[size 2]If you live in Calif you need an Arizona Stamp and Arizona need's a California Stamp. Doesn't the Colorado also touch Nevada too?[/size]
[size 2] Does that mean California need's an Arizona and Nevada and Nevada an Arizona....I've gone cross eyed![crazy][/size]
[size 2] Pretty funny[laugh][/size]
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[cool]My understanding is that all states touched by the Colorado River or any of it's lakeshores are subject to the dual permit laws. The upside of that is that you can cross over into the other state and fish from the other state's shoreline...not just launch and fish from your home state.
The residents up and down the river take advantage of this all the time, to get to better fishing spots on the other side of the "fence". In Utah, the folks who fish Lake Powell are happy to pay the extra permit, because it gives them access to marinas on the Arizona side that can be great fishing at different times of the year.
It is much better than having to buy out of state licenses whenever you wanna go across the river or launch on the other side of a lake.
Then, if you fish the lower parts of the Colorado River, above Yuma, you also have to buy tribal permits, since much of the river flows across land deeded to the native American nations in the area. They can ding you another twenty to thirty dollars for a weekend of fishing on their land.
The good news? They don't charge any extra for the rattlesnakes. Lots of them along the river. Makes night fishing for catfish an "interesting" experience for bank anglers. That and the fifty pound flathead cats that are plentiful down there.
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[size 2]I knew there was more to that reg. Since I pretty much fish Calif I concentrate on the local stuff.[laugh][/size]
[size 2] That makes since though. I mean it would suck if you have to buy 3 licenses at like $20-$30 a piece![shocked][/size]
[size 2] That would take alot of the fun out of it![unsure][/size]
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[cool]Once upon a time, in a galaxy far far away (when I lived in southern Cal), I used to spend a lot of weekends over on the Colorado...especially in the spring, before it got too blazing hot. I would go across the river at Blythe, buy a three day reservation permit at the all night service station in Ehrenberg...for about $3, and drive the dirt roads to the Palo Verde Wier. That was a great spot to camp on a sandy beach and fish the tailrace for stripers and big channel cats. The best fishing was at night, using live shad we dipped from right next to the concrete diversion dam.
There was a big lagoon behind the long gravel arm that ran from the wier downstream for a hundred yards or so. In the lagoon were lots of largemouth, crappies and some bodacious bluegill.
Oh yeah, gas was only about 30 cents a gallon for my Volkswagen. It did not cost me much to return sunburned, smelling like fish and totally trashed from little sleep...not counting the naps I took on the way back home. On a couple of occasions, I even stopped my car before taking those naps.
A couple of years ago, TubeBabe and I decided to "rediscover" the great spot of my memories. Gas prices out of sight, tribal permits ourrageous, $3 a day for a Colorado River stamp...and I couldn't even find the old Palo Verde Wier. They had channeled that entire stretch of the river, after the big floods of the mid 80's...and the steep banks were all covered with rock riprao. I finally found the wier, a year later, by driving first along the California side and then going back up the Arizona side afterwards.
They say you can never go back. That was true of the Palo Verde Wier. You could not even get down to fish below the outflow. It was marked as NO TRESPASSING. Man, it broke my heart to see what had happened to an old favorite fishing hole.
The upside is that since my early years of fishing the lower Colorado, the flathead cats have made a major population explosion. The downside is that unless you have a boat, with plenty of horsepower, your chances of fishing the river effectively have been greatly reduced.
However, there are some nice little "oxbows" and overflow ponds along the river between Yuma and Blythe. If you wander along the river and do not bog down in the soft sand, you can find some great spots to launch a tube where boats cannot get to. There are float tube clubs out of Yuma that have tournaments in Lakes Martinez, Mittry and some of the other tubeable waters up there. But some of the biggest fish come from the little out of the way spots that very few people know about and even fewer know how to fish effectively.
Any California anglers looking for something Unique, and more solitude than you can get ANYWHERE in California, might consider the investment in a Colorado River stamp and checking out all the river between Yuma and Parker Dam...just below Lake Havasu. It's desolate country...bordering on wierd...but there are sure some great fish in that old river.
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] I saw that in the listing of fee for DFG site for CA. They want to get you one way or another. thbbbbbbbb[
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