State officials have found a way to accommodate public fishing at Nu'uanu Freshwater Fish Refuge starting next month in the midst of financial obstacles.

The Department of Land and Natural Resources announced yesterday that Nu'uanu would open Aug. 1 — two weeks later than planned — and every subsequent Saturday and Sunday until all fishermen who applied in advance are accommodated.

Fishing at Nu'uanu was scheduled to begin today, but anglers began to suspect that something might be amiss when they hadn't received their date assignments by midweek.

"Due to budget concerns, the schedule had to be readjusted, and that's going to take a while," said DLNR spokeswoman Deborah Ward. "There wasn't enough time to send out that kind of notification."

On Wednesday the DLNR confirmed that state budget cuts were putting fishing at Nu'uanu in jeopardy.

However, "we have found a way to continue this popular fishing activity — despite the serious fiscal emergency facing the state — by reducing the number of fishing sessions to one per day," DLNR chairwoman Laura H. Thielen said yesterday in a statement.

As a result, the refuge will be open much longer than usual because instead of opening the refuge for two four-hour sessions each day, it will be open for only one session each day. State budget cuts do not allow the department to pay employees overtime, and workers must be present to weigh fish and patrol the area.

Last year, the refuge opened Aug. 30 and did not accommodate all 5,413 anglers until Nov. 16, Ward said.

Updated numbers show that 7,200 people have applied for freshwater fishing licenses for this session, Ward said.

The department will set dates and send out entry cards over the next several weeks assigning anglers to different weekends. This will clear up some confusion for fishermen, such as Kapolei resident Art Takamiya, 44, who were in the dark over why they hadn't received their cards yet.

"I'm very happy that the catfishing will be open in August, although for shorter periods," Takamiya said in an e-mail. "This is much, much better than a total shutdown."