Registration at 8 am
| The Chester, Sassafras, Bush, Gunpower, and Magothy rivers are good places to look for spawning runs of white perch.Blue catfish and channel catfish are active in the Choptank River.Hickory shad continue to be found in the Potomac River below Little Falls and the Mason Branch of Mattawoman Creek. Trout fishing remains one of the most popular freshwater fishing activities this month. Read more. |
Anglers will get to enjoy 19 extra days of fishing, more than 20 additional ponds into which to drop their lines, and simplified regulations to follow when the much-anticipated trout season opens at 8 a.m. Saturday, April 11 in waterways across New Jersey. This year’s spring season will be highlighted by the stocking of more than 180,000 rainbow trout and larger broodstock, as well as 20,000 brown trout provided by the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission.
Continue reading “Trout Season Opens April 11 with Simplified Rules”The Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument was established by Presidential Proclamation, under the authority of the Antiquities Act. Commercial fishing was prohibited within the monument via Presidential Proclamations 9496 and 10287, respectively. In 2024, NOAA Fisheries incorporated the Monument boundaries and commercial fishing prohibition into the regulations at 50 CFR 600.10 and 600.725(x). This rule conforms U.S. fishing regulations to the Presidential Proclamation Unleashing Commercial Fishing in the Atlantic, which removed the prohibition on commercial fishing within the Monument. Commercial fishing is allowed within the Monument, consistent with all other applicable regulations, including the implementing regulations for the New England Fishery Management Council’s Deep Sea Coral Amendment, found at 50 CFR 648.373, as follows:
Delaware’s upcoming spring turkey hunting season will run from April 10 through May 11 this year, with a special two-day youth and non-ambulatory hunt Saturday, April 4 and Sunday, April 5 starting the season, DNREC announced. Hunters who have a permit for Segment D will get an additional day (Sunday, May 11) to hunt this season following a recent regulatory change to turkey season dates.
DNREC will offer youth fishing opportunities in each county in early April commemorating and celebrating Earth Month. The angling outings are to be put on by educators from DNREC’s Aquatic Resources Education Center through the Take A Kid Fishing! program. One youth fishing event will be offered in each county during the first full week of April to coincide with many schools’ annual spring break.
NOAA Fisheries announces the availability of a new consolidated commercial Atlantic bluefin tuna fisheries webpage. The new webpage includes information related to commercial fishery status (open/closed), base and adjusted quotas, landings, minimum sizes, retention limits, and permits.
For more information please refer to the Atlantic Highly Migratory Species website.
| Image courtesy of https://www.adn.com/newsletter/ Hi, ADN Iditarod fans, It’s the first full day of the 2026 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, as mushers and their sled dog teams ascend into the Alaska Range after departing Willow in the race restart on Sunday afternoon. As of Monday afternoon, top competitors had reached the checkpoint of Rainy Pass, led by defending champion Jessie Holmes who arrived there shortly after noon. He was followed over the next few hours by several top teams, including Matt Hall, who finished second last year, Paige Drobny, who finished third in 2025, and Travis Beals of Seward. |
| The stretch of trail teams are currently navigating is among the most technically challenging of the entire route. There are several ice bridges that cross open creeks, plus a 200-foot downhill section into the notorious Dalzell Gorge. No teams had scratched from the race as of Monday. This year’s field has no shortage of tough competition. There are four previous winners, including Holmes, and a host of perennial contenders who have regularly finished in the top 10. [54th Iditarod officially begins, with stiff competition at the top] “Everybody who’s been in the top 10 before, been in the top five, everybody has a shot at winning. Everyone shows up here very hungry to do well,” 2019 winner Pete Kaiser of Bethel said ahead of the race. Mille Porsild of Denmark, Wade Marrs of Willow, Drobny and Hall, among others, are angling for strong finishes this year. |
| Defending Iditarod champion Jessie Holmes drives his dog during the restart of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Willow on Sunday. (Bill Roth / ADN) This year’s smaller field of 37 mushers reflects a trend of declining participation in the race over the last several years. Costs to run the Iditarod— both as a musher and from an organizational standpoint — have ballooned, making the race more challenging than ever. Iditarod CEO Rob Urbach said costs have doubled in the past three years. The organization continues to pursue new income sources (with this year’s inaugural Expedition Class being an example) and is working to stay solvent while making the race viable for a new generation of mushers. But it’s not easy. For mushers, training, transportation, gear, drop bags and more add up quickly, putting the total cost anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000. Some, like veteran musher Gabe Dunham, have ongoing concerns about how long they can sustain a race career. |
On the organization side, the situation is much the same. Line items like fuel, insurance, aviation costs and the hundreds of bales of straw for dogs to rest on at trail checkpoints have gone up in price, according to Urbach. The Iditarod’s new Expedition Class program, which allows mushers to run the race noncompetitively and under a different set of rules, is one of the organization’s efforts to seek new streams of revenue. As the first musher in this category, billionaire businessman Kjell Inge Røkke contributed more than $300,000 to this year’s race. That helped lower the entry costs for mushers and also increased the race purse. |
continue to read https://www.adn.com/newsletter/ |
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) and member agencies of the Delaware River Basin Fish and Wildlife Management Cooperative (Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries, collectively Co-op) today announce the implementation of the 2026 Delaware River Creel Survey.
Continue reading “Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) News”
NOAA Fisheries announces a comment period extension on a proposed rule to revise the commercial Atlantic blacknose shark and recreational Atlantic shark fisheries management measures.
The comment period for this proposed rule is being extended through May 29, 2026. This will provide the public additional time to understand the proposed measures and additional opportunity for public comment. A full description of the proposed management measures can be found in the proposed rule which was published on January 5, 2026. The full range of alternatives considered can be found in the draft environmental assessment. The proposed measures are summarized below.
Read more: NOAA Fisheries Announces a Comment Period ExtensionNOAA Fisheries will accept public comments through May 29, 2026.