TEMPE TOWN LAKE – Bluegill are biting meal worms under a bobber at the fishing docks.

Don’t forget the current bag limit for largemouth bass at Town Lake is four fish per day with a 13-inch minimum length restriction.

There are also no gas powered boats allowed on the lake and Tempe Town Lake permits are available at the City of Tempe Town Lake Operations Center, 620 N. Mill Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85281. Phone: (480) 350-8625.
LAKE PLEASANT - Lake elevation 1,657 ft (55-percent full).
An angler fished the Aqua Fria and came upon a real good shad boil that lasted nearly an hour.  They boated 13 stripers and a couple white bass using top water lures.

Rich Stevenson, a retired Game and Fish biologist, fished the flats in 20 feet of water using anchovies as bait, and the bite was between 10:30 p.m. and 1:30 a.m. He and his son caught eight small stripers and three five keepers (two in the 3-pound range).

Where: Lake Pleasant
When: 08/15/09
Caught: Strippers & Largemouth Bass
Technique: Worms and shad
Comments: Jarrot, Rick, and James caught 60 strippers and one largemouth near the elevation marker, back about 100 feet from it. We used worms for the first half of the night with great success, then netted some shad for the second half. Jarrot caught his first 16 fish ever, Rick also caught 16, and James brought in 29. Great 6 hours of fishing!
Name: James

ROOSEVELT LAKE — Lake Elevation is 2,139 ft (86-percent full).  Tonto Creek runoff is 0 cfs while inflow from the Salt River is at 127 cfs.

A group of anglers employed the Carolina rig in 15 to 30 feet of water with dark colored Power Worms and Senkos and had a productive outing with everybody catching at least one bass.

We were out Saturday on a creel and noticed a few floating bass with extended swim bladders.  I know all catch and release anglers want the fish to survive after released. My suggestion is to employ the technique used by the better tournament sponsors.  Get a milk crate and a rope at least 30 feet in length.  You may need to attach a length of chain if your crate is on the light side.  Put your milk crate with attached chain and line over the fish and slowly let it down.  Make sure the substrate is no greater than 40 or 50 feet in depth.  Once the fish is deep enough they will swim out of the crate but may not swim out if they can’t see the ground.   They stand a much better chance if you do this rather than hoping they will right themselves on their own.
APACHE - Lake elevation is 1,907 ft (92-percent full).

An angler caught a 23 pound buffalo fish in the shallows using worms.  Worms are also enticing the largemouth and yellow bass as well as channel catfish.  The marina is still a good place to catch catfish and Turtle Island is holding largemouth bass.  The points near drop-offs are good spots for yellow bass.  Fish between 8 and 25 feet deep for the yellow bass.

CANYON LAKE – Lake elevation is 1,658 ft, which is 96-percent full.

Anglers are still doing well at Canyon.  Many large bass are hanging along the cliffs and taking T-rigged and drop shot worms.  Morning dawn Robo worms are working as well as darker colored worms.  You do have to work your worms real slow.

SAGUARO LAKE – Lake elevation 1525 feet at 93% full.

Saguaro bite is still very good.  Crankbaits, more specifically, the light colored Strike King Pro models are making anglers pretty happy by enticing bass, bluegill and channel cats.

Anglers are sharing some helpful info so fish main lake points in 5 to 25 feet of water and drop shot morning dawn Robo worms on an octopus hook with a 12 to 18 foot leader.

When bass are not desperate for a meal, dead sticking is the way to go with either your worm or a neutrally buoyant crankbait.

At night bass are cruising the shorelines.  Try using 12 inch ribbon tail, wired or Westie worms Texas rig style.  Fish slow.

BARTLETT – Lake elevation is 1794 ft, which is 94% full.  Reservoir release is 115 cfs.

Bass are taking buzzbaits pretty much all day.  Hard jerkbaits are also working for some although the smaller fish are more interested than the big bass as a couple anglers can attest.
Texas-rigged worms are effective for yellow bass at the points near drop-offs and largemouth bass.  The underwater structure is holding fish and it’s nice to hear anglers have been playing nice with the lake so popular.

HORSESHOE – Lake elevation is at 1950 feet, No pool.  They are releasing water at 75 cfs.
VERDE RIVER  — Verde River flow at Tangle is 85 cubic feet per second.  Release from Bartlett Lake is 115 cfs.

SALT RIVER – Salt River into Roosevelt is 127 cfs, and Salt River Canyon is 122 cfs.  They are releasing 1,575 cfs out of Stewart Mountain Dam from Saguaro.

LOWER SALT RIVER — Stewart Mtn. Dam (below Saguaro Lake) release is 1,575 cfs. An angler last week reported catching some nice bass and one surprise rainbow trout.

CREEKS

It hasn’t changed much yet.  Terrestrials are still working for fly anglers and the water is still low.  There are occasional rain events that cool the water.  Air temperatures are slowly getting lower and by mid September the nymphs will be working for you.  Right now you have more of a chance real early in the morning and late evening.

• Haigler Creek – No recent reports. Will sample soon.
• Canyon Creek – Good reports.  Get there early.

• Christopher Creek – Good fishing. Get there early.
• East Verde – No recent reports.
• Workman Creek – No recent reports.

Catfish stockings have ceased for the summer and won’t commence again until water temperatures and conditions improve in mid to late Sepetember. But anglers at many lakes are still catching catfish, bluegill and even bass. Don’t expect great catch rates, but these lakes are still worth a visit especially at first and last light.

TEMPE TOWN LAKE – Bluegill are biting meal worms under a bobber at the fishing docks.

Don’t forget the current bag limit for largemouth bass at Town Lake is four fish per day with a 13-inch minimum length restriction.

There are also no gas powered boats allowed on the lake and Tempe Town Lake permits are available at the City of Tempe Town Lake Operations Center, 620 N. Mill Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85281. Phone: (480) 350-8625.

LAKE PLEASANT - Lake elevation 1,662 ft (58-percent full).
Anglers are catching quite a few smaller stripers and largemouth bass with anchovies around the tire area.

Shad boils are small, ephemeral and full of dinks throughout the lake especially in the northern and main lake coves.

There are some large fish out there, but they are a bit deeper.  You might want to try bouncing your worms down the cliff walls to nab the lunkers hanging in the crevices.  If you can net some shad try putting them on a hook, they work well.  Last week an angler noticed large stripers he caught were full of crayfish, so use crayfish imitations.

ROOSEVELT LAKE - Lake Elevation is 2141 ft (87-percent full).  Tonto Creek runoff is 0 cfs while inflow from the Salt River is at 133 cfs.

Anglers are happy with Roosevelt.  It behooves you to pay attention to the moon phase and change in barometric pressure.  Fish tend to get lock jaw when the pressure changes over a short amount of time.  Once the fish grow accustom to the pressure the bite tends to be on.  Lots of fishermen know how important the sunrise and sunset is, but the moon rise and moon set is also real important.

But did you also know the peak new moon and peak full moon (as in completely full or completely new) is also important? Good fishing can last 3 to 5 days after the peak and three to four days before, with the peak being the best time.  Don’t forget to factor in the local weather.  If a rain storm is hitting right as you are fishing good things will happen, barring any nearby lightning strikes.

The barometric pressure change occurs when the system is being funneled in and the wind is whipping around. Many times if the barometric pressure is working against you, the peak moon phase will still work in your favor. Changes in season or photoperiod which triggers spawning activity can also be thrown into the mix. It isn’t as obvious in Arizona as it is in other states, but the fish can tell.  The water temperature is a measurable indicator that fishermen can easily key in on to indicate spawning activity.

An angler fished in the evening on the Salt end.  Crankbait worked a little bit but when the moon came up around 8:30 p.m. fishing was real good, he caught 10 largemouth bass over the slot, one under the slot and a bunch of slots.  He mentioned the fish were real aggressive.

Another group fished at the Salt end in the evening and the bluegill kept them busy for the first hour.  They crappie fished 25 feet deep over 40 feet of water and they caught 16 nice crappie.  The weather was pleasant as well.

APACHE -  Lake elevation is 1,906 ft (92-percent full). Anglers are catching quite a few bass using T-rigged green and yellow colored worms and also red and blue Robo Worms.  Use your dropshot the points where the substrate drops off.  Spinnerbaits are also enticing the bite.  Don’t forget to try Turtle Island, Goat Ledge and Mazatzal Bay. Use KastMasters or live worm pieces or mealworms at the drop-offs near the points and ledges for yellow bass. Carp are hanging in the shallow coves.  Apache Lake catfish like those live worms.

CANYON LAKE -Lake elevation is 1,657 ft, which is 94-percent full. Four fun loving carp fishermen had a great time at Canyon Lake.  They baited a promising yet shore accessible area for a week before their big adventure.  They fished 6 to 10:30 a.m. and caught 24 carp; none were less than 10 pounds.  The largest was about 20 pounds and all were caught on hair rigs using artificial and real corn (boiled feeder corn).  The carp were jumping as soon as the anglers showed up at the site and they had several double hook ups and one triple hook up.  They used 14-25 lb test and still had some that broke off.

Part of the same group fished Teddy Bear point and dropshotted worms from 9:30 to 11:00am and landed 19 largemouth bass and one smallmouth.  Most of the bass were between 10-14 inches and all were released unharmed.

SAGUARO LAKE – Lake elevation 1524 feet at 92-percent full.  A night angler fished from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. and caught 7 slot bass dropshotting with 4 inch black and blue Robos.  He also T-rigged 10 inch Power Worms which enticed 5 more  bass; this technique resulted in a couple larger fish, one four pounder and two three pounders.

BARTLETT – Lake elevation is 1795 ft, which is 95-percent full.  Reservoir release is 115 cfs.

An angler night fished from 5 to 10 p.m. and caught a bunch of small largemouth bouncing an Excalibur Fat Free Shad crankbait in rocky areas.  Four inch Robo Worms on drop shots also brought in a few bass as well as T-rigged worms.  The largest bass was about 3.5 pounds.

Editor’s Note: With all its twists and turns, along with plentiful reefs, this can be a challenging lake to fish at night for those who are not familiar with it.  Full moon nights can be best, but don’t expect your submersible lights to work their magic like on darker nights.

Rory’s note: For short-hitting fish batting topwater lures around, try using a trailer hook, or even a front-runner-type of smaller lure fished in tandem with a larger one (Zara pooch in front or behind a Zara Spool for instance). Another technique is to have a small soft-plastic jerkbait like a Bass Assassin or fluke as a trailer for something like a Zara Spook or even a popper, then hesitate the walk-the-dog action and let the trailer flutter down – sometimes you’ll catch the hesitant hawgs that way.
HORSESHOE – Lake elevation is at 1,952 feet. No pool.  They are releasing water at 100 cfs. The best place for flatheads, bass and sunfish is in the deep pools just below the dam. A wiggling ball of multiple live night crawlers on a small treble hook might just get you the fight of the summer.
VERDE RIVER – Verde River flow at Tangle is 162 cubic feet per second.  Release from Bartlett Lake is 115 cfs.

SALT RIVER – Salt River into Roosevelt is 165 cfs, and Salt River Canyon is 148 cfs.  They are releasing 1,425 cfs out of Stewart Mountain Dam from Saguaro.

LOWER SALT RIVER – (below Saguaro Lake) Stewart Mtn. Dam release is 1,675 cfs, making it great for tubing, canoes or kayaks. There still might be some trout left to catch, but mostly its bass, catfish and sunfish right now. Try floating while armed with a night crawler fished with a small split-shot weight. This stretch of river is perfect for the fishing kayaks.

CREEKS

Terrestrials are the ticket right now; hoppers, ant patterns and cicadas (if you hear them buzz).  You want to be there early or real late so you  are the first to get on the water and hit the undercut shoreline and deeper holes.  In our past sampling you would be amazed how many bigger fish are in what seems like little holes.

Haigler Creek –  Haigler received the full load of rainbow trout last week because the water temps were cold enough to support trout.  This is a week to week situation.  Fish the deeper holes that’s where they will be and get there early.

Canyon Creek – Low water spooky fish.  Dry flies (hoppers) size 8 to 14 are doing well along with dropper rigs sizes 14 to 18 nymphs below it.  Anglers are saying the better fishing is in the catch and release area.

Christopher Creek – I’ve heard good reports from the upper See Canyon section. The lower section was not stocked due to water temperature issues. As with the other creeks, try terrestrials, especially grashoppers or cicadas.

East Verde -  Water temperatures are too warm to stock trout so they will not get trout this week.

Workman Creek – One recent report.
Chris: Hey Guys! went fishing weekend of the 4th Workmans Creek, what a great little secret it is!! Not sure if the fish I caught were recent stockers or holdovers from previous but all were fat and healthy including 1 18-inch whopper!! 7 total! Had a Blast!

Thx Az Game and Fish for all the work you do! You Guys are Great!!!!! A Fan!!

If you care to share a fishing report, please call Region 6, (480) 981-9400 and ask for Diana.

Catfish stockings have ceased for the summer and won’t commence again until water temperatures and conditions improve in mid to late Sepetember. But anglers at many lakes are still catching catfish, bluegill and even bass. Don’t expect great catch rates, but these lakes are still worth a visit especially at first and last light.

Where:Pagago Pond #3
When:07/24/09
Caught:Catfish, bass and sunfish
Technique:The catfish were all caught using night crawlers fishing on the bottom with a small split shot. The bass 3in plastic worm and top water lures.
Comments:All these fish were caught just before sunset and we were the only ones fishing pond #3 at the time
Name:Tim

Where: Water Ranch
When: 07/15/09
Caught: sunfish and catfish
Technique: mealworm under a bobber
Comments: Sunfish bite is hot. White amur are everywhere. catfish willing to eat anything. All by the bridge.
Name: Andy

Where:  Cortez Park
When: 07/01/09
Caught: catfish
Technique: a small hook or at least not too big with a slip weight stopped by a swivel  about 5 in. up with enough worm to cover the hook and then some dangling off
Comments: I’m 13 and the kid next to me went to the bathroom so while I was watching his stuff he got a bite so I reeled her in and got to keep her. When I cleaned her she was full of eggs.
Name: Justin

TEMPE TOWN LAKE – A couple anglers fished the south side of the Rural Bridge from 6:30 to 9 a.m. and caught 12 keeper size bluegill using meal worms for bait. Meal worms can also catch the plentiful yellow bass (aka stripies) as well.

Don’t forget the current bag limit for largemouth bass at Town Lake is four fish per day with a 13-inch minimum length restriction.

There are also no gas powered boats allowed on the lake and Tempe Town Lake permits are available at the City of Tempe Town Lake Operations Center, 620 N. Mill Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85281. Phone: (480) 350-8625. Mark your calendars for Dec. 12 to help celebrate this lake’s birthday.

Where:Tempe Town Lake south side near bridge
When:07/16/09
Caught:Bluegills 7 in 30 minutes
Technique:We used meal worms
Comments:My 5 and 8 year old kids have tried on three prior trips to catch a fish in this place with no luck using corn and red worms. We switched to meal worms and “bingo” fish and happy fisher people!!!
Name:Tony

Where: Tempe Town Lake south side near bridge
When: 07/16/09
Caught: Bluegills 7 in 30 minutes
Technique: We used meal worms
Comments: My 5 and 8 year old kids have tried on three prior trips to catch a fish in this place with no luck using corn and red worms. We switched to meal worms and “bingo” fish and happy fisher people!!!
Name: Tony

LAKE PLEASANT - No recent update on the lake level was available.

An angler set up a green light at the entrance of one of the northern coves.  Stripers showed up around 11:30 and he caught 15 stripers between 2 to 4 pounds using anchovies for bait.  Big bluegill were hanging closer to shore and he caught about 12 large ones, no indication what he was using.  Typically they will go after mealworms and spoons such as KastMasters.

However, with the advent of the full moon on Aug. 5, submerged lights won’t work as well except when the moon is in the most eastern or western extremes of its journey across the night sky. Check moon rise and set times to figure out the best times.

Morning boils are small and are often short in duration.  Most of the stripers and largemouth in the boils are juvenile fish.  The bigger largemouth bass are using cover and don’t seem to be real interested in leaving that protection.  Dropshott method entices some larger bass but the bite disappears as the day wears on.  Spoons can work well at times, especially when worked below the feeding frenzies at the surface.

Striper night fishermen did pretty well.  Fishing was on and off throughout the night and early morning.  Fishing was pretty good between 11:30pm and 2am in the Scorpion Bay area using anchovies.  An angler made a nice discovery; his Octopus Hook worked a lot better than ones with a longer shank.  The best fishing for these two anglers was between 3:30 and 6:45 a.m.  Action was non-stop with many doubles.  Most were 3 and 4 pound fat, strong, aggressive fish.  The final tally for these two anglers was 100 stripers and they noticed the stripers they cleaned had eaten a lot of crayfish.  Looks like these bigger stripers did not waste their time chasing shad with all the little juvenile fish.  Good to know.

Where: Lake Pleasant
When: 07/14/09
Caught: lots of largemouth and stripers and one white bass
Technique: Zara Spooks, dropshot, and little jigs
Comments: fun fun fun
Name: Andrew Althaus

Not every angler is reeling them in but a little patience and the right bait choice at the right time goes a long way.  The larger stripers are deep so get your bait down fast to avoid the little sneaky ones from stealing your bait.  Don’t forget if you don’t use anchovies they eat shad 99-percent of the time so you need to present an irresistible morsel they recognize or at least tricks them.

