coeur d’Alene Lake. The project was developed through ongoing conversations and collaboration with local bass anglers and bass fishing groups.

Reintroduction efforts for state-endangered lake sturgeon expanded in 2025, according to the Ohio DNR Division of Wildlife, with 6- to 8-inch-long juvenile sturgeon were released in the Cuyahoga, Sandusky, and Scioto rivers for the first time, as well as in the Maumee River as part of ongoing restoration efforts.

Iowa anglers can buy the Missouri and Big Sioux River paddlefish license and tags starting Dec. 15 through Jan. 7.

Hatchery personnel from Fish and Game’s Magic Valley Region will be stocking approximately 900 10-12” catchable-sized rainbow trout in December. All stocking dates and numbers of fish are approximate.

The Gulf Council will hold a meeting of its Outreach and Education Technical Committee (Committee) on December 11, 2025, from 8:30 AM – 4:00 PM EST. The meeting will be held at the Council offices located at 4107 West Spruce Street, Suite 200, Tampa, Florida 33607.

The recreational harvest of flounder in all Florida state and federal waters will reopen Dec. 1. The minimum size limit for flounder is 14 inches total length and the daily recreational bag limit is five fish per person.

During a routine facility check on Nov. 18, Rapid River Fish Hatchery staff detected a pump used to supply oxygenated water to the early rearing/incubation building had malfunctioned. The alarm system designed to identify water flow associated with pump failure also failed.

A million fingerling kokanee are headed to Idaho waters in 2026 thanks to Idaho Fish and Game’s new captive broodstock program aimed at supplementing eggs taken from "wild" fish.