Whether you are an experienced, occasional or new angler, the Arizona Urban Fishing Program offers great fishing opportunities that you are sure to enjoy. There are 21 city park lakes currently participating in the Program, a partnership between the Arizona Game and Fish Department and 11 cities across the state. To ensure fishermen have a good chance of catching fish, plenty of ready-to-catch fish are stocked over a 10-month period from mid September through June; every two weeks! More than 4 million Arizona residents live within a 20-minute drive of a heavily stocked Urban Fishing Program lake. Close by and convenient, all the parks offer parking, restrooms and other amenities to make your fishing trip and park visit enjoyable.

The goal of our study was to develop information to help manage aquatic plants in Arizona’s reservoirs to benefit sport fish management activities and angler access. To attain this goal we surveyed aquatic plants in reservoirs throughout Arizona and evaluated if the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s aquatic weed harvesting program was benefiting the fisheries program. Aquatic plant harvesting is probably a worthwhile endeavor to improve angler access and keep our angling customers satisfied. However, we strongly recommend that more effective decontamination procedures be implemented to limit the spread of invasive species