ROOSEVELT LAKE - Lake Elevation is 2,142 ft (89-percent full).  Tonto Creek runoff is 0 cfs while inflow from the Salt River is at 133 cfs.

An angler fished the Salt end with crankbait and spinnerbait before dark and reeled in a couple largemouth.  Once it was dark Texas-rigged worms were the way to go.  He caught 6 overs, 6 unders and 13 slot fish.

Morning and day fishing isn’t as productive according to some reports.  A couple very experienced anglers fished the Salt end in the morning and only caught 2 bluegills while trolling for crappie.  The bass weren’t cooperating either.

Fishing the Tonto end isn’t too shabby in the evenings either.  Some anglers fished from 7 to 10:30 p.m. and caught 15 bass; one was over the slot, 12 were in the slot and 2 were under the slot.  Before the sun went down they caught 1 on a Pop-R and 1 on a crankbait.  They caught the majority of the fish  were taking 4.5” red cut-tail worms fished in 18 to 25 feet of water on a 3/16^th oz shakeyhead.  They also noticed the fishing was much slower when the moon dipped behind the mountains.

A note to novice anglers (from Diana) – weather patterns make a big difference in the bite, in the summertime night time fishing isn’t just for catfish, and the fish are fickle sometimes you are not throwing what they want or moving it in a way that attracts their attention.  Sometimes even the “big boys” have an off night.  If you have a tendency to zero in on the lake you are going to fish, it helps to read Rory’s Tips to gain some valuable insight.

APACHE -  Lake elevation is 1906 ft (92-percent full). Anglers are catching quite a few bass using T-rigged green and yellow colored worms and also red and blue Robo Worms.  Use your dropshot the points where the substrate drops off.  Spinnerbaits are also enticing the bite.  Don’t forget to try Turtle Island, Goat Ledge and Mazatzal Bay.  Use KastMasters or live worm pieces or mealworms at the drop-offs near the points and ledges for yellow bass.  Carp are hanging in the shallow coves.   Apache Lake catfish like those live worms.

CANYON LAKE -Lake elevation is 1,657 ft, which is 94-percent full. Four fun loving carp fishermen had a great time at Canyon Lake.  They baited a promising yet shore accessible area for a week before their big adventure.  They fished 6 to 10:30 a.m. and caught 24 carp; none were less than 10 pounds.  The largest was about 20 pounds and all were caught on hair rigs using artificial and real corn (boiled feeder corn).  The carp were jumping as soon as the anglers showed up at the site and they had several double hook ups and one triple hook up.  They used 14-25 lb test and still had some that broke off.

Part of the same group fished Teddy Bear point and dropshotted worms from 9:30 to 11:00am and landed 19 largemouth bass and one smallmouth.  Most of the bass were between 10-14 inches and all were released unharmed.

SAGUARO LAKE – Lake elevation 1524 feet at 92-percent full.  A night angler fished from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. and caught 7 slot bass dropshotting with 4 inch black and blue Robos.  He also T-rigged 10 inch Power Worms which enticed 5 more  bass; this technique resulted in a couple larger fish, one four pounder and two three pounders.

Where: Saguaro
When: 07/07/09
Caught: Largemouth, Bluegill, Green sunfish
Technique: Small jigs with 1″ grubs or micro craws ultralight tackle fished just off the bottom in 3-11 feet. Surface temp was 83.
Comments: Fished from 1 pm to 5:30 pm in backs of mid-lake coves, My grandson Derek caught his 1st, 2nd and 3rd fish ever! We ended up with 27 fish including 1 slot largemouth.
Name: Jim Lindquist

BARTLETT – Lake elevation is 1795 ft, which is 95-percent full.  Reservoir release is 115 cfs.

An angler night fished from 5 to 10 p.m. and caught a bunch of small largemouth bouncing an Excalibur Fat Free Shad crankbait in rocky areas.  Four inch Robo Worms on drop shots also brought in a few bass as well as T-rigged worms.  The largest bass was about 3.5 pounds.

Editor’s Note: With all its twists and turns, along with plentiful reefs, this can be a challenging lake to fish at night for those who are not familiar with it.  Full moon nights can be best, but don’t expect your submersible lights to work their magic like on darker nights.

Rory’s note: For short-hitting fish batting topwater lures around, try using a trailer hook, or even a front-runner-type of smaller lure fished in tandem with a larger one (Zara pooch in front or behind a Zara Spool for instance). Another technique is to have a small soft-plastic jerkbait like a Bass Assassin or fluke as a trailer for something like a Zara Spook or even a popper, then hesitate the walk-the-dog action and let the trailer flutter down – sometimes you’ll catch the hesitant hawgs that way.
HORSESHOE – Lake elevation is at 1,952 feet. No pool.  They are releasing water at 100 cfs. The best place for flatheads, bass and sunfish is in the deep pools just below the dam. A wiggling ball of multiple live night crawlers on a small treble hook might just get you the fight of the summer.
VERDE RIVER – Verde River flow at Tangle is 162 cubic feet per second.  Release from Bartlett Lake is 115 cfs.

SALT RIVER – Salt River into Roosevelt is 165 cfs, and Salt River Canyon is 148 cfs.  They are releasing 1,425 cfs out of Stewart Mountain Dam from Saguaro.

LOWER SALT RIVER – (below Saguaro Lake) Stewart Mtn. Dam release is 1,675 cfs, making it great for tubing, canoes or kayaks. There still might be some trout left to catch, but mostly its bass, catfish and sunfish right now. Try floating while armed with a night crawler fished with a small split-shot weight. This stretch of river is perfect for the fishing kayaks.

CREEKS

Terrestrials are the ticket right now; hoppers, ant patterns and cicadas (if you hear them buzz).  You want to be there early or real late so you  are the first to get on the water and hit the undercut shoreline and deeper holes.  In our past sampling you would be amazed how many bigger fish are in what seems like little holes.

Haigler Creek –  Haigler received the full load of rainbow trout last week because the water temps were cold enough to support trout.  This is a week to week situation.  Fish the deeper holes that’s where they will be and get there early.

Canyon Creek – Low water spooky fish.  Dry flies (hoppers) size 8 to 14 are doing well along with dropper rigs sizes 14 to 18 nymphs below it.  Anglers are saying the better fishing is in the catch and release area.

Christopher Creek – I’ve heard good reports from the upper See Canyon section. The lower section was not stocked due to water temperature issues. As with the other creeks, try terrestrials, especially grashoppers or cicadas.

East Verde -  Water temperatures are too warm to stock trout so they will not get trout this week.

Workman Creek – One recent report.
Chris: Hey Guys! went fishing weekend of the 4th Workmans Creek, what a great little secret it is!! Not sure if the fish I caught were recent stockers or holdovers from previous but all were fat and healthy including 1 18-inch whopper!! 7 total! Had a Blast!

Thx Az Game and Fish for all the work you do! You Guys are Great!!!!! A Fan!!

If you care to share a fishing report, please call Region 6, (480) 981-9400 and ask for Diana.

Catfish stockings have ceased for the summer and won’t commence again until water temperatures and conditions improve in mid to late Sepetember. But anglers at many lakes are still catching catfish, bluegill and even bass. Don’t expect great catch rates, but these lakes are still worth a visit especially at first and last light.

Where:Pagago Pond #3
When:07/24/09
Caught:Catfish, bass and sunfish
Technique:The catfish were all caught using night crawlers fishing on the bottom with a small split shot. The bass 3in plastic worm and top water lures.
Comments:All these fish were caught just before sunset and we were the only ones fishing pond #3 at the time
Name:Tim

Where: Water Ranch
When: 07/15/09
Caught: sunfish and catfish
Technique: mealworm under a bobber
Comments: Sunfish bite is hot. White amur are everywhere. catfish willing to eat anything. All by the bridge.
Name: Andy

Where:  Cortez Park
When: 07/01/09
Caught: catfish
Technique: a small hook or at least not too big with a slip weight stopped by a swivel  about 5 in. up with enough worm to cover the hook and then some dangling off
Comments: I’m 13 and the kid next to me went to the bathroom so while I was watching his stuff he got a bite so I reeled her in and got to keep her. When I cleaned her she was full of eggs.
Name: Justin

TEMPE TOWN LAKE - A couple anglers fished the south side of the Rural Bridge from 6:30 to 9 a.m. and caught 12 keeper size bluegill using meal worms for bait. Meal worms can also catch the plentiful yellow bass (aka stripies) as well.

Don’t forget the current bag limit for largemouth bass at Town Lake is four fish per day with a 13-inch minimum length restriction.

There are also no gas powered boats allowed on the lake and Tempe Town Lake permits are available at the City of Tempe Town Lake Operations Center, 620 N. Mill Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85281. Phone: (480) 350-8625. Mark your calendars for Dec. 12 to help celebrate this lake’s birthday.

Where:Tempe Town Lake south side near bridge
When:07/16/09
Caught:Bluegills 7 in 30 minutes
Technique:We used meal worms
Comments:My 5 and 8 year old kids have tried on three prior trips to catch a fish in this place with no luck using corn and red worms. We switched to meal worms and “bingo” fish and happy fisher people!!!
Name:Tony

Where: Tempe Town Lake south side near bridge
When: 07/16/09
Caught: Bluegills 7 in 30 minutes
Technique: We used meal worms
Comments: My 5 and 8 year old kids have tried on three prior trips to catch a fish in this place with no luck using corn and red worms. We switched to meal worms and “bingo” fish and happy fisher people!!!
Name: Tony

LAKE PLEASANT - No recent update on the lake level was available.

An angler set up a green light at the entrance of one of the northern coves.  Stripers showed up around 11:30 and he caught 15 stripers between 2 to 4 pounds using anchovies for bait.  Big bluegill were hanging closer to shore and he caught about 12 large ones, no indication what he was using.  Typically they will go after mealworms and spoons such as KastMasters.

However, with the advent of the full moon on Aug. 5, submerged lights won’t work as well except when the moon is in the most eastern or western extremes of its journey across the night sky. Check moon rise and set times to figure out the best times.

Morning boils are small and are often short in duration.  Most of the stripers and largemouth in the boils are juvenile fish.  The bigger largemouth bass are using cover and don’t seem to be real interested in leaving that protection.  Dropshott method entices some larger bass but the bite disappears as the day wears on.  Spoons can work well at times, especially when worked below the feeding frenzies at the surface.

Striper night fishermen did pretty well.  Fishing was on and off throughout the night and early morning. Fishing was pretty good between 11:30pm and 2am in the Scorpion Bay area using anchovies.  An angler made a nice discovery; his Octopus Hook worked a lot better than ones with a longer shank.  The best fishing for these two anglers was between 3:30 and 6:45 a.m.  Action was non-stop with many doubles. Most were 3 and 4 pound fat, strong, aggressive fish.  The final tally for these two anglers was 100 stripers and they noticed the stripers they cleaned had eaten a lot of crayfish.  Looks like these bigger stripers did not waste their time chasing shad with all the little juvenile fish.  Good to know.

Where: Lake Pleasant
When: 07/14/09
Caught: lots of largemouth and stripers and one white bass
Technique: Zara Spooks, dropshot, and little jigs
Comments: fun fun fun
Name: Andrew Althaus

Not every angler is reeling them in but a little patience and the right bait choice at the right time goes a long way.  The larger stripers are deep so get your bait down fast to avoid the little sneaky ones from stealing your bait.  Don’t forget if you don’t use anchovies they eat shad 99-percent of the time so you need to present an irresistible morsel they recognize or at least tricks them.

ROOSEVELT LAKE - Lake Elevation is 2,142 ft (89-percent full).  Tonto Creek runoff is 0 cfs while inflow from the Salt River is at 133 cfs.

An angler fished the Salt end with crankbait and spinnerbait before dark and reeled in a couple largemouth.  Once it was dark Texas-rigged worms were the way to go.  He caught 6 overs, 6 unders and 13 slot fish.

Morning and day fishing isn’t as productive according to some reports.  A couple very experienced anglers fished the Salt end in the morning and only caught 2 bluegills while trolling for crappie.  The bass weren’t cooperating either.

Fishing the Tonto end isn’t too shabby in the evenings either.  Some anglers fished from 7 to 10:30 p.m. and caught 15 bass; one was over the slot, 12 were in the slot and 2 were under the slot.  Before the sun went down they caught 1 on a Pop-R and 1 on a crankbait.  They caught the majority of the fish were taking 4.5” red cut-tail worms fished in 18 to 25 feet of water on a 3/16^th oz shakeyhead.  They also noticed the fishing was much slower when the moon dipped behind the mountains.

A note to novice anglers (from Diana) – weather patterns make a big difference in the bite, in the summertime night time fishing isn’t just for catfish, and the fish are fickle sometimes you are not throwing what they want or moving it in a way that attracts their attention.  Sometimes even the “big boys” have an off night.  If you have a tendency to zero in on the lake you are going to fish, it helps to read Rory’s Tips to gain some valuable insight.

APACHE -  Lake elevation is 1906 ft (92-percent full). Anglers are catching quite a few bass using T-rigged green and yellow colored worms and also red and blue Robo Worms.  Use your dropshot the points where the substrate drops off.  Spinnerbaits are also enticing the bite.  Don’t forget to try Turtle Island, Goat Ledge and Mazatzal Bay.  Use KastMasters or live worm pieces or mealworms at the drop-offs near the points and ledges for yellow bass.  Carp are hanging in the shallow coves.   Apache Lake catfish like those live worms.

CANYON LAKE -Lake elevation is 1,657 ft, which is 94-percent full. Four fun loving carp fishermen had a great time at Canyon Lake.  They baited a promising yet shore accessible area for a week before their big adventure.  They fished 6 to 10:30 a.m. and caught 24 carp; none were less than 10 pounds. The largest was about 20 pounds and all were caught on hair rigs using artificial and real corn (boiled feeder corn).  The carp were jumping as soon as the anglers showed up at the site and they had several double hook ups and one triple hook up.  They used 14-25 lb test and still had some that broke off.

Part of the same group fished Teddy Bear point and dropshotted worms from 9:30 to 11:00am and landed 19 largemouth bass and one smallmouth.  Most of the bass were between 10-14 inches and all were released unharmed.

SAGUARO LAKE - Lake elevation 1524 feet at 92-percent full.  A night angler fished from 9:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. and caught 7 slot bass dropshotting with 4 inch black and blue Robos.  He also T-rigged 10 inch Power Worms which enticed 5 more  bass; this technique resulted in a couple larger fish, one four pounder and two three pounders.

Where: Saguaro
When: 07/07/09
Caught: Largemouth, Bluegill, Green sunfish
Technique: Small jigs with 1″ grubs or micro craws ultralight tackle fished just off the bottom in 3-11 feet. Surface temp was 83.
Comments: Fished from 1 pm to 5:30 pm in backs of mid-lake coves, My grandson Derek caught his 1st, 2nd and 3rd fish ever! We ended up with 27 fish including 1 slot largemouth.
Name: Jim Lindquist

BARTLETT - Lake elevation is 1795 ft, which is 95-percent full.  Reservoir release is 115 cfs.

An angler night fished from 5 to 10 p.m. and caught a bunch of small largemouth bouncing an Excalibur Fat Free Shad crankbait in rocky areas.  Four inch Robo Worms on drop shots also brought in a few bass as well as T-rigged worms.  The largest bass was about 3.5 pounds.

Editor’s Note: With all its twists and turns, along with plentiful reefs, this can be a challenging lake to fish at night for those who are not familiar with it.  Full moon nights can be best, but don’t expect your submersible lights to work their magic like on darker nights.

Rory’s note: For short-hitting fish batting topwater lures around, try using a trailer hook, or even a front-runner-type of smaller lure fished in tandem with a larger one (Zara pooch in front or behind a Zara Spool for instance). Another technique is to have a small soft-plastic jerkbait like a Bass Assassin or fluke as a trailer for something like a Zara Spook or even a popper, then hesitate the walk-the-dog action and let the trailer flutter down – sometimes you’ll catch the hesitant hawgs that way.
HORSESHOE – Lake elevation is at 1,952 feet. No pool.  They are releasing water at 100 cfs. The best place for flatheads, bass and sunfish is in the deep pools just below the dam. A wiggling ball of multiple live night crawlers on a small treble hook might just get you the fight of the summer.
VERDE RIVER – Verde River flow at Tangle is 162 cubic feet per second.  Release from Bartlett Lake is 115 cfs.

SALT RIVER – Salt River into Roosevelt is 165 cfs, and Salt River Canyon is 148 cfs.  They are releasing 1,425 cfs out of Stewart Mountain Dam from Saguaro.

LOWER SALT RIVER – (below Saguaro Lake) Stewart Mtn. Dam release is 1,675 cfs, making it great for tubing, canoes or kayaks. There still might be some trout left to catch, but mostly its bass, catfish and sunfish right now. Try floating while armed with a night crawler fished with a small split-shot weight. This stretch of river is perfect for the fishing kayaks.

CREEKS

Terrestrials are the ticket right now; hoppers, ant patterns and cicadas (if you hear them buzz).  You want to be there early or real late so you  are the first to get on the water and hit the undercut shoreline and deeper holes.  In our past sampling you would be amazed how many bigger fish are in what seems like little holes.

