(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa D-N-R says it is updating its fishing atlas to make it more compatible with mobile and other devices. Fisheries research biologist Lewis Bruce says you can use it to plan your trip by asking it to find fishing spots near your location. “You can click on those locations. It’ll provide the, you know, the type of fish that are in those areas. the managers of those areas if you’ve needed to call and get updates. So it’s useful from that aspect,” Bruce says. Once you get to your fishing spot it will use GPS to give you information to help find fish.
“You get out on the lake, it’s going to show your location. It’s going to show the contour depths, contour changes, you know, the creek channels. And then it’s also going to show you where those brush piles, rock piles, gravel bars, spawning beds, all that additional habitat that’s been added to lakes,” he says. Bruce says you can also look up your fishing spot and print out maps in you are going to a location where the signal isn’t good.
“You get into areas in northeast Iowa, some of those trout streams, once you drop down off the ridge down to the bottom where the stream is at, you don’t always have access as far as cellular reception goes, which can be good and bad. But yeah, so it allows you to print those maps off,” Bruce says. He says you can print off the entire stretch of a stream or the entire lake, or just print out a cove where you’re going to be fishing. Bruce says the fishing atlas can help anyone, regardless of their experience fishing.
“Somebody that hasn’t been out, never fished before, somebody that’s coming in that’s new to the state, not familiar with an area. it just really shortens down or shortens up that learning curve. It gets you out there quicker and hopefully as long as the fish cooperate, gets them in your boat quicker on your stringer faster,” Bruce says. He says there’s one goal for the atlas. “Shorten the time between bites, that’s what we try and do,” He says. Bruce says you can find it on the D-N-R website, or just search on Google for the Iowa D-N-R fishing atlas.
The fishing atlas update is expected to be completed by May 14th.
