While record gas prices may be putting the skids on summer travel for many anglers, they are prompting others to give waters near home a closer look.

With gas averaging $4 a gallon -- up $1.09 from this time last year -- the Travel Industry Association had predicted a July 4 holiday plunge in car travel, and the Federal Highway Administration reports a 30-billion-mile decline in discretionary car trips from November through April. March showed the biggest one-month drop.

Bait and tackle dealers have observed the impact on anglers.

"I've seen a big drop in Canada trips, to the extent in past years I'd sell 30-40 flats of crawlers to folks heading there, and this year I've sold five," said Wayne Lykens of Island Firearms on Neville Island. "I think a lot of the Canada folks are heading to Erie and places like Pymatuning and Wilhelm instead."

Lykens is seeing new faces on the Ohio River, too.

"I tell folks who aren't used to river fishing [that] it doesn't have to be intimidating," he said. "Fish will hit everywhere. When water's high, the way it was this year, fish will be in 5 or 10 feet, or anywhere they can get out of current, like an eddy or any little backwash."

Tried and true spots are the mouths of creeks where baitfish abound and water tends to be cooler. Those include Pine Creek on the Allegheny; Beck's Run, Street's Run and Turtle Creek on the Monongahela; and Chartiers and Sewickley creeks and Montour Run on the Ohio.

Water within a mile below the dams is a good bet for the same reasons.

"That's where I send people, whether they're fishing from boat or shore," said Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission biologist Rick Lorson. "Walleyes and saugers have tailed off at this time of year, but you'll catch smallmouths, catfish, white bass, freshwater drum and hybrid stripers at Sharpsburg, Emsworth, and Braddock."

Anglers also should consider stocked trout lakes, such as Dunlap Creek, Canonsburg and Deer lakes, because the yield can be excellent on other species, Lorson said.

"Every one we survey for trout always has good warm-water populations, in particular, largemouth bass, crappies, channel and bullhead catfish, and sometimes bluegills."

Peters Township Lake yielded a 10-plus pound largemouth this spring, and Lower Burrell Park Pond provides steady action on catfish and carp. North Park Lake, he said, is coming into its best months for largemouth bass and channel catfish.

"You have a reasonable chance for a 20-inch, 4-pound largemouth at North Park," Lorson said. "I'd cast surface plugs off-shore because you'll avoid the weeds, and it's the time of year when you'll see action on top."

When weeds are less of a hassle at North Park, angler Carl Scholtz of Shaler trolls small crankbaits from his kayak, but more frequently he heads to Pine Creek.

"Barring two weeks of 90-degree temperatures, there are usually still trout in there," he said. "But where you pick up Route 8, south of Duncan Avenue, all along Route 8, you'll get good smallmouth action, and there's easy access."

Scholtz also fishes Pine Township Park Pond, a small no-kill fishery near North Park that yields big bluegills and largemouth bass up to 16 inches.

Bass tournament angler D. J. Bishop of Verona recommends the Pennsylvania Atlas and Gazetteer, which maps the location even of small fisheries, and Google Earth online. Professional anglers find the Internet invaluable, he said. Web sites to explore include those run by the Fish and Boat Commission (www.fishandboat.com), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (www.usace.army.mil) and Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (www.dcnr.state.pa.us).

Once on the water, the basics apply.

"Fish typically come shallow at dusk and dawn to feed, and go deeper mid-day," said Bishop, who fishes with Bassmasters' Lock 3 Bait and Tackle team.

"If you're fishing from shore in summer, cast parallel to shore instead of straight out, or target whatever structure you can see, whether it's a group of rocks at the edge of a wing dam or logs or downed trees. It's no different from a boat, except you can cover more water. Move after 15 minutes without a bite until you locate fish."