Haigler Creek –  Haigler received the full load of rainbow trout last week because the water temps were cold enough to support trout.  This is a week to week situation.  Fish the deeper holes that’s where they will be and get there early.

Canyon Creek – Low water spooky fish.  Dry flies (hoppers) size 8 to 14 are doing well along with dropper rigs sizes 14 to 18 nymphs below it.  Anglers are saying the better fishing is in the catch and release area.

Christopher Creek – I’ve heard good reports from the upper See Canyon section. The lower section was not stocked due to water temperature issues. As with the other creeks, try terrestrials, especially grashoppers or cicadas.

East Verde -  Water temperatures are too warm to stock trout so they will not get trout this week.

Workman Creek – One recent report.
Chris: Hey Guys! went fishing weekend of the 4th Workmans Creek, what a great little secret it is!! Not sure if the fish I caught were recent stockers or holdovers from previous but all were fat and healthy including 1 18-inch whopper!! 7 total! Had a Blast!

Thx Az Game and Fish for all the work you do! You Guys are Great!!!!! A Fan!!

If you care to share a fishing report, please call Region 6, (480) 981-9400 and ask for Diana.

Angler report:
Where:  Cortez Park
When: 07/01/09
Caught: catfish
Technique: a small hook or at least not too big with a slip weight stopped by a swivel  about 5in. up with enough worm to cover the hook and then some dangling off
Comments: I’m 13 and the kid next to me went to the bathroom so while I was watching  his stuff he got a bite so I reeled her in and got to keep her. When I cleaned her  she was full of eggs.
Name: Justin

TEMPE TOWN LAKE – Fishing is a little slow right now. Anglers are okay for largemouth fishing next to the bridge and railroad structure in the early mornings with the drop-shot technique.  White colored and shad colored crankbaits can be productive.  The yellow bass and largemouth population is up compared to last year’s survey.  One group of anglers two weeks ago caught 20 bass drop shotting and 12 more with cranks.  Most of the largemouth bass were between 12 and 16 inches.  One was 4.3 pounds.  They also caught 1 yellow bass.  Don’t forget the current bag limit for largemouth bass at Town Lake is four fish per day with a 13-inch minimum length restriction.
There are also no gas powered boats allowed on the lake and Tempe Town Lake permits are available at the City of Tempe Town Lake Operations Center, 620 N. Mill Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85281. Phone: (480) 350-8625.

LAKE PLEASANT - Lake elevation is 1,678 at 73 percent full. Night fishing can be the way to go, but day-time topwater action can be good at times, although it is still sproadic.
Anglers report that the best night fishing has been from midnight to 5 a.m. in 25 to 25 feet of water.  At night, try using frozen anchovies (cut into thirds) with little or no weight. When you graph a school of fish, chum with pieces of anchovies. Striper schools (and whites) will be on the prowl and can move rapidly. You need to provide a food supply to hold them in place. This holds true if you catch one — immediately chum to hold the others in the school. Don’t tie up to the tires or any buoys, you could be cited.
During daylight, at or before first light work the coves. Binoculars can help spotting topwater boils, or slurps. Cast past the boil with a topwater lure, then work it back over the spot in an eratic fashion, like a wounded shad. Once the bite has slackened in the coves, work the outside points, islands and reefs. Once again, binoculars help.

Where:Lake Pleasant
When:07/12/09
Caught:15-inch largemouth and one really small striped bass.
Technique:drop shot for large mouth and jig for striper; lost one on a shad colored crank bait
Comments:Boils were ok just really short with lots of nice large mouth moving around and small striper are hitting in mouths of coves.  I didn’t see any white bass.
Name:Andrew Althaus
A couple anglers fished from about 8 pm to midnight and caught 14 stripers.  The largest was 4 pounds although most were in the 1-2 pound range.  They were using anchovies in 25 to 35 feet of water in the northern coves.
Another angler caught 4 nice catfish at night.

Not every angler is reeling them in but a little patience and the right bait choice at the right time goes a long way.  The larger stripers are deep so get your bait down fast to avoid the little sneaky ones from stealing your bait.  Don’t forget if you don’t use anchovies they eat shad 99-percent of the time so you need to present an irresistible morsel they recognize or at least tricks them.

ROOSEVELT LAKE - Lake Elevation is 2,145 ft (93-percent full).  Tonto Creek runoff is 0 cfs while inflow from the Salt River is at 129 cfs.

The evening and nighttime bite are pretty good.  A couple anglers launched from Cholla and were a little concerned about a couple weather disturbances in the distance, but all looked good on the lake.  Crankbaits worked right off the bat resulting in 6 upper slot largemouth bass.  Topwater didn’t work for these two at that time. Throwing flukes worked just fine and so did jigs.  Texas-rigged and drop-shot worms fished between 30 and 40 feet caught smaller fish.  They caught a slew of fish.

Another group of night fishermen caught a bunch of largemouth bass using 4- to 7-inch worms on Texas rigs.  Most fish were caught between 15 and 30 feet.  The worm color didn’t matter, course it was at night.  A lot fish are hanging on steep banks.

Another angler and his 10-year-old son caught between 70 and 80 largemouth bass between Friday and Saturday night.  The largest fish of the two nights was just shy of 8 pounds.  The fish were between 25 and 45 feet deep and they caught them on jigs, T and C rigs.   The fish were eating crayfish and anything that looked like a crayfish was enticing the bite.
We have no recent reports from catfish anglers, but night fishing for catfish should be terrific right now.  Look for flatheads where the Salt River enters the lake. Channel cats can be found anywhere, but should be especially prevalent on the flats.

APACHE – Lake elevation is 1,907 ft (92-percent full). My fishing contact, David, says the catfish are taking worms on the south side of the lake around rocks and boulders. The bass are deeper now and taking spinners although many are small.  Carp are active in the coves.

CANYON LAKE – Lake elevation is 1,657 feet, which is 95-percent full. This lake can be great for bluegill and catfish, especially in the evenings. For bass, the best fishing will be at night, but don’t expect high catch rates. However, this lake always has the potential for catching a hawg, maybe even a new state record.
An angler fished Canyon two weeks ago and caught 9 largemouth bass in three hours all before 11 a.m.  Bass tend to stack up along the cliff walls this time of year and they will go after your rigged worms bounced down the cliffs.  They like to hang in the nooks and crannies along the wall.  Fish on the shady side  .

SAGUARO LAKE – Lake elevation 1,525 feet at 92-percent full. A couple experienced anglers fished from 4:45 am to 10 am. Topwater lures didn’t produce at all. Spinnerbaits worked pretty good in the northern coves around Divider Reef.

Some nice bass are hanging along the cliffs. They are going after worms Texas rig style and on split shot. You need to fish slow and any color will do.
A night fisherman did real well using rigged worms and grubs 5 to 15 feet deep in the riverine section.  Water temp is 85 degrees and visibility only about 1 to 2 feet.
Be sure to watch the flows — this is a pump-back lake. Water is pumped back into Canyon Lake during non-peak times, and from Canyon into Saguaro during peak electric use times. This can create a tidal-pool-like environment. Predatory fish will face into the slight current to acitvely feed.

Where: Saguaro
When: 07/07/09
Caught: Largemouth, Bluegill, Green sunfish
Technique: Small jigs with 1″ grubs or micro craws ultralight tackle fished just off the bottom in 3-11 feet. Surface temp was 83.
Comments: Fished from 1 pm to 5:30 pm in backs of mid-lake coves, My grandson Derek caught his 1st, 2nd and 3rd fish ever! We ended up with 27 fish including 1 slot largemouth.
Name: Jim Lindquist

BARTLETT – Lake elevation is 1,796 ft, which is 97-percent full.  Reservoir release is 140 cfs.
An angler fished from 5 p.m. till about 1 a.m.  Fishing was good before the sun went completely down and it tapered off until the moon came up then fishing picked back up again.  He fished boils with a shad imitation and caught 25 fish, all under 2 pounds.  He also changed techniques and caught a 10-inch smallie.  Larger fish were deeper and caught on 8 to 10 inch worms

HORSESHOE – Lake elevation is at 1950 feet. No pool.  They are releasing water at 110 cfs.

VERDE RIVER – Verde River flow at Tangle is 65 cubic feet per second.  Release from Bartlett Lake is 140 cfs.

SALT RIVER – Salt River into Roosevelt is 129 cfs, and Salt River Canyon is 114 cfs.  They are releasing 1,575 cfs out of Stewart Mountain Dam from Saguaro.

LOWER SALT RIVER – (below Saguaro Lake) Stewart Mtn. Dam release is 1,575 cfs. There still might be some trout left to catch, but mostly its bass, catfish and sunfish right now. But at the current flows, this river provies a decent float trip. Try floating while armed with a night crawler fished with a small split-shot weight.

CREEKS — A couple streams are too warm to stock trout and some of the smaller tributaries are starting to dry up.   But fish are congregating in the deeper pools.  Get there early.

Haigler Creek –  Water temperatures are too warm to stock trout so they will not get trout this week.  Hope for rain.

Canyon Creek – Fly fishermen are catching trout using hoppers and ant patterns.  If you want to cover your bases, use a caddis larvae or nymph dropper.  Above the OW Bridge you can keep 4 trout of any size and they are taking worms, spinners along with the flies.  Below the OW Bridge its catch-and-release only and you must use artificial flies and lures.

Tonto Creek –   Terrestrials are the ticket so use hoppers and ant patterns and again use a caddis larvae or nympyh dropper.  If you decide to hike to some nice secluded fishing holes prepare to get wet.  Downstream of Bear Flat have quite a few wild rainbows and browns.

Christopher Creek – I’ve heard good reports from the upper See Canyon section. The lower section was not stocked due to water temperature issues. As with the other creeks, try terrestrials, especially grashoppers or cicadas.

East Verde -  Water temperatures are too warm to stock trout so they will not get trout this week.

Workman Creek – One recent report.

Chris: Hey Guys! went fishing weekend of the 4th Workmans Creek, what a great little secret it is!! Not sure if the fish I caught were recent stockers or holdovers from previous but all were fat and healthy including 1 18-inch whopper!! 7 total! Had a Blast!

Thx Az Game and Fish for all the work you do! You Guys are Great!!!!! A Fan!!

If you care to share a fishing report, please call Region 6, (480) 981-9400 and ask for Diana.

URBAN FISHING REPORT – Although weekly stocking is over for the heat of the summer, fish are still in the urban lakes.  The best cat fishing is during low light or nighttime conditions.  Stinkbait and shrimp fished on the bottom is your best bet.  Hotdogs, bacon and chicken livers will also entice the bite.  Sunfish like the warmer weather although fishing will be best in the mornings and evenings with parts of worms or meal worms fished under a bobber.  Largemouth bass are still in the system and they can be caught again in early morning or late evening.  Don’t forget the bag limits and fishing regulations.  All anglers 14 years and over need to have an Urban Fishing License.  The bag and possession limits for unlicensed anglers under 14 are half that of licensed anglers.  The daily bag and  possession limit for largemouth bass is 2 and must be a minimum of 13 inches, except at Urban Ponds where the limit is 1 bass.  The daily bag and possession limit for sunfish is 10 at the lakes and 5 at the Urban Ponds and there is no size limit.  Catfish daily bag and possession limit is 4 catfish, 2 at Urban Ponds and no size limits.  See the Urban fishing brochure or look on the AZ Game and Fish Website for details.  At Green Valley lakes (Payson) most of the trout have been caught out, but anglers are enjoying great action on bluegill, crappie and bass.  Try small jigs and worms fished under a bobber at Green Valley.

Angler report:

Where:  Cortez Park
When: 07/01/09
Caught: catfish
Technique: a small hook or at least not too big with a slip weight stopped by a swivel  about 5in. up with enough worm to cover the hook and then some dangling off
Comments: I’m 13 and the kid next to me went to the bathroom so while I was watching  his stuff he got a bite so I reeled her in and got to keep her. When I cleaned her  she was full of eggs.
Name: Justin

TEMPE TOWN LAKE - Anglers are doing real well largemouth fishing next to the bridge and railroad structure in the early mornings with the drop shot technique.  White colored and shad colored crankbaits are productive baits as well.  The yellow bass and largemouth population is up compared to last year’s survey.  One group of anglers caught 20 bass drop shotting and 12 more with cranks.  Most of the largemouth bass were between 12 and 16 inches.  One was 4.3 pounds.  They also caught 1 yellow bass.  Don’t forget the current bag limit for largemouth bass at Town Lake is four fish per day with a 13-inch minimum length restriction.

There are also no gas powered boats allowed on the lake and Tempe Town Lake permits are available at the City of Tempe Town Lake Operations Center, 620 N. Mill Avenue, Tempe, AZ 85281. Phone: (480) 350-8625.

LAKE PLEASANT – Water elevation is 1681 ft, which is 77% full.
I’m getting reports of some shad boil activity, but people are also fishing near the tires on the public side (you are not allowed on the private side unless you are a member of the marina).  You are also not allowed to tie up to the tires on the public side, so anchor near there since the stripers are stacked up just waiting for your anchovies.  I had one report of fishermen catching about 30 in a couple hours.  Get your bait deep pretty fast or you will catch a bunch of dinks.  Nighttime fishing is more comfortable for you and the fish if you go the anchovy route.

ROOSEVELT LAKE – Lake Elevation is 2146 ft (94% full).  Tonto Creek runoff is at 16 cfs while inflow from the Salt River is at 178 cfs.

Monsoonal cloud cover seems to help the bite although it can get dicey with the wind and lightning.  Looks like it will take a break for a week or so according the forecast I just looked at.   A couple anglers caught a few fish in the early morning on topwater then a little later jigs, senkos, and Texas rigged worms worked for a while.

Anglers are also having some good luck nighttime fishing humps, depressions and structure at the bottom.  Crayfish imitations are working in the submerged trees. 

APACHE – Lake elevation is 1908 ft (94% full).

With the lake level going down a bit the largemouth bass are hanging under drop-offs and around rocks.  Early morning and late evening are still the best times to fish.  Largemouth bass are taking spoons and yellow/green crankbaits with most pretty small, but the occasional big one will take the bait.   My fishing contact has caught quite a few channel catfish in the 4 to 8 pound range using worms with a split shot.  A few small smallmouth bass are hanging in the rocky areas.  If you find some submerged vegetation the sunfish will take mealworms and earthworms as well as some small spoons.

CANYON LAKE – Lake elevation is 1,657 ft, which is 95-percent full.

Lake elevation is 1657 ft, which is 95% full.
An angler fished Canyon and caught 9 largemouth bass in three hours all before 11am.  Bass tend to stack up along the cliff walls this time of year and they will go after your rigged worms bounced down the cliffs.  They like to hang in the nooks and crannies along the wall.  Fish on the shady side 

SAGUARO LAKE – Lake elevation 1525 feet at 93-percemt full.

Lake elevation 1524 feet at 92% full. 
Fishermen are still catching a lot of small bass on Texas rigged worms along rocky spots and emergent vegetation.  There are a few real good spots on the lake where the lunkers are hanging that anglers are keeping to themselves.

Two anglers fished after work in a couple coves with dropshotts and Texas rigged worms.  After trying several different sizes and colors of worms, they caught over a dozen in 4 hours.  Many were slot fish, some dinks and some were in the 2 and 2.5 pound range.  They also were lucky enough to see a bobcat on shore.

Another angler caught 7 good sized bass from 8 pm to midnight.  Two were over 3 pounds and 3 were over 2 pounds.  No mention what he was using.

One angler fished Saguaro from 7:30 am to 2pm and caught about 60 fish, all on 1/8oz kastmasters.  The yellows were deep off the points and on some flats.  This angler’s breakdown was 6 largemouth bass all around 10 inches, 1 green sunfish, 4 channel catfish, 8 bluegill and lots of small yellow bass.

BARTLETT – Lake elevation is 1796 ft, which is 97% full.  Reservoir release is 115 cfs.

One angler fished from 5am to 1pm under overcast skies and caught over 50 largemouth bass.  They were hitting Rico’s.  The shad were boiling and that added to the fun.

Another couple anglers had good luck with top water ricos in the early morning.  Robo worms were working a little later in the big boulders and submerged trees.  Dropshot technique worked well.

One angler reported some good shad boils all morning till about 10am, but they were tough to sneak up on.  After a few failed attempts to get into the boils they threw ricos, soft jerkbaits and crankbaits.  Jigs were sought by the bass as well.  Their biggest largemouth was just under 4 pounds.  They caught over a dozen largemouth.  This group was the lucky recipient of an impressive show by mother nature.  They witnessed a duel between a squirrel and a rattlesnake.  The squirrel outperformed the snake inflicting a few bites of its own and was able to protect its home and live another day.

HORSESHOE – Lake elevation is at 1951 feet, No pool.  They are releasing water at 110 cfs.

VERDE RIVER – Verde River flow at Tangle is 108 cubic feet per second.  Release from Bartlett Lake is 115 cfs.

SALT RIVER – Salt River into Roosevelt is 178 cfs, and Salt River Canyon is 179 cfs.  They are releasing 1325 cfs out of Stewart Mountain dam from Saguaro.

LOWER SALT RIVER – (below Saguaro Lake) Stewart Mtn. Dam release is 1325 cfs.

CREEKS

Fishing is good in the early morning and late evening.  Nighttime fishing works real good for the browns around undercut banks and overhanging veg.

