Mild sunscreen-type weather and lots of angling choices – for autumn, it doesn’t get much better for fishing.

By the way, it’s a sliver of a moon, which can be great for crappie and striper fishing at night under lights – just watch out for goblins haunting the lakes on Friday night. But be sure to look on the southwestern horizon at sunset on Oct. 31. According to the NASA Space Weather, the crescent Moon will sneak up on Venus for a close encounter of startling beauty just after sunset when the twilight is pumpkin-orange and Halloween doorbells are chiming in earnest back on landfall.

Don’t forget that 2008 General Class A and Urban fishing licenses go on sale for half price starting Saturday, Nov. 1.

It’s tough to resist one last trip to the high country before some cold storm comes romping down from the Gulf of Alaska and sends the fish into their winter behavior patterns. Take your pick, the Rim Lakes, the Williams area, the White Mountain Lakes – you could still reel in a lot of high mountain speckled fun dancing on the end of your line.

If you want to catch trout after trout, go catch grasshoppers and use them as bait on the surface. The desert and mid elevation areas are full of hoppers this year, and trout have been gorging on them this fall. Hopper patterns should also work well for fly anglers (or fish a live hopper from your fly rod). There are times when the trout will fight over which one will gobble a fat hopper. It’s a hoot.

It’s tough to beat Big Lake with its trout diversity, but going after native Apache trout at Silver Creek (catch-and-release-only) might be a close second, or even a tie.

Bartlett, Saguaro and Pleasant still remain the warmwater mainstays. I haven’t heard of anyone unraveling the secret fish-catching code at Roosevelt Lake lately. It may just be a case of way too much food available.

Mead, Havasu and Mohave all sound like they have sound pretty good fishing for striped bass, especially on topwater. These lakes can be very pleasant to fish this time of year, as long as the wind doesn’t come up.

The urban lakes are also being stocked with catfish this week and have been recently stocked with fun hybrid sunfish as well.

This coming week, the Lower Salt River will be stocked with trout for the first time this season, along with the Verde River, Dead Horse Ranch State Park, Lynx Lake, Beaver Creek, Patagonia and Parker Canyon. The following week, the Urban Program lakes will be stocked with trout, as will Saguaro Lake. The ever-popular Tempe Town Lake is scheduled for stocked the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

Go catch some autumn memories. Maybe I’ll see you out there.