Haigler Creek –  Fly fishermen are having luck using dry droppers, hoppers, little midges and emergers.  Trout are also taking spinners.  If you hike up a bit from Fisherman’s Point there are some nice wild rainbow and large browns.

Canyon Creek – Fly fishermen are catching trout using hoppers, phantom tails, prince nymphs, hares ears and copper johns.  Above the OW Bridge you can keep 4 trout of any size and they are taking worms, spinners along with the flies.  Below the OW Bridge its catch and release only and you must use artificial flies and lures.  A fly fisherman caught a 28 inch rainbow, one of the incentive stockers.  Damsels are hatching so match the hatch.

Tonto Creek –   Again hoppers, ant patterns, phantom tails, prince nymphs, hares ears and copper johns.  If you decide to hike to some nice secluded fishing holes prepare to get wet.  Downstream of Bear Flat have quite a few wild rainbows and browns.

Fishing for catfish continues to be good to excellent the week of stocking.  Now that warmer air and lake temperatures have arrived, the best catfish action is during low light or nighttime conditions.  Anglers are having luck using stink baits or shrimp fished on the bottom.  Sunfish continue to bite well on small worms fished under a bobber.  The June 22-27 catfish stocking will be the final fish delivery of the spring stocking season.  After that, catfish stockings will not resume until late September.  At Green Valley lakes (Payson) most of the trout have been caught out, but anglers are enjoying great action on bluegill, crappie and bass.  Try small jigs and worms fished under a bobber at Green Valley.
Several Urban Lakes and Ponds will be receiving white amurs along with the regular catfish delivery the week of June 22-27.  These aquatic ‘cows’ will spend the summer grazing on the weeds just beginning to grow in many of the lakes in the Maricopa County area.  White amurs, also known as grass carp, can be distinguished from the common carp by two specific features:  amurs have a short dorsal fin while the common carp has a long dorsal fin that runs nearly the entire length of its back, and amurs lack the barbells around the mouth that the common carp has on each side of the upper jaw.  This is important to note because while there is no bag limit on the common carp, there is a limit of only one amur per day at Urban Lakes and Ponds and the amur must be longer than 30 inches in length.  Anglers are asked to release unharmed any amurs under 30 inches.

TEMPE TOWN LAKE – Bass fishing is slow during the day.  Fish can be caught before 8 am and after 6 pm at times. Try crank baits and rubber worms around the ledges and docks.  Minnows under a slip bobber will work as well.  A good mixed bag of yellows, catfish and sunfish can also be caught this way.  A good place to try is under the loop 202 underpass in the northeast side of the lake. Yellow bass and bluegill are plentiful in the 5- to 7-inch range and will bite mealworms or night crawlers. Channel catfish averaging 1 to 2 pounds will bite stink baits, hotdogs and shrimp. Carp fishing is excellent.

Where: Tempe Town Lake & ASU Research Park

When: 06/13/09

Caught: TTL: 2 bluegill ASURP: 2 Bass, 2 Bluegill, 1 catfish

Technique: Went to Tempe Town Lake. Very, very slow day. Nothing caught except 3 tiny bluegill, but there’s nothing to get excited about. We left TTL and went to the ASU research park, and man, we should’ve went there first. Within 10 seconds of casting out, I caught a nice hand sized bluegill that put up a great fight. Within 5 minutes, a friend caught a big largemouth, and I followed soon after with another big bass.

Comments:  Not as many people as I expected to be fishing today.

Name: Tim Y.

LAKE PLEASANT – Water elevation is 1,682 ft, which is 78-percent full.

Anglers are catching stripers.  This time of year you can catch them with anchovies near the tires and in front of the dam. Also try frozen anchovies fished at night over the submerged creek channels. Don’t expect submersible lights to be as effective as the moon approaches full.

Many anglers are waiting for the shad boils to hit full force but stripers are taking crankbaits and some spinners in the deeper water.  Submersible lights might not work well with a waxing moon that is almost full, but fishing at night should still be vialbe using cut anchovies fished over the submerged creek channels in the northern coves, or possibly near the dam.
There is a nice morning topwater bite, but when the breeze quits, or shifts, the bite can vanish.

Where: Lake Pleasant

When: 06/15/09

Caught: two catfish

Technique: anchovies

Name: Andrew Althaus

Where: Lake Pleasant

When:  06/11/09

Caught:  nothing

Technique: anchovies crank baits spinners topwater dropshot

Comments: when drifting a anchovies I hooked up with a striper in the main lake at night but when he had got to my raft so I could see him he got free then my motor battery died so I had to paddle back

Name: Andrew Althaus

Where: Lake Pleasant

When: 06/09/09

Caught: one 4 pound channel catfish

Technique: anchovies lots of bites but and one slammed it

Comments:  I really want to catch some stripers and have been trying hard for about a year and only caught one.  Fishing from a boat is better because I can’t catch them from shore

ROOSEVELT LAKE – Lake Elevation is 2147 ft (95-percent full).  Tonto Creek runoff is at 0 cfs while inflow from the Salt River is at 168 cfs.

Anglers are catching good numbers of bass using topwater, dropshot, jerks and cranks.  The Salt end is productive for many and of course early morning and late evening is best for fish and fishermen alike.  As long as the wind isn’t whipping around, nighttime crappie fishing is a little more pleasant with regards to the air temps.  A couple anglers caught 7 on topwater, 4 using dropshot, 3 on cranks and 3 on jerksbaits in the early morning hours.

Another couple anglers fished early morning and fished all day; they caught 40 to 45 bass.  Topwater was the ticket early morning around the points and backs of coves.  Jerkbait worked a little later on the smaller bass.  Largemouth were also hanging in the submerged trees and took jigs and worms.

Another fisherman fished under cloud cover and he caught over 100 bass with 20% being overs.  This knowledgeable fisherman caught most of them on soft jerkbaits.

A couple other anglers fished deep and pulled up some real nice largemouth with one just under 8 pounds.  Many fish were in the 3 to 5 pound range.  The nighttime bite is real good right now.

Don’t expect submersible lights to help you right now — the moon is almost full. Drop shots can work. Also think vibration and dark for lures. Black poppers and the like might get you some interesting action in the moonlight.

Catfishing should be good for both flatheads and channels. You can catch carp all day and all night if you find the right spot, from shore or boat.

Note: anglers are reminded of the slot bass size limit that remains in effect at Roosevelt. Bass between 13 to 16 inches must be released immediately. Also those bass below 13 inches and above 16 inches that are kept can only be gutted with the head and tail attached so the legal length can be determined. All other fish such as crappie, catfish and bluegill harvested from the lake must have a piece of skin attached to the fillets so species can be determined.
APACHE -With the lake level going down a bit the largemouth bass are hanging under drop-offs and around rocks.  Early morning and late evening are still the best times to fish.  Largemouth bass are taking spoons and yellow/green crankbaits with most pretty small, but the occasional big one will take the bait.   My fishing contact has caught quite a few channel catfish in the 4 to 8 pound range using worms with a split shot.  A few small smallmouth bass are hanging in the rocky areas.  If you find some submerged vegetation the sunfish will take mealworms and earthworms as well as some small spoons.

CANYON LAKE – Lake elevation is 1,657 ft, which is 95-percent full.

Canyon lake is fishing well right now and quite a few people know about it.  One angler caught 21 largemouth with most about 1.5 pounds, two were 2 pounders and one was over 6 pounds.  Frog imitations were working for this angler.  Action is pretty good with topwater lures before the sun hits the water in the coves.  The habitat that Game and Fish installed along with some real devoted anglers are holding some fish.  The habitat is off Teddy Bear point, Beaver Flat and just inside the Mormon Flat buoy line.

Where: Canyon Lake

When: 06/06/09

Caught:  Bluegill and WAY too many people.

Technique: meal worms / spinners

Comments: Okay I’ve officially had enough with the crowds of people so today I broke down and bought a kayak. No matter what lake, river, or pond I go to I cannot get any peace and quiet. NONE.

SAGUARO LAKE – Lake elevation 1525 feet at 93-percemt full.

Saguaro is still producing.  Largemouth bass are taking imitation crayfish on the points in 10 to 20 feet of water.  One angler using this technique caught several fish under 2 pounds.
Two fishermen caught 114 fish, mostly on 1/8th oz kastmasters and yellow 1/8th  oz Panther Martins in 8 feet of water next to drop offs on ledges.  Bagley Flat was especially productive.  They caught 89 bluegill with 35 keeper size, 35 yellow bass, only 6 keepers, 15 largemouth bass with 8 keepers and 5 channel catfish 3 of which were keepers.  Fish were eating crawdads and the bluegill were all over the place.

Angler report:

Joel Gross: Went fishing Friday night (June 26).  Fishing was slow until dark when it started picking up.  After dark caught a number of small catfish with 3 keepers between 1-1.5 lbs in 10′ water depth.  One was caught on fresh chicken livers.  Threw a number of small catfish back that were caught on worms.
BARTLETT – Lake elevation is 1796 ft, which is 97% full.  Reservoir release is 115 cfs.

Largemouth are taking shad-colored buzz baits, 7-inch Robos of the green variety and brush hogs.  The fish were in the 25 to 30 foot range.

Also try topwater lures at first and last light along the points, islands and reefs. Once the morning breeze subsides, typically the topwater bit will as well. Switch to drop shots, small curly tails, or 4-inch lizards.

HORSESHOE – Lake elevation is at 190  feet, 0-percent full.  They are releasing water at 150 cfs.

VERDE RIVER – Verde River flow at Tangle is 126 cubic feet per second.  Release from Bartlett Lake is 151 cfs.

SALT RIVER – Salt River into Roosevelt is 194 cfs, and Salt River Canyon is 190 cfs.  They are releasing 1,575 cfs out of Stewart Mountain dam from Saguaro.
The upper Salt has quite a few flatheads that readily take live or dead red shiners and sunfish caught via live bait or in the case of shiners cast nets while you are out there.  Chicken liver will work as well.

LOWER SALT RIVER – (below Saguaro Lake) – The spring trout fishing has likely ended, but it may still be possible to pick some up in the deeper pools, along with some bass and catfish. Try inline spinners, Power Bait or drifting night crawlers.
CREEKS

Fishing is good in the early morning and late evening.  Nighttime fishing works real good for the browns around undercut banks and overhanging veg.
Haigler Creek –  Fly fishermen are having luck using dry droppers, hoppers, little midges and emergers.  Trout are also taking spinners.  If you hike up a bit from Fisherman’s Point there are some nice wild rainbow and large browns.
Canyon Creek – Fly fishermen are catching trout using hoppers, phantom tails, prince nymphs, hares ears and copper johns.  Above the OW Bridge you can keep 4 trout of any size and they are taking worms, spinners along with the flies.  Below the OW Bridge its catch and release only and you must use artificial flies and lures.  A fly fisherman caught a 28 inch rainbow, one of the incentive stockers.  Damsels are hatching so match the hatch.
Tonto Creek –   Again hoppers, ant patterns, phantom tails, prince nymphs, hares ears and copper johns.  If you decide to hike to some nice secluded fishing holes prepare to get wet.  Downstream of Bear Flat have quite a few wild rainbows and browns.

Arizona’s annual free fishing days are celebrated on June 6 and 13 as part of National Fishing and Boating Week.  On these Saturdays, no fishing license is required for persons fishing any of the Urban Fishing Program lakes or other statewide waters.

Fishing is good to excellent for channel catfish at Urban waters.  Top baits for catfish continue to be worms, shrimp, and dough/stink baits fished off the bottom. Cats have been biting best mid morning and in the evenings.  Bluegill and sunfish are biting well along the shorelines for anglers using worms and mealworms.  Bass up to six pounds are biting during the pre-summer period, however shallow water fish are wary.  Try small plastics presented with split shot or drop shot rigs in the evenings and early morning.

Angler reports:

I took some of my lunchtime today and walked around Chaparral Lake and watched a dad fishing with his son. Within 20 min. I saw him pull in 2 nice catfish. This was between 12:00 and 12:30. Using hotdogs under a bobber.  That’s just the ones he hooked.  He was getting action as soon as the line hit the water. He had another pole out, fishing the bottom, with stink bait. Not a bite.

Just thought I’d share.

Thomas Podborny

Where: Chaparral Lake
When: 05/07/09
Caught: Channel Catfish
Technique: Crappie rig, worm on both hooks.
Name: Jenna Fjeld

Where: Veterans Oasis
When:05/03/09
Caught: nothing
Technique: hot dog
Comments: Slow -  nobody was catching anything
Name: john

Where: Kiwanis
When:05/02/09
Caught: 8 average sized catfish and one 8lb monster
Technique: Believe it or not, power bait. you know the stuff for trout, orange
Comments: On the all American way road at the very far end about 20ft. out. someone illegally put in about 50 hand sized goldfish on Saturday so if you see them, take them out before they destroy the lake
Name: Andy

TEMPE TOWN LAKE – Bass fishing is slow during the day.  Fish can be caught before 8 am and after 6 pm at times. Try crank baits and rubber worms around the ledges and docks.  Minnows under a slip bobber will work as well.  A good mixed bag of yellows, catfish and sunfish can also be caught this way.  A good place to try is under the loop 202 underpass in the northeast side of the lake. Yellow bass and bluegill are plentiful in the 5- to 7-inch range and will bite mealworms or night crawlers. Channel catfish averaging 1 to 2 pounds will bite stink baits, hotdogs and shrimp. Carp fishing is excellent.
LAKE PLEASANT – Water level is at 1,689 feet (85-percent full). Good action for white bass and stripers can be had by the towers down by the dam. Try using a 1-inch white curly-tail grub on a 1/16-ounce jig. Let the jig sink about 20 seconds before retrieving.

There have been some reports of stripers busting shad in the morning but it sounds like it can be hit or miss.  Looks for the boils on the surface.  Crappie fishing can be good at times in the northern coves; try jigs or live minnows in 12 to18 feet of water around brush. Bass are generally in the post-spawn mode and have moved off points and deeper mouths of coves.

Early morning topwater can be good, but generally fish have switched to the summer mode where dropshotting at night can be very productive.  Drop-shotting is the technique of choice, tight lines. Power Worms, jigs, Carolina-rigs and Westy Worms are proven producers.  Catfish are biting well at night on hotdogs and shrimp.

ROOSEVELT LAKE – The lake is 97-percent full at elevation 2,149 feet. The Salt River was flowing at 191 cfs Monday morning and Tonto Creek was recorded at 3 cfs.

Anglers are currently catching large numbers of bass, lots of overs lately. Topwater action is good when and where shad are boiling. Fishing off points in 10-25 feet of water has been effective as well as in areas of stick ups and brush. Live shad or minnows are also good baits either with bobbers or free-lined.

Crappie fishing has slowed some during the day, but should is good at night under submersible lights.  Try the Windy Hill area and also the shore south of Cholla ramp. Minnows under slip bobbers and jigs 1/32-ounce cast into the brush will be the trick. Catfishing should be good for both flatheads and channels.

Fishing for smallmouth bass can be good; especially on windy days. Try areas where waves are stirring up the rocky shoreline. Use in-line spinners and crayfish imitations especially off rocky points and cliff walls and live night crawlers. Remember the slot is in place for smallmouth as well.

Bluegills are spawning: this is a great time to take the kids out. Try the backs of coves, especially around structure. Nice bluegills have been caught recently around Windy Hill and Salome.

Note: anglers are reminded of the slot bass size limit that remains in effect at Roosevelt. Bass between 13 to 16 inches must be released immediately. Also those bass below 13 inches and above 16 inches that are kept can only be gutted with the head and tail attached so the legal length can be determined. All other fish such as crappie, catfish and bluegill harvested from the lake must have a piece of skin attached to the fillets so species can be determined.

Rory:
Don Stich: Thought i would give you a 2wk.report. Fishing partner Rick took 2 guys with
him Sun night of Memorial weekend. Salt River end. Fished all night. Caught well over 100 crappies using jigs & minnows. 32-35ft. of water.Fish were at 12-15ft.

The kicker was, they kept 51. All 2lbs. or over. Best trip in a couple of years. Also a number of bass-all returned & yellow bass. That got me excited so took my old buddy Roy Wed. June 3rd. Same area Salt end.

Senior moment. ALMOST FULL MOON. Final score was 32 nice bluegills, 24
crappie, 5 yellow bass: 12 of the crappies were right at 2lbs. Crappies on jigs & minnows & gills on mealworms. Same depth; 32-35ft. The moon really jinxed us. Still a good night, quit at 12:30 a.m.

Ryan Grubs: 1-18″ Smallmouth at daybreak, 1-24′” channel at 8 a.m., 6 huge blue gill, dozen or so 8 to 12 in largemouth. Couldn’t find Crappie or Lunker Largemouth; great time fishing though fish were active all around us. fished 3 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Another angler said drop-shotting and split-shotting plastic worms worked like a charm.  Once the storm moved on the bite stopped.  On Sunday morning fishing was good from about 4:30 until 7:30 a.m.  Spinnerbaits, skinny dippers and drop shot worms all worked well. Most of the largemouth bass were in the slot but between 3 boats and a group of anglers they caught 10 overs and 15 unders.  Bluegills were also biting.

Another angler reported the fish were very shallow, 1-3 feet, in the early morning and late evening.  They went deeper during the day around 15 to 20 feet deep using drop-shot and Texas-rigged worms.

It sounds like the flathead catfish anglers are out in force, with some hauling in big monsters, but most are keeping the action pretty quiet. Try where the Salt River enters the lake. But it is possible to catch flats in just about any area of the lake.

We are not hearing much about the smallmouth action, but try the rocky areas near the dam using crayfish-like baits when the wind picks up.
The action is also pretty good for bluegills and yellow bass. Try using meal worms under bobbers in the backs of coves, or along those rocky secondary points inside the coves.

Channel catfish and carp are abundant – you can probably load up with lots of bottom feeders along any piece of shoreline, and you don’t need a boat. Although daylight fishing is viable for these bottom feeders, this is the time of year when they can also be pretty active at night as well.

APACHE – Lake is 95-percent full at 1,909 feet. Fishing has been good for yellow bass. Yellow bass are hitting jigs and spoons. Fish for them around balls of shad in 20-60 feet of water. Cut bait also works well for them.  Largemouth bass fishing is slow.  There is a certified scale at the marina boathouse.

Game and Fish biologists sampled Apache Lake this spring and caught some nice largemouth bass, a whole lot of bluegills and a fair amount of catfish.  We electro-fished and set nets and every time we e-fished near reeds, we would get some nice largemouth. The rocky sites were not as fruitful, although we did catch quite a few smallmouth bass in those areas.

The smallmouth we stocked in 2007 are now in the slot and doing real well.  We caught quite a few green sunfish and every one of them looked like they just had a seven-course dinner.  A couple hot spots for bass and sunfish are the Crabtree area, plus we caught a slew of catfish at Pine Cove.  Another hot spot was the area around Burnt Corral.  We picked up a few of the small 3-4 inch trout we recently stocked as a house cleaning effort for one of our hatcheries.
CANYON LAKE – Lake is 93-percent full at 1,656 feet. Bass fishing has transitioned to dawn/dusk and then good at night. For bass, drop shotting (fish slow, letting the worm rest on the bottom for a few seconds at a time) is still the method of choice. Senkos and Westy Worms have also been catching fish. Don’t expect high catch rates, but it is always possible to catch a hawg here, especially for more skilled bass anglers.

Night fishing for bass is also good at this time.  This is also a great lake for yellow bass; jig spoons in and around balls of shad. A few walleye are being caught trolling along cliffs. Shad imitation Rat-L-Traps can be effective for walleye here.

Angler reports
Bob Dickinson: My son bobby caught this bass Memorial Day early fishing the shore line. Throwing Panther Martins and Rat-L-Traps, caught 10 largemouth, 5 strippies{yellow bass}, and 7 bluegills. All catch-and-release. Great morning of fishing, then the lake got real busy. Fished from 4:30am till 10:30.

Might be going to Willow Springs this Saturday, if I do you will get a report from me. My son and his friend went to Roosevelt Friday and Saturday, June 13. Got blown off the lake did catch a couple of slot largemouth on cordell spots and one crappie at night on a night crawler way back in the Tonto end. They left early Saturday wind chapped and tired of fighting it.

Hope to see you on the water someday. Good fishing – Bob

SAGUARO LAKE – Lake level is 1,524 feet (90-percent full).

Fishing is decent for largemouth bass. Some are being caught with drop-shot rigs as well as Texas and Carolina rigged worms.

Yellow bass can be caught jigging spoons (quarter-ounce KastMaster) or cut bait. Recent reports of yellows are being caught in the Butcher Jones Cove area. Another good area for yellows is near Ship Rock and the no wake buoys in the channel. Try to locate shad in 40-60 feet of water and jig through them.

Catfishing is improving. Try stink baits, hotdogs or shrimp. There is a certified scale at the marina to get an official weight and still release your catch. Two witnesses are needed for the weight to be official.

Barry Johnston: Went to Saguaro on recently at 5 a.m., using minnows off the second pier down from the boat ramps. His first four attempts landed him LM, the smallest being 8″ and the largest being 18″ using a slip bobber about 15 feet above the hook.  After the LM’s quit biting the yellows started hitting, and he anded about 15.

Where: Saguaro
When: 05/15/09
Caught: Bluegill, largemouth, yellow bass
Technique: smallest jig I cold find with white 1″ grub cut down to 1/2″ cast into the shallows in the back of coves.
Comments: 2 of us fished for 5 hours from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and caught 81 fish most smaller than my hand but what a blast!
Name: Jim Lindquist
BARTLETT – Lake level is at 1,797 feet (90-percent full).

Bass fishing is good. Again early and late with night fishing be the most productive right now. Crawdad imitations and worming rigs (drop shots and Texas-rigs) are producing.

Some anglers are picking up crappies in the 2-pound range near the buoy line upriver using Kalin 1/16-ounce black/blue/chartreuse jigs. This is a good time to switch to night fishing for crappies: they should be in larger schools congregated in open water, quite often off the major points, islands and reefs or over suberged woody habitat.

This is an excellent time to target flathead and channel catfish.

Bluegills are on the beds and big flatheads can often be found raiding those nests in the backs of coves or along rocky ledges. Use live bait such as bluegill or small carp for the flatheads and shrimp, hotdogs or stink bait for the channels. Remember the live bait most come from the lake itself (excluding minnows, waterdogs or worms) not transported from another body of water! This is a good time to take the kids bluegill fishing. Mealworms and a small bobber in the backs of rocky coves can be the ticket.
Bartlett last wed after the storm 2 of my buddies boated 100 bass in 4 hrs topwater bite & jigging was the ticket

Hey Rory – Went to Bartlet last night,Sunday (two weeks ago), fished from 8 p.m. til 3 a.m. Caught 15 largemouth, mostly Texas rig, a couple on crankbaits, rattletrap type. Nothing big 1 to 2 pounds. They weren’t hitting hard real subtle, lost several at the boat. My friend had one to the boat that would have gone 5lbs. at least. Broke his line. Take care

Bob Dickinson

HORSESHOE – Lake elevation is at 1951 feet, 0-percent full.  They are releasing water at 150 cfs.

Hey someone fished Horseshoe from safe light to about 11:30 a.m. and caught three healthy largemouth bass using the drop shot method.  They ranged between 1.5 and 3 pounds.  The launch ramp is out of the water by about 10 feet and with the water release so high the lake will be back to river status real quick.  Don’t forget there are still some real nice catfish behind the spillway according to one knowledgeable catfisherman.

VERDE RIVER – Verde River flow at Tangle is 126 cubic feet per second.  Release from Bartlett Lake is 250 cfs.

SALT RIVER – Salt River into Roosevelt is 194 cfs, and Salt River Canyon is 190 cfs.  They are releasing 1225 cfs out of Stewart Mountain dam from Saguaro.
The upper Salt has quite a few flatheads that readily take live or dead red shiners and sunfish caught via live bait or in the case of shiners cast nets while you are out there.  Chicken liver will work as well.
A 47.9-pound flathead catfish was caught in the Upper Salt River real close to Roosevelt Lake two weeks ago.  A live sunfish caught at that location was used as bait.

LOWER SALT RIVER – (below Saguaro Lake) – This is the tail-end of the season, so get your last trip in to fish this amazing stretch of river in the desert. Rainbow trout were stocked recently at Blue Point Bridge and Water Users Park.  Try inline spinners, Power Bait or drifting night crawlers.  Fly-fishing can be good with nymphs, Painted ladies and Wooly Buggers. We have mixed angler reports: some aren’t catching many fish, others are catching limits. Try wading out to the faster, deeper runs with deeper running baits (flies, worms or whatever). Don’t ignore the largemouth bass — try the deeper holes.

Some bass can be found in the portion above the Verde confluence.  Fish early or late to avoid the barrage of inner tubes.

CREEKS
Haigler Creek is stocked weekly with rainbow trout near the campgrounds.  These fish can be easily taken using bait, spinners and a variety of flies.  The upper hike in section (from Fisherman’s Point) has good numbers of wild rainbows and some large wild browns.  Try attractor patterns and small beadhead nymphs like hares ear, copper john and prince nymphs.

Canyon Creek – The upstream portion of Canyon Creek (above OW Bridge) is stocked weekly with rainbow trout and you can keep 4 trout of any size.  Bait, spinners, and flies are very effective for the rainbows.  The lower section below OW Bridge contains primarily wild brown trout and is catch and release only using artificial flies and lures.  Please obey these regulations.  This time of year terrestrials can provide some good action.  Try using a grasshopper pattern and dropping a small beadhead nymph off of it. Don’t be afraid to fish for the larger browns after dark.  Try using wolly buggers, muddler minnows or even a floating mouse pattern.  Fishing can be slow but you might be rewarded with a large brown trout.

Christopher Creek – Christopher Creek is stocked weekly with rainbow trout.  The section of stream near the See Canyon trailhead contains a nice mix of stocked rainbow trout and wild browns.  This is a really nice section of stream to fish.  Try your typical trout arsenal.

Tonto Creek – Upper Tonto Creek (above Hwy 260) is stocked weekly with rainbow trout.  Try the usual stuff.  There are good numbers of wild rainbow and brown trout downstream of Bear Flat.  The hiking is strenuous and you should be prepared to swim if you plan to fish very far.

HORSETHIEF BASIN LAKE – No new reports. It’s a pretty little lake that is worth visiting as part of a Bradshaw Mountain experience, but it is pond sized water where the fish are small; great for kids on a camp out. Bring night crawlers or meal worms and fish them under bobbers.

Arizona’s annual free fishing days are celebrated on June 6 and 13 as part of National Fishing and Boating Week.  On these Saturdays, no fishing license is required for persons fishing any of the Urban Fishing Program lakes or other statewide waters.

Fishing is good to excellent for channel catfish at Urban waters.  Top baits for catfish continue to be worms, shrimp, and dough/stink baits fished off the bottom. Cats have been biting best mid morning and in the evenings.  Bluegill and sunfish are biting well along the shorelines for anglers using worms and mealworms.  Bass up to six pounds are biting during the pre-summer period, however shallow water fish are wary.  Try small plastics presented with split shot or drop shot rigs in the evenings and early morning.
Angler reports:

I took some of my lunchtime today and walked around Chaparral Lake and watched a dad fishing with his son. Within 20 min. I saw him pull in 2 nice catfish. This was between 12:00 and 12:30. Using hotdogs under a bobber.  That’s just the ones he hooked.  He was getting action as soon as the line hit the water. He had another pole out, fishing the bottom, with stink bait. Not a bite.

Just thought I’d share.

Thomas Podborny

Where:
Papago Park lake

When:
05/31/09

Caught:
2 Sunfish, and 2 Catfish

Technique:
Earth Worms

Comments:
Papago park lake is great and relaxing place to fish.

Name:
Daniel Garcia Jr

Where:
Chaparral lake

When:
05/30/09

Caught:
1- channel cat, 5-largemouth bass(none keepers) 1-Bluegill(not a keeper)

Technique:
Mealworms and night crawlers and Power Bait on bottom. Between sun-up and 11am. Night crawlers attracted best. Bass bit on mealworms on the bottom. Power Bait didn’t attract today. Caught 3 lb catfish with Night Crawlers.

Comments:
Watch-out for the hungry Blue Heron. He knows when you’ve caught a fish and is looking for hand outs.

Name:
Phill and Dylan Williams

Where: Chaparral Lake
When: 05/07/09
Caught: Channel Catfish
Technique: Crappie rig, worm on both hooks.
Name: Jenna Fjeld

Where: Veterans Oasis
When:05/03/09
Caught: nothing
Technique: hot dog
Comments: Slow -  nobody was catching anything
Name: john

Where: Kiwanis
When:05/02/09
Caught: 8 average sized catfish and one 8lb monster
Technique: Believe it or not, power bait. you know the stuff for trout, orange
Comments: On the all American way road at the very far end about 20ft. out. someone illegally put in about 50 hand sized goldfish on Saturday so if you see them, take them out before they destroy the lake
Name: Andy
TEMPE TOWN LAKE – People are catching largemouth bass, redear sunfish, and bluegill.  There are some nice catfish to be caught.  Use chicken liver or hotdogs to entice the cats.  Fish around the bridges and other structure you can get near.  Get there early. Carp are hungry for corn and dough bait.

A Tempe Town Lake survey earlier this year showeda substantial resurgence of largemouth bass, yellow bass and channel catfish, black crappie and a very large increase in our catch of threadfin shad compared to last year’s survey conducted after a golden algae outbreak and a couple days of high runoff which led to the lowering of couple of the downstream inflatable dams.

An early morning angler caught 8 largemouth bass with drop shot and he trolled white cranks which produced 3 largemouth and 2 yellow bass.  Most of the fish were caught near the lightrail pillars and then the rest was caught trolling back to the ramp.  You got to find that structure.
Another angler caught 4 bass using a Mepps lure and an artificial white minnow with a spinner.

A fisherman who fishes Tempe Town Lakes frequently has had good success catching largemouth on Senko’s and T-rigged Roboworms and Strike King worms.  Many of his fish were two and three pounders.  He didn’t give any details on where the fish were but you can pretty much bet there was some structure.  Cover is sparse except around the marina and bridge pillars but there are a couple areas on the West side with some overhanging trees that hold a few fish.

Individual reports:

Went to Tempe Town on Friday morning, and again on Monday morning.  Friday morning was a blast.  The bite wasn’t the best, but I was catching fish.  I was on the south side under the Rural Bridge.  I caught a bluegill the size of a dinner plate on a Berkley gulp minnow.  Two 11″ largemouth on worms about 7′ under a slip bobber, and about a 2 lb cat on the slip bobber rig also.  Monday I was using shad as bait and caught 6 LM’s under the bridge on nothing more than a hook with a split shot about 18″ up from the hook — Barry

Hello Rory,

I haven’t seen many reports about Tempe Town Lake lately, so I thought I would help with this. My parents and I have been going about three time a week lately in the evening and the cat-fishing has really picked up. We have progressively reeled in bigger fish with night crawlers fished on the bottom. This last time we went our worms had been overheated, dead, and smelly but the catfish my dad caught must have liked it. Attached is the picture of the 6 Pound cat, he was about 25 inches long, and was thick and strong.

Thanks for your tips Rory and hope this helps for the next report,

Christopher Heath

LAKE PLEASANT – Water elevation is 1,691 ft, which is 88-percent full.
Action is sporadic: when it’s good, it’s great and anglers load up on stripers and largemouth, but on other days it’s slow and anglers have a tough time catching fish. Or it could just be that some anglers catch fish and other don’t.

On Wednesday morning, they were lots of boils at first light with striped bass and largemouth bass chasing shad at the surface. Try topwater lures, or anything white — spinners, cranks, jerks…
Largemouth are hitting topwater lures and flukes in the northern coves.

Topwater poppers are working for some, and not others. The best surface action will typically be at first and last light, but surface feeding can occur at any time of day (or night).

Where: Lake Pleasant
When: 06/04/09
Caught: 3 catfish 1 white bass
Technique: anchovies
Comments:
Name: Andrew Althaus

An angler fished from 5:30 am to 11:30 am in the northern coves, no indication of what he used but fishing was much better when he found a water temp of 80oF.
A striper fisherman is catching quite a few of them on soft jerk baits and white super flukes when they are chasing shad in the mornings.  When they are deep ½ or ¾ oz spoons work well.
Nighttime fishing for largemouth is decent using 10 inch worms near the dam.
Where: lake pleasent
When: 06/01/09
Caught: 1 large mouth 6 cat fish
Technique: largemouth are hitting little topwater lures in the afternoon and i caught some nice cats on annchovies
Name: andrew althaus
Where:Pleasant
When:05/02/09
Caught:bass, bluegill
Technique:plastic worm Texas rig
Comments:bass was 14 inches but the bluegill was just as big and weighed in at a little over a pound
Name:Michael Culbertson

Where: pleasant
When: 05/02/09
Caught: bass, bluegill
Technique: plastic worm Texas rig
Comments: bass was 14 inches but the bluegill was just as big and weighed in at a little over a pound
Name: Michael Culbertson

ROOSEVELT LAKE — Lake Elevation is 2,150 ft (98-percent full).  Tonto Creek runoff is at 9 cfs while inflow from the Salt River is at 194 cfs.

An angler caught 10 largemouth on topwater lures real early in the morning.  As soon as the sun cleared the mountains the topwater bite vanished but fishing was just as good on dropshot worms after the topwater died.

Another angler got in on the drop-shot action and boated a two-pound bass before having fun on one of those big’ol inner tubes on a weekday when hardly anybody was on the lake.

Nighttime crappie fishing is still productive using crappie lights.  A couple fishermen caught a few nice crappie, some large bluegills and several 10 to 11 inch yellow bass.
During the early morning hours till about 11 a.m. a couple anglers trolled for crappie and caught 6 crappies, 2 yellow bass and 1 bluegill.  Then the next day the same duo fished till 10 a.m. and caught 3 crappies and 2 bluegills.

Other crappie fishermen are catching 15 to 20 crappies trolling cranks in the Salt end of the lake.

A couple anglers who weren’t afraid to impart a few details had good luck throwing topwater lures near shore and in the back of coves till about 8 a.m.  They then fished near an island in the mid-lake area in about 25 feet of water with a 10 inch worm tumbling down the side walls.  The fish were all about that technique.  Later on they moved to the Salt end and fished in 15-25 feet of water with buzzbaits over trees, and they were able to pull in a few.

Rory:
Went to Rosy for the first time nice lake we got on the water about 230 and started catching fish right away 2nd cast! We fished till about 5 and caught 13 bass with 1 over on Rat-L-Traps and cranks the kids also caught some nice bluegills from shore; they were easily took on live worms — Josh
Rory:
Don Stich: Thought i would give you a 2wk.report. Fishing partner Rick took 2 guys with
him Sun night of Memorial weekend. Salt River end. Fished all night. Caught well over 100 crappies using jigs & minnows. 32-35ft. of water.Fish were at 12-15ft.

The kicker was, they kept 51. All 2lbs. or over. Best trip in a couple of years. Also a number of bass-all returned & yellow bass. That got me excited so took my old buddy Roy Wed. June 3rd. Same area Salt end.

Senior moment. ALMOST FULL MOON. Final score was 32 nice bluegills, 24
crappie, 5 yellow bass: 12 of the crappies were right at 2lbs. Crappies on jigs & minnows & gills on mealworms. Same depth; 32-35ft. The moon really jinxed us. Still a good night, quit at 12:30 a.m.

Ryan Grubs: 1-18″ Smallmouth at daybreak, 1-24′” channel at 8 a.m., 6 huge blue gill, dozen or so 8 to 12 in largemouth. Couldn’t find Crappie or Lunker Largemouth; great time fishing though fish were active all around us. fished 3 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Another angler said drop-shotting and split-shotting plastic worms worked like a charm.  Once the storm moved on the bite stopped.  On Sunday morning fishing was good from about 4:30 until 7:30 a.m.  Spinnerbaits, skinny dippers and drop shot worms all worked well. Most of the largemouth bass were in the slot but between 3 boats and a group of anglers they caught 10 overs and 15 unders.  Bluegills were also biting.

Another angler reported the fish were very shallow, 1-3 feet, in the early morning and late evening.  They went deeper during the day around 15 to 20 feet deep using drop-shot and Texas-rigged worms.

It sounds like the flathead catfish anglers are out in force, with some hauling in big monsters, but most are keeping the action pretty quiet. Try where the Salt River enters the lake. But it is possible to catch flats in just about any area of the lake.

We are not hearing much about the smallmouth action, but try the rocky areas near the dam using crayfish-like baits when the wind picks up.
The action is also pretty good for bluegills and yellow bass. Try using meal worms under bobbers in the backs of coves, or along those rocky secondary points inside the coves.

Channel catfish and carp are abundant – you can probably load up with lots of bottom feeders along any piece of shoreline, and you don’t need a boat. Although daylight fishing is viable for these bottom feeders, this is the time of year when they can also be pretty active at night as well.

APACHE – Lake elevation is 1909 ft (94-percent full). Fishing is still very good. Chartreuse lures or worms are the color bass prefer on this lake. David, my beloved Apache Lake angler, has good bass catches using chartreuse crankbait and spinners. They are hanging in the shallows.

Catfish have been active around the marina one angler caught a 13-pound catfish using a night crawler and a 20-pound catfish was caught on a chicken liver at the marina.
Game and Fish biologists sampled Apache Lake this spring and caught some nice largemouth bass, a whole lot of bluegills and a fair amount of catfish.  We electro-fished and set nets and every time we e-fished near reeds, we would get some nice largemouth. The rocky sites were not as fruitful, although we did catch quite a few smallmouth bass in those areas.

The smallmouth we stocked in 2007 are now in the slot and doing real well.  We caught quite a few green sunfish and every one of them looked like they just had a seven-course dinner.  A couple hot spots for bass and sunfish are the Crabtree area, plus we caught a slew of catfish at Pine Cove.  Another hot spot was the area around Burnt Corral.  We picked up a few of the small 3-4 inch trout we recently stocked as a house cleaning effort for one of our hatcheries.
CANYON LAKE – Lake elevation is 1,659 ft, which is 97-percent full.
A few anglers who submitted fishing reports say the fishing at Canyon is a little slow right now for largemouth.  Bluegills are biting well. Bluegills sure like the live bait fished near emergent vegetation. Largemouth are hanging near the vegetation and are susceptible to 4 inch Senkos with flakes in them. Larger worms will work but the fish tend to be fickle on a daily basis so provide a nice buffet for them to choose from.
One angler reiterates graphing in search of the drop-offs and using c-rigged beavers and lizards inn green or yellowish colors.  Jerk baits are also good bets to try and use your graphs to locate them.
However, some anglers have reported huge shad boils at times in the main basin and up lake.

If you are looking for a place to take the kids to catch lots of bluegills, give Canyon a try. Meal worms under a bobber will do the trick.
Angler reports

Bob Dickinson: Memorial Day early fishing the shore line. Throwing panther martins and rattle traps, caught 10 largemouth, 5 strippies{yellow bass}, and 7 bluegill.All catch and release. Great morning of fishing, then the lake got real busy. Fished from 4:30am till 10:30.
SAGUARO LAKE – Lake elevation 1,525 feet at 93-percent full.  No specific reports on Saguaro but it’s always a good bet to fish near emergent vegetation and rocky points with t and c-rigged worms.  In the deeper spots go with drop shot worms and use your graph to give yourself an edge.

Butcher Jones is a good spot for bluegill and yellow bass with live bait and KastMasters.  If you catch a small bluegill don’t throw it back, use it for catfish bait.  Flatheads just may take you up on your offer.

Barry Johnston: Went to Saguaro on recently at 5 a.m., using minnows off the second pier down from the boat ramps. His first four attempts landed him LM, the smallest being 8″ and the largest being 18″ using a slip bobber about 15 feet above the hook.  After the LM’s quit biting the yellows started hitting, and he anded about 15.

Where: Saguaro
When: 05/15/09
Caught: Bluegill, largemouth, yellow bass
Technique: smallest jig I cold find with white 1″ grub cut down to 1/2″ cast into the shallows in the back of coves.
Comments: 2 of us fished for 5 hours from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and caught 81 fish most smaller than my hand but what a blast!
Name: Jim Lindquist
BARTLETT – This is a fishing hot spot.

Lake elevation is 1,798 ft, which is 99-percent full.  Reservoir release is 250 cfs.

Fishing is excellent; a couple anglers caught 53 largemouth on C-rigs in 10 to 25 feet in depth.  Topwater and Rat-L-Traps are productive as well in the no-wake area.

Bass are chasing shad at sunrise and sometimes at sunset, so get there early to take advantage of the topwater bite.

Bass are taking spinners and lipless cranks around the yellow cliffs and towards the riverine section.
With the moon in its last quarter Saturday night, this should be a picturesque and productive time to fish for crappie, bass and catfish at night.
Reports:
Bartlett last wed after the storm 2 of my buddies boated 100 bass in 4 hrs topwater bite & jigging was the ticket

That’s all I’ve heard good.

Thanks

De Wane Tabbot, AGFD Mesa Regional Office

Hey Rory – Went to Bartlet last night,Sunday, fished from 8 p.m. til 3 a.m. Caught 15 largemouth, mostly Texas rig, a couple on crankbaits, rattletrap type. Nothing big 1 to 2 pounds. They weren’t hitting hard real subtle, lost several at the boat. My friend had one to the boat that would have gone 5lbs. at least. Broke his line. Take care

Bob Dickinson

An angler caught largemouth on swim baits and had some bites on spinnerbaits and lipless crankbait.  Drop shots worked very well on some graphed fish; most of them were small but a few keepers were in the batch. White jigs were enticing the bite as well.  The fish were between 2 and 22 feet deep.

Another angler fished in the rain and all the fish were hanging around rocky areas 10 to 20 feet deep and crankbait and jerk bait were enticing the bite.
Crappie fishing has been sporadic, with some anglers doing well and others having trouble finding a bite.

Angler reports:

The Post Spawn Blues are over.  As some of you have mentioned…Training Wheels aka Spinnerbaits are now the bait of choice, Bartlett Bass love green and Chartreuse colors.  Also, Crankbaits and Carolina-rigged Zoom Lizards off points are landing good bass. Anything with a wiggle is working well.

My partner Rich and I caught our limit this weekend averaging about 2 lbs a piece: Catch-and-release. By the way, for the Newbies to fishing …no boat was required as we fish from the shorelines. And for those of you who can appreciate a lil exercise while fishing…Bartlett has some of the best hiking trails.
Bassman

Harvey Nelson: 2 of us fishing at Bartlett on 5/6, caught 7 nice bass using spinnerbaits, shad-colored crankbaits, and the go-to bait– Carolina rig with a Senko worm. Most fish caught 15 feet deep in the sandy bottom coves with 2 caught shallow off points where there was a lot of shad visible. All fish 2-3 lbs., no small fish were caught.
Rory,

I fish Bartlett a lot and will try to keep my reports coming in regularly. I read the reports all the time and they often help me find good patterns. One pattern that I used a lot last year was after it gets up to 100 F outside I like to Carolina rig fish the lower lake islands bouncing Carolina rigs down the slope of islands to the 16-20 foot depths. It usually works great but one part of the pattern is wind. It has to be windy or it just doesn’t work. The wind pushes shad schools up onto the island slopes and the fish follow. No wind– no shad schools- no bass.

We tried it this week but couldn’t get the wind and it just did not work–so we went into the points and rock piles in the coves and found nice quality fish there.
Maybe that info can help somebody else too.

Harvey

HORSESHOE – Lake elevation is at 1951 feet, 0-percent full.  They are releasing water at 150 cfs.

Hey someone fished Horseshoe from safe light to about 11:30 a.m. and caught three healthy largemouth bass using the drop shot method.  They ranged between 1.5 and 3 pounds.  The launch ramp is out of the water by about 10 feet and with the water release so high the lake will be back to river status real quick.  Don’t forget there are still some real nice catfish behind the spillway according to one knowledgeable catfisherman.

VERDE RIVER – Verde River flow at Tangle is 126 cubic feet per second.  Release from Bartlett Lake is 250 cfs.

SALT RIVER – Salt River into Roosevelt is 194 cfs, and Salt River Canyon is 190 cfs.  They are releasing 1225 cfs out of Stewart Mountain dam from Saguaro.
The upper Salt has quite a few flatheads that readily take live or dead red shiners and sunfish caught via live bait or in the case of shiners cast nets while you are out there.  Chicken liver will work as well.
A 47.9-pound flathead catfish was caught in the Upper Salt River real close to Roosevelt Lake two weeks ago.  A live sunfish caught at that location was used as bait.

LOWER SALT RIVER – Stewart Dam release is 1,075 cfs. Trout were stocked last week at Water Users and Blue Point. Expect lots of other recreational users (tubers) along this stretch of river. Flies are working as well as live worms. The fishing is best at first and last light. Largemouth are holding around the overhanging vegetation.

Where: Lower Salt
When:05/06/09
Caught: big grass monster
Technique: fly rod
Comments: tough day. Plenty of strikes but just not hooking up. Water way down (about 500 cfs) Anglers advised me the river was VERY busy last week for fishing. Big grass monster (algae debris, etc.) is growing by the hour. Anglers beware… the recreators are out in force. See ya next time.

Where: Lower Salt River
When: 04/22/09
Caught: Rainbow Trout
Technique: Fly Rod and spinning rig
Comments: Time again? Fished midday. Started slow. Picked up nicely and tapered off around 4 p.m. Spin anglers having a tough time with the big grass monster (algae) a bit tough with the spinners. Small jigs produced some fish. See ya next week.

CREEKS – All the streams are still fishing well.  Early morning and late evening still have the best bite.  It’s time to try hoppers with a nymph dropper if you haven’t already.  Ant patterns are also worth a try.  Nymphs are working well, specifically caddis flies, pheasant tails and hairs ears.  Terrestrials like hoppers are also producing.

HORSETHIEF BASIN LAKE – No new reports. It’s a pretty little lake that is worth visiting as part of a Bradshaw Mountain experience, but it is pond sized water where the fish are small; great for kids on a camp out. Bring night crawlers or meal worms and fish them under bobbers.

Arizona’s annual free fishing days are celebrated on June 6 and 13 as part of National Fishing and Boating Week.  On these Saturdays, no fishing license is required for persons fishing any of the Urban Fishing Program lakes or other statewide waters.

Fishing is good to excellent for channel catfish at Urban waters.  Top baits for catfish continue to be worms, shrimp, and dough/stink baits fished off the bottom. Cats have been biting best mid morning and in the evenings.  Bluegill and sunfish are biting well along the shorelines for anglers using worms and mealworms.  Bass up to six pounds are biting during the pre-summer period, however shallow water fish are wary.  Try small plastics presented with split shot or drop shot rigs in the evenings and early morning.

Angler reports:

I took some of my lunchtime today and walked around Chaparral Lake and watched a dad fishing with his son. Within 20 min. I saw him pull in 2 nice catfish. This was between 12:00 and 12:30. Using hotdogs under a bobber.  That’s just the ones he hooked.  He was getting action as soon as the line hit the water. He had another pole out, fishing the bottom, with stink bait. Not a bite.

Just thought I’d share.

Thomas Podborny

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Where: Chaparral Lake
When: 05/07/09
Caught: Channel Catfish
Technique: Crappie rig, worm on both hooks.
Name: Jenna Fjeld

Where: Veterans Oasis
When:05/03/09
Caught: nothing
Technique: hot dog
Comments: Slow -  nobody was catching anything
Name: john

Where: Kiwanis
When:05/02/09
Caught: 8 average sized catfish and one 8lb monster
Technique: Believe it or not, power bait. you know the stuff for trout, orange
Comments: On the all American way road at the very far end about 20ft. out. someone illegally put in about 50 hand sized goldfish on Saturday so if you see them, take them out before they destroy the lake
Name: Andy

TEMPE TOWN LAKE – People are catching largemouth bass, redear sunfish, and bluegill.  There are some nice catfish to be caught.  Use chicken liver or hotdogs to entice the cats.  Fish around the bridges and other structure you can get near.  Get there early. Carp are hungry for corn and dough bait.

A Tempe Town Lake survey earlier this year showeda substantial resurgence of largemouth bass, yellow bass and channel catfish, black crappie and a very large increase in our catch of threadfin shad compared to last year’s survey conducted after a golden algae outbreak and a couple days of high runoff which led to the lowering of couple of the downstream inflatable dams.

An early morning angler caught 8 largemouth bass with drop shot and he trolled white cranks which produced 3 largemouth and 2 yellow bass.  Most of the fish were caught near the lightrail pillars and then the rest was caught trolling back to the ramp.  You got to find that structure.

Another angler caught 4 bass using a Mepps lure and an artificial white minnow with a spinner.

A fisherman who fishes Tempe Town Lakes frequently has had good success catching largemouth on Senko’s and T-rigged Roboworms and Strike King worms.  Many of his fish were two and three pounders.  He didn’t give any details on where the fish were but you can pretty much bet there was some structure.  Cover is sparse except around the marina and bridge pillars but there are a couple areas on the West side with some overhanging trees that hold a few fish.

Individual reports:

Went to Tempe Town on Friday morning, and again on Monday morning.  Friday morning was a blast.  The bite wasn’t the best, but I was catching fish.  I was on the south side under the Rural Bridge.  I caught a bluegill the size of a dinner plate on a Berkley gulp minnow.  Two 11″ largemouth on worms about 7′ under a slip bobber, and about a 2 lb cat on the slip bobber rig also.  Monday I was using shad as bait and caught 6 LM’s under the bridge on nothing more than a hook with a split shot about 18″ up from the hook — Barry

Hello Rory,

I haven’t seen many reports about Tempe Town Lake lately, so I thought I would help with this. My parents and I have been going about three time a week lately in the evening and the cat-fishing has really picked up. We have progressively reeled in bigger fish with night crawlers fished on the bottom. This last time we went our worms had been overheated, dead, and smelly but the catfish my dad caught must have liked it. Attached is the picture of the 6 Pound cat, he was about 25 inches long, and was thick and strong.

Thanks for your tips Rory and hope this helps for the next report,

Christopher Heath

LAKE PLEASANT – Water elevation is 1,691 ft, which is 88-percent full.

Action is sporadic: when it’s good, it’s great and anglers load up on stripers and largemouth, but on other days it’s slow and anglers have a tough time catching fish. Or it could just be that some anglers catch fish and other don’t.

On Wednesday morning, they were lots of boils at first light with striped bass and largemouth bass chasing shad at the surface. Try topwater lures, or anything white — spinners, cranks, jerks…

Largemouth are hitting topwater lures and flukes in the northern coves.

Topwater poppers are working for some, and not others. The best surface action will typically be at first and last light, but surface feeding can occur at any time of day (or night).

Where: Lake Pleasant
When: 06/04/09
Caught: 3 catfish 1 white bass
Technique: anchovies
Comments:
Name: Andrew Althaus

An angler fished from 5:30 am to 11:30 am in the northern coves, no indication of what he used but fishing was much better when he found a water temp of 80oF.
A striper fisherman is catching quite a few of them on soft jerk baits and white super flukes when they are chasing shad in the mornings.  When they are deep ½ or ¾ oz spoons work well.
Nighttime fishing for largemouth is decent using 10 inch worms near the dam.

Where: lake pleasent
When: 06/01/09
Caught: 1 large mouth 6 cat fish
Technique: largemouth are hitting little topwater lures in the afternoon and i caught some nice cats on annchovies
Name: andrew althaus

Where:Pleasant
When:05/02/09
Caught:bass, bluegill
Technique:plastic worm Texas rig
Comments:bass was 14 inches but the bluegill was just as big and weighed in at a little over a pound
Name:Michael Culbertson

Where: pleasant
When: 05/02/09
Caught: bass, bluegill
Technique: plastic worm Texas rig
Comments: bass was 14 inches but the bluegill was just as big and weighed in at a little over a pound
Name: Michael Culbertson

ROOSEVELT LAKE — Lake Elevation is 2,150 ft (98-percent full).  Tonto Creek runoff is at 9 cfs while inflow from the Salt River is at 194 cfs.

An angler caught 10 largemouth on topwater lures real early in the morning.  As soon as the sun cleared the mountains the topwater bite vanished but fishing was just as good on dropshot worms after the topwater died.

Another angler got in on the drop-shot action and boated a two-pound bass before having fun on one of those big’ol inner tubes on a weekday when hardly anybody was on the lake.

Nighttime crappie fishing is still productive using crappie lights.  A couple fishermen caught a few nice crappie, some large bluegills and several 10 to 11 inch yellow bass.

During the early morning hours till about 11 a.m. a couple anglers trolled for crappie and caught 6 crappies, 2 yellow bass and 1 bluegill.  Then the next day the same duo fished till 10 a.m. and caught 3 crappies and 2 bluegills.

Other crappie fishermen are catching 15 to 20 crappies trolling cranks in the Salt end of the lake.

A couple anglers who weren’t afraid to impart a few details had good luck throwing topwater lures near shore and in the back of coves till about 8 a.m.  They then fished near an island in the mid-lake area in about 25 feet of water with a 10 inch worm tumbling down the side walls.  The fish were all about that technique.  Later on they moved to the Salt end and fished in 15-25 feet of water with buzzbaits over trees, and they were able to pull in a few.

Rory:

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Went to Rosy for the first time nice lake we got on the water about 230 and started catching fish right away 2nd cast! We fished till about 5 and caught 13 bass with 1 over on Rat-L-Traps and cranks the kids also caught some nice bluegills from shore; they were easily took on live worms — Josh

Rory:
Don Stich: Thought i would give you a 2wk.report. Fishing partner Rick took 2 guys with
him Sun night of Memorial weekend. Salt River end. Fished all night. Caught well over 100 crappies using jigs & minnows. 32-35ft. of water.Fish were at 12-15ft.

The kicker was, they kept 51. All 2lbs. or over. Best trip in a couple of years. Also a number of bass-all returned & yellow bass. That got me excited so took my old buddy Roy Wed. June 3rd. Same area Salt end.

Senior moment. ALMOST FULL MOON. Final score was 32 nice bluegills, 24
crappie, 5 yellow bass: 12 of the crappies were right at 2lbs. Crappies on jigs & minnows & gills on mealworms. Same depth; 32-35ft. The moon really jinxed us. Still a good night, quit at 12:30 a.m.

Ryan Grubs: 1-18″ Smallmouth at daybreak, 1-24′” channel at 8 a.m., 6 huge blue gill, dozen or so 8 to 12 in largemouth. Couldn’t find Crappie or Lunker Largemouth; great time fishing though fish were active all around us. fished 3 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Another angler said drop-shotting and split-shotting plastic worms worked like a charm.  Once the storm moved on the bite stopped.  On Sunday morning fishing was good from about 4:30 until 7:30 a.m.  Spinnerbaits, skinny dippers and drop shot worms all worked well. Most of the largemouth bass were in the slot but between 3 boats and a group of anglers they caught 10 overs and 15 unders.  Bluegills were also biting.

Another angler reported the fish were very shallow, 1-3 feet, in the early morning and late evening.  They went deeper during the day around 15 to 20 feet deep using drop-shot and Texas-rigged worms.

It sounds like the flathead catfish anglers are out in force, with some hauling in big monsters, but most are keeping the action pretty quiet. Try where the Salt River enters the lake. But it is possible to catch flats in just about any area of the lake.

We are not hearing much about the smallmouth action, but try the rocky areas near the dam using crayfish-like baits when the wind picks up.
The action is also pretty good for bluegills and yellow bass. Try using meal worms under bobbers in the backs of coves, or along those rocky secondary points inside the coves.

Channel catfish and carp are abundant – you can probably load up with lots of bottom feeders along any piece of shoreline, and you don’t need a boat. Although daylight fishing is viable for these bottom feeders, this is the time of year when they can also be pretty active at night as well.

APACHE – <!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 0 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> Lake elevation is 1909 ft (94-percent full). Fishing is still very good. Chartreuse lures or worms are the color bass prefer on this lake. David, my beloved Apache Lake angler, has good bass catches using chartreuse crankbait and spinners. They are hanging in the shallows.

Catfish have been active around the marina one angler caught a 13-pound catfish using a night crawler and a 20-pound catfish was caught on a chicken liver at the marina.

Game and Fish biologists sampled Apache Lake this spring and caught some nice largemouth bass, a whole lot of bluegills and a fair amount of catfish.  We electro-fished and set nets and every time we e-fished near reeds, we would get some nice largemouth. The rocky sites were not as fruitful, although we did catch quite a few smallmouth bass in those areas.

The smallmouth we stocked in 2007 are now in the slot and doing real well.  We caught quite a few green sunfish and every one of them looked like they just had a seven-course dinner.  A couple hot spots for bass and sunfish are the Crabtree area, plus we caught a slew of catfish at Pine Cove.  Another hot spot was the area around Burnt Corral.  We picked up a few of the small 3-4 inch trout we recently stocked as a house cleaning effort for one of our hatcheries.

CANYON LAKE – <!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 0 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> Lake elevation is 1,659 ft, which is 97-percent full.

A few anglers who submitted fishing reports say the fishing at Canyon is a little slow right now for largemouth. Bluegills are biting well. Bluegills sure like the live bait fished near emergent vegetation. Largemouth are hanging near the vegetation and are susceptible to 4 inch Senkos with flakes in them. Larger worms will work but the fish tend to be fickle on a daily basis so provide a nice buffet for them to choose from.

One angler reiterates graphing in search of the drop-offs and using c-rigged beavers and lizards inn green or yellowish colors. Jerk baits are also good bets to try and use your graphs to locate them.

However, some anglers have reported huge shad boils at times in the main basin and up lake.

If you are looking for a place to take the kids to catch lots of bluegills, give Canyon a try. Meal worms under a bobber will do the trick.

Angler reports

Bob Dickinson: Memorial Day early fishing the shore line. Throwing panther martins and rattle traps, caught 10 largemouth, 5 strippies{yellow bass}, and 7 bluegill.All catch and release. Great morning of fishing, then the lake got real busy. Fished from 4:30am till 10:30.

SAGUARO LAKE – <!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 0 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; color:windowtext;} p {mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.5pt; font-family:”Verdana”,”sans-serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; color:black;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> Lake elevation 1,525 feet at 93-percent full. No specific reports on Saguaro but it’s always a good bet to fish near emergent vegetation and rocky points with t and c-rigged worms.  In the deeper spots go with drop shot worms and use your graph to give yourself an edge.

Butcher Jones is a good spot for bluegill and yellow bass with live bait and KastMasters.  If you catch a small bluegill don’t throw it back, use it for catfish bait.  Flatheads just may take you up on your offer.

Barry Johnston: Went to Saguaro on recently at 5 a.m., using minnows off the second pier down from the boat ramps. His first four attempts landed him LM, the smallest being 8″ and the largest being 18″ using a slip bobber about 15 feet above the hook.  After the LM’s quit biting the yellows started hitting, and he anded about 15.

Where: Saguaro
When: 05/15/09
Caught: Bluegill, largemouth, yellow bass
Technique: smallest jig I cold find with white 1″ grub cut down to 1/2″ cast into the shallows in the back of coves.
Comments: 2 of us fished for 5 hours from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and caught 81 fish most smaller than my hand but what a blast!
Name: Jim Lindquist

BARTLETT – This is a fishing hot spot. <!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 0 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; color:windowtext;} p {mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.5pt; font-family:”Verdana”,”sans-serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; color:black;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>

Lake elevation is 1,798 ft, which is 99-percent full. Reservoir release is 250 cfs.

Fishing is excellent; a couple anglers caught 53 largemouth on C-rigs in 10 to 25 feet in depth. Topwater and Rat-L-Traps are productive as well in the no-wake area.

Bass are chasing shad at sunrise and sometimes at sunset, so get there early to take advantage of the topwater bite.

Bass are taking spinners and lipless cranks around the yellow cliffs and towards the riverine section.

With the moon in its last quarter Saturday night, this should be a picturesque and productive time to fish for crappie, bass and catfish at night.

Reports:
Bartlett last wed after the storm 2 of my buddies boated 100 bass in 4 hrs topwater bite & jigging was the ticket

That’s all I’ve heard good.

Thanks

De Wane Tabbot, AGFD Mesa Regional Office

Hey Rory – Went to Bartlet last night,Sunday, fished from 8 p.m. til 3 a.m. Caught 15 largemouth, mostly Texas rig, a couple on crankbaits, rattletrap type. Nothing big 1 to 2 pounds. They weren’t hitting hard real subtle, lost several at the boat. My friend had one to the boat that would have gone 5lbs. at least. Broke his line. Take care

Bob Dickinson

An angler caught largemouth on swim baits and had some bites on spinnerbaits and lipless crankbait.  Drop shots worked very well on some graphed fish; most of them were small but a few keepers were in the batch. White jigs were enticing the bite as well.  The fish were between 2 and 22 feet deep.

Another angler fished in the rain and all the fish were hanging around rocky areas 10 to 20 feet deep and crankbait and jerk bait were enticing the bite.
Crappie fishing has been sporadic, with some anglers doing well and others having trouble finding a bite.

Angler reports:

The Post Spawn Blues are over.  As some of you have mentioned…Training Wheels aka Spinnerbaits are now the bait of choice, Bartlett Bass love green and Chartreuse colors.  Also, Crankbaits and Carolina-rigged Zoom Lizards off points are landing good bass. Anything with a wiggle is working well.

My partner Rich and I caught our limit this weekend averaging about 2 lbs a piece: Catch-and-release. By the way, for the Newbies to fishing …no boat was required as we fish from the shorelines. And for those of you who can appreciate a lil exercise while fishing…Bartlett has some of the best hiking trails.
Bassman

Harvey Nelson: 2 of us fishing at Bartlett on 5/6, caught 7 nice bass using spinnerbaits, shad-colored crankbaits, and the go-to bait– Carolina rig with a Senko worm. Most fish caught 15 feet deep in the sandy bottom coves with 2 caught shallow off points where there was a lot of shad visible. All fish 2-3 lbs., no small fish were caught.

Rory,

I fish Bartlett a lot and will try to keep my reports coming in regularly. I read the reports all the time and they often help me find good patterns. One pattern that I used a lot last year was after it gets up to 100 F outside I like to Carolina rig fish the lower lake islands bouncing Carolina rigs down the slope of islands to the 16-20 foot depths. It usually works great but one part of the pattern is wind. It has to be windy or it just doesn’t work. The wind pushes shad schools up onto the island slopes and the fish follow. No wind– no shad schools- no bass.

We tried it this week but couldn’t get the wind and it just did not work–so we went into the points and rock piles in the coves and found nice quality fish there.
Maybe that info can help somebody else too.

Harvey

HORSESHOE – <!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 0 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> Lake elevation is at 1951 feet, 0-percent full. They are releasing water at 150 cfs.

Hey someone fished Horseshoe from safe light to about 11:30 a.m. and caught three healthy largemouth bass using the drop shot method.  They ranged between 1.5 and 3 pounds.  The launch ramp is out of the water by about 10 feet and with the water release so high the lake will be back to river status real quick.  Don’t forget there are still some real nice catfish behind the spillway according to one knowledgeable catfisherman.

VERDE RIVER – Verde River flow at Tangle is 126 cubic feet per second.  Release from Bartlett Lake is 250 cfs.

SALT RIVER – <!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 0 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> Salt River into Roosevelt is 194 cfs, and Salt River Canyon is 190 cfs. They are releasing 1225 cfs out of Stewart Mountain dam from Saguaro.

The upper Salt has quite a few flatheads that readily take live or dead red shiners and sunfish caught via live bait or in the case of shiners cast nets while you are out there. Chicken liver will work as well.

A 47.9-pound flathead catfish was caught in the Upper Salt River real close to Roosevelt Lake two weeks ago.  A live sunfish caught at that location was used as bait.
LOWER SALT RIVER – Stewart Dam release is 1,075 cfs. Trout were stocked last week at Water Users and Blue Point. Expect lots of other recreational users (tubers) along this stretch of river. Flies are working as well as live worms. The fishing is best at first and last light. Largemouth are holding around the overhanging vegetation.

Where: Lower Salt
When:05/06/09
Caught: big grass monster
Technique: fly rod
Comments: tough day. Plenty of strikes but just not hooking up. Water way down (about 500 cfs) Anglers advised me the river was VERY busy last week for fishing. Big grass monster (algae debris, etc.) is growing by the hour. Anglers beware… the recreators are out in force. See ya next time.

Where: Lower Salt River
When: 04/22/09
Caught: Rainbow Trout
Technique: Fly Rod and spinning rig
Comments: Time again? Fished midday. Started slow. Picked up nicely and tapered off around 4 p.m. Spin anglers having a tough time with the big grass monster (algae) a bit tough with the spinners. Small jigs produced some fish. See ya next week.

CREEKS – <!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Verdana; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 0 0 0 415 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”,”serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; color:windowtext;} p {mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.5pt; font-family:”Verdana”,”sans-serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; color:black;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –> All the streams are still fishing well. Early morning and late evening still have the best bite. It’s time to try hoppers with a nymph dropper if you haven’t already. Ant patterns are also worth a try. Nymphs are working well, specifically caddis flies, pheasant tails and hairs ears. Terrestrials like hoppers are also producing.

HORSETHIEF BASIN LAKE – No new reports. It’s a pretty little lake that is worth visiting as part of a Bradshaw Mountain experience, but it is pond sized water where the fish are small; great for kids on a camp out. Bring night crawlers or meal worms and fish them under bobbers.

KAIBAB LAKE — Scheduled to be stocked this week.  Fishing is best bite at first and last light. Try night crawlers, salmon eggs, Power Bait, spinners or corn.

Angler reports:
Robert Bonnewell: 05-23-09, Fished from 9 a.m. till noon from the bank.  Caught 10 trout, 4 bluegills, and 1 largemouth bass.  Used Power Bait and worms.  Trout size ranged from 7-12 inches.

Garrett: After getting skunked at Kaibab Lake, went over to Cataract Lake, shore fishing next to the dam.  Hooked into three nice trout in 30 min….5/6/09

Darron Khan: Hit Kaibab today (5/9/09). Water temps are rising and the fish have turned on. Campgrounds are now open including the east end which provides good access to some nice bank fishing spots. Anglers are catching trout on Power Bait (all colors) and night crawlers under bobbers and on the bottom. Water clarity is still chocolate milk but the fish are still biting. Good luck all!
CATARACT LAKE — Scheduled for stocking this week. Fishing should be good. Campgrounds are open.

CITY RESERVOIR — Scheduled for stocking this week. Fishing should be good.

DOGTOWN LAKE — Campground is open. Stocked last week..

JD DAM — Road is open.

RUSSEL TANK -   No reports. Has been stocked.

SANTA FE — Lake is full.  Fishing has been good.

WHITEHORSE LAKE — Campgrounds are open. Has been stocked. In all likelihood, fishing should be fair to good. Try Power Bait, night crawlers, corn, salmon eggs, or small spinners.

FLAGSTAFF LAKES:

LOWER LAKE MARY — Fishing is good for trout.  This lake was stocked liberally in late winter, but stocking has ceased for this year. Those stocked rainbows are not fat and feisty.

Fly anglers have been doing well in the evenings on dark colored surface flies.
This is a very shallow lake and water quality will deteriorate rapidly once summer conditions prevail, so fish it now.

R. Jenkins: My wife and I fished at Lower Lake Mary Saturday, May 9, and had no problems catching our limits, plus we were able to teach a couple kids fishing there how to catch the fish. They ended up with more fish than their parents.

Fishing 2-pound test line with the bait about 30 inches under a bobber got me limits within 20 minutes of arrival.  My wife fishes 4-pound test and the fish do not take it nearly as much.  She switched to 2-pound test to finish off her limit.  Fishing anything heavier than 4-pound test is a waste of time there.  The fishing is wide open with the right bait but night crawlers, Power Bait and corn is not it.

UPPER LAKE MARY — The lake is full.  Anglers are catching some nice sized northern pike. Try spinners, crankbaits or swim baits.

Angler reports:

Jeff Bierer: 5/24/2009 From a boat our fishing day started at noon and ended at dark. We helped a family get their boat started with some jumper cables-the rest is history. Mike and I each had our personal best day on the lake, at-least in terms of quantity. We boated so many pike that my live-well was at capacity. We stopped counting at 50 pike before the evening bite even kicked in!

The Northern Pike are healthy this year, although a few had fresh scars from larger Pike trying to cannibalize them. All were released at the end of the fishing day. Lots of healthy hard hitting pike in 6 inches up to 15 feet of water. Hordes of 1 lb. to 3 lb. Pike with several bigger Pike in the mix, nothing over 5lbs. however. I fished the same black and silver floating Rapala all day and Mike threw everything in the tackle box. It all worked.

Thunderheads, a shower, a rainbow, and some wind gusts from passing storms. Periods of calm with warm sun shine added to the beautiful lake conditions especially after the recent rains. Even the Yellow Perch were hammering the Pike lures! I must declare the fishing has never been better in the 20 years I have been fishing the lake!

Robert Bonnewell: 05-25-09 – Fished from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m.  Caught 15 northern pike all on silver spinners.  Caught one nice 6.2 pounder.  Big ones are starting to bite.

Mike Bright: My dad Gary, son Levi, daughter Ella and me were fishing Upper Lake Mary at dusk on May 15 and the morning of May 16 by the dam from shore.  We caught 1 largemouth bass, 4 Yellow Perch, 1 crappie, and 6 Northern Pike.  We used silver KastMasters for the Pike and worms with bobbers for the other fish. It was the best fishing I have had at that Lake and a beautiful mini trip out of the valley of heat.

Where: Upper Lake Mary
When: 05/25/09
Caught:one small northern
Technique: Rapala jerkbait
Comments:people were catching them on just about everything here just had to find the right spot I guess
Name: Andrew Althaus

Dennis Stuhr: Fished from 1600 until dark again for Northerns 5/08/09. Caught a dozen little Northerns & 1 small Perch.  Largest Northern was 17″ long. An Osprey had pretty good luck plucking fish at the shore line. Did not see anybody else catch a single fish except for the Osprey.

ASHURST LAKE —  The lake is full. Fishing was good last Saturday or corn and worms. Scheduled to be stocked this week. Trout anglers sometimes hook into monster northern pike here this time of year.

Where:Ashurst
When:05/25/09
Caught:4 rainbows
Technique:worms from bobber and one on yellow Power Bait
Comments:fishing was good till wind got strong
Name:Andrew Althaus
FRANCIS SHORT POND – Scheduled to be stocked this week with trout. Fishing was fair on hotdogs for catfish and worms for trout.

KINNIKINICK LAKE — Road is open. Has been recently stocked.
Hey Rory;
Last night at Kinnikinick Lake around 11 pm, I caught a 5 pounds brown trout and 17.5 inches long with a worm and on the shore. I got some pictures attached so you welcome to post it online. This fish was a beauty!!
Gary Pace

PS: Hey Rory,
I just had the fish verified by Game and Fish and it was only 2.04 pounds and 15.75 inches long (but it felt like a 5 pounds . Anyways it is the biggest trout I’ve seen.

I caught it close to shore so it wasn’t very hard but this fish was fighting hard all the way, I actually thought it was a catfish when I pulled it up.
Gary Pace

— Road is open and the lake has been stocked. This small lake will not be stocked again this year.

LONG LAKE — Stocked last week. Lake is open.  Water level is good.
Angler report:

Jeff Matthiesen caught 4 trout in about 2 hours with Berkley Gulp at Long Lake.
SOLDIERS & SOLDIERS ANNEX — Lakes are open. No report.

STONEMAN LAKE — NO FISH.

Verde Valley
Verde Valley

DEAD HORSE STATE PARK – Fishing in general has been okay.  Try getting there early for the trout.  It should begin slowing soon.  Trout were last stocked the week of April 6.  This was the last scheduled stocking until the fall. Try using white Power Bait, homemade dough baits, flies or small spinners.    If you’re not catching anything you may want to try a different bait or another location.  Some places in the lagoons are much better than others.  Don’t be afraid to move around if you are not having success.

Bass and Bluegill are moving around.  Most of the bluegill are small, but still fun for kids to catch.  Some of the bass are on beds.

VERDE RIVER (throughout Verde Valley) – No new reports- Trout were last stocked the week of March 16.  The catfish bite should be picking up soon.

Prescott Area

FAIN LAKE — Trout were stocked last  week, the week of May 18th.  1,325 rainbow trout will be stocked again next  week, the week of June 1st.  Trout fishing is best immediately following the stocking.  For trout try using spinners or bright colored Power Bait.

GOLDWATER LAKE — Trout were stocked on Saturday and Sunday (May 16th and 17th.)  for  fishing clinics. Trout were easily caught on both days.  Power Bait usually works well for trout.  If that does not work, you may want to try using KastMasters.  Look for the trout to be most active in the early morning and late afternoon, but they can be caught all day. Trout are scheduled to be stocked again the week of June 8th.

Catfish and bass were stocked the week of Sept. 15.  Game and Fish biologists weighed a 22-pound channel catfish that was caught at Goldwater in March.  On July 11, a 26-pound catfish was caught on a hotdog and an 11-pound catfish was caught since then.

Game and Fish Biologists surveyed Goldwater on Sept. 16, 2008 and found the trout and sunfish plentiful. While the number of catfish was low, the quality was exceptional. One 19lbs and a 14lbs catfish was sampled and released. No bass were sampled this year. If you fish Goldwater and are having luck, please e-mail me at mchmiel@azgfd.gov so I can share your successes with others.

Granite Basin – No new reports.  Bluegill and bass are plentiful in this lake.  The aquatic vegetation has not been bad this year making fishing this lake easier than normal. The bite should begin to pick up around then end of May or beginning of June as the water begins to warm.  If you fish Granite Basin and are having luck, please e-mail me at mchmiel@azgfd.gov so I can share your successes with others.
LYNX LAKE — Rainbow trout were last stocked the week of May 11th, as well as 1,600 brook trout.  The brookies were about 3 to the pound.  Have not heard if people are catching those brook trout.  Trout are scheduled to be stocked again the week of June 15.  If you are not having success fishing in one spot, then try walking the shore and throwing a small spinner.

Try using chartreuse Power Bait on the bottom for these pretty little fish.  Try using night crawlers or hot dogs for the catfish.  Catfish will be stocked again sometime this June.
MINGUS LAKE – Trout were stocked last week, the week of May 18th..  The gate is open.  The best bait is usually orange, pink, or white Power Bait, fished on the bottom with a treble hook and an egg sinker.  Anglers often have success with flies and spinners as well.  Trout are scheduled to be stocked again next week, the week of June 1st.

Someone illegally stocked yellow bullhead into Mingus several years ago.  These fish compete directly with the trout and keep growth rates very low.  If you witness anyone, anywhere, moving fish like bass, bluegill, catfish and stocking them, please report it to our Operation Game Thief Hotline at 1-800-352-0700.  Illegal stockings cost YOU money!

WATSON – The fishing at Watson has been slow.  As the water begins to warm look for the warm water species to become more active.  Crappies are found in low numbers. Bullheads are easily caught using a small piece of worm.

Game and Fish Biologists surveyed Watson last fall and found the bass,  sunfish, and bullhead to be plentiful.  Crappies were also doing well.  Look for the crappie fishing to pick up in a year or two. If you fish Watson and are having luck, please e-mail me at mchmiel@azgfd.gov so I can share your successes with others.
WILLOW CREEK RESERVOIR – Bass, bluegill, and bullhead are plentiful.  Most of the bluegills are on the small side, but the bullheads are thick.  The bass should be moving up to spawn soon if they have not already.  Bass usually spawn in this lake as early as April. They seem to be starting a little later this year.  If you fish Willow and are having luck, please e-mail me at mchmiel@azgfd.gov so I can share your successes with others.

Catfish will continue to be stocked at rates of 40-60 fish per acre every other week through June.  Fishing is good to excellent for channel catfish at Urban waters in the Phoenix and Tucson areas.  Top baits for catfish continue to be worms, shrimp, and dough/stink baits fished off the bottom.  Cats have been biting best mid morning and in the evenings.  Bluegill and sunfish are biting well along the shorelines for anglers using worms and mealworms.  Bass up to six pounds are biting during the pre-summer period, however shallow water fish are wary.  Try small plastics presented with split shot or drop shot rigs in the evenings and early morning.  A 20-inch lunker bass was recently caught and released at Kennedy Lake in Tucson.

The estimated 4.5 pounder fell for a 10 inch Gulp worm.  A 22 pound carp was caught from Papago Pond on corn.  At Green Valley lakes (Payson) fishing is good for trout and very good for crappie, bluegill, bass and catfish.  The final spring stocking of rainbow trout into Green Valley was May 9 and included a double stocking.  Plenty of trout remain to sustain great fishing for weeks to come.  Best trout baits include Power Bait or worms.  Worms, mealworms and small jigs work well for the bluegill.

Update on shoreline stabilization projects
The Game and Fish Urban Fishing Program (UFP) in partnership with the City of Tempe Parks Department and the North Tempe Neighborhood Association (NTNA) recently completed a project to stabilize over 600 feet of shoreline at Evelyn Hallman Park in north Tempe.  More than 300 tons of rock materials, purchased by the UFP, were used to rebuild collapsing banks that are popular spots for anglers.  In addition to improving angler access, the natural rock walls are aesthetically attractive and serve as excellent habitat for fish and smaller aquatic food items.

Work was completed in time for the May 23 park dedication ceremony that recognized the immense community efforts and leadership of Evelyn Hallman who was also involved in the first shoreline stabilization efforts in 2005.

A park Master Plan has been developed to guide further site improvements at the lake and park.  More exciting and user-friendly changes will be taking place over the next year at this beautiful “oasis in the desert.”

At Papago Park Ponds #1 and #2 similar shoreline stabilization projects are well underway.  The UFP purchased over 500 tons of rock materials in this partnership project between Game and Fish and the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department.  Work at Pond #1 has been completed and includes over 450 feet of restored shoreline in the most well used fishing areas.  Some new shoreline access has been created and some cattail removal at the inflow site will help with water deliveries.  Shoreline work at Papago Pond #2 is 25% completed.  Over the next few weeks a total of 700 feet of shoreline will be rebuilt using large rock materials to create a natural, stable and long-lasting edge.

Where: Chaparral Lake
When: 05/07/09
Caught: Channel Catfish
Technique: Crappie rig, worm on both hooks.
Name: Jenna Fjeld

Where: Veterans Oasis
When:05/03/09
Caught: nothing
Technique: hotdog
Comments: Slow -  nobody was catching anything
Name: john

Where: Kiwanis
When:05/02/09
Caught: 8 average sized catfish and one 8lb monster
Technique: Believe it or not, power bait. you know the stuff for trout, orange
Comments: On the all American way road at the very far end about 20ft. out. someone illegally put in about 50 hand sized goldfish on Saturday so if you see them, take them out before they destroy the lake
Name: Andy

TEMPE TOWN LAKE – People are catching largemouth bass, redear sunfish, and bluegill.  There are some nice catfish to be caught.  Use chicken liver or hotdogs to entice the cats.  Fish around the bridges and other structure you can get near.  Get there early. Carp are hungry for corn and dough bait.

A Tempe Town Lake survey earlier this year showeda substantial resurgence of largemouth bass, yellow bass and channel catfish, black crappie and a very large increase in our catch of threadfin shad compared to last year’s survey conducted after a golden algae outbreak and a couple days of high runoff which led to the lowering of couple of the downstream inflatable dams.
Angler reports:
Went to Tempe Town on Friday morning, and again on Monday morning.  Friday morning was a blast.  The bite wasn’t the best, but I was catching fish.  I was on the south side under the Rural Bridge.  I caught a bluegill the size of a dinner plate on a Berkley gulp minnow.  Two 11″ largemouth on worms about 7′ under a slip bobber, and about a 2 lb cat on the slip bobber rig also.  Monday I was using shad as bait and caught 6 LM’s under the bridge on nothing more than a hook with a split shot about 18″ up from the hook — Barry

Hello Rory,

I haven’t seen many reports about Tempe Town Lake lately, so I thought I would help with this. My parents and I have been going about three time a week lately in the evening and the cat-fishing has really picked up. We have progressively reeled in bigger fish with night crawlers fished on the bottom. This last time we went our worms had been overheated, dead, and smelly but the catfish my dad caught must have liked it. Attached is the picture of the 6 Pound cat, he was about 25 inches long, and was thick and strong.

Thanks for your tips Rory and hope this helps for the next report,

Christopher Heath
LAKE PLEASANT – Water elevation is 1,693 ft, which is 89-percent full. Largemouth are hitting topwater lures and flukes in the northern coves.

Topwater poppers are working for some, and not others. The best surface action will typically be at first and last light, but surface feeding can occur at any time of day (or night).

Striper fishing appears to be picking up, especially at night (new moon on Sunday).
A shore angler cat fishing near the four-lane launch ramp in Castle Creek said he couldn’t keep the bait on his hook, and even caught a striper.
Another angler fished in Humbug and caught 10 stripers tipping the scales over 2.5 pounds using anchovies fished 20 to 25 feet deep.
One angler caught 15 stripers between 5 and 6 a.m. fishing the points mid lake on the west side using Lucky Craft Pointers; all stripers were between 15 and 21 inches long.

Other anglers report doing okay at night for stripers drift fishing or slowly trolling pieces of anchovy with little or no weight, especially along the submerged creek channels in the northern coves.

Not hearing much about the largemouth bass fishing, but most should be in the post-spawn mode. Look for largemouth to be feeding toward the surface at first and last light. You’ll likely find them off the points in 10 to 15 feet of water during the day. Try drop shots, small plastic lizards, or even Carolina-rigged worms.
Lake Pleasant Regional Park will host the Tribal Sprint Triathlon the first weekend of June, and the event will close both the north entry into the park and the four-lane boat ramp at 5 p.m. on Friday, June 5. However, they will reopen to the public at noon on Saturday, June 6.

Where:Pleasant
When:05/02/09
Caught:bass, bluegill
Technique:plastic worm Texas rig
Comments:bass was 14 inches but the bluegill was just as big and weighed in at a little over a pound
Name:Michael Culbertson

Where: pleasant
When: 05/02/09
Caught: bass, bluegill
Technique: plastic worm Texas rig
Comments: bass was 14 inches but the bluegill was just as big and weighed in at a little over a pound
Name: Michael Culbertson

ROOSEVELT LAKE — Lake Elevation is 2,150 ft (99-percent full).  Tonto Creek runoff is at 27 cfs while inflow from the Salt River is at 393 cfs.

Fishing was sure good last weekend when it was raining. Anglers are reporting action all day.  One angler mentioned the fish were hanging out between the surface to about 20 feet deep.  He had good fishing from mid-lake to the Salt end.

Another angler said drop-shotting and split-shotting plastic worms worked like a charm.  Once the storm moved on the bite stopped.  On Sunday morning fishing was good from about 4:30 until 7:30 a.m.  Spinnerbaits, skinny dippers and drop shot worms all worked well. Most of the largemouth bass were in the slot but between 3 boats and a group of anglers they caught 10 overs and 15 unders.  Bluegills were also biting.

Another angler reported the fish were very shallow, 1-3 feet, in the early morning and late evening.  They went deeper during the day around 15 to 20 feet deep using drop-shot and Texas-rigged worms.

Another fisherman reported catching 20 to 25 largemouth bass on Ricos in 25 to 45 feet of water.  They caught 3 overs and Carolina-rigged worms worked very well.

Some anglers have been finding  a good topwater bite at first light, others have found the morning bite to be slow. Try poppers, stick baits and soft plastic jerkbaits. Have a second pole rigged with a flutter-down bait such as a Senko if you get hit but no hook up.

A good technique to use at any time can be targeting individual pieces of submerged vegetation using flutter-down baits like Senkos and curly-tail grubs. Or try working four-inch lizards and curly-tail worms. There is certainly a lot of submerged cover that can be worked right now.

Crappie fishing should be best at night (there is a new moon on Sunday). Anglers have been catching crappies in the Salt end in the morning trolling blue-black-chartreuse (BBC)  and John Deer grubs tipped with minnows. The crappies were suspended 15 to 20 feet deep.

It sounds like the flathead catfish anglers are out in force, with some hauling in big monsters, but most are keeping the action pretty quiet. Try where the Salt River enters the lake. But it is possible to catch flats in just about any area of the lake.

We are not hearing much about the smallmouth action, but try the rocky areas near the dam using crayfish-like baits when the wind picks up.
The action is also pretty good for bluegills and yellow bass. Try using meal worms under bobbers in the backs of coves, or along those rocky secondary points inside the coves.

Channel catfish and carp are abundant – you can probably load up with lots of bottom feeders along any piece of shoreline, and you don’t need a boat. Although daylight fishing is viable for these bottom feeders, this is the time of year when they can also be pretty active at night as well.

Don Stich: 05/15/09 8-11 p.m. area-Schoolhouse
18 yellow bass-13-15oz, 5 largemouth 1 over 1 slot 3 unders, 12 bluegills & 5 crappies 4 small 1 keeper
05/16/09, Salt end. 3 flatheads 4lb 7lb 13lb, 7 p.m.-5a.m.

APACHE – Lake elevation is 1,911 ft (97-percent full).

Fishing continues to be good.  The largemouth bass are still shallow near the shoreline and hitting shallow running crankbaits, like bombers.  Chartreuse colored lures are working well.  Blue and silver Rat-L-Traps produced some nice 16- to 18-inch bass for one angler.

Catfish are active around the marina one angler caught a 13-pound catfish using a night crawler and a 20-pound catfish was caught on a chicken liver at the marina.

Game and Fish biologists sampled Apache Lake this spring and caught some nice largemouth bass, a whole lot of bluegills and a fair amount of catfish.  We electro-fished and set nets and every time we e-fished near reeds, we would get some nice largemouth. The rocky sites were not as fruitful, although we did catch quite a few smallmouth bass in those areas.

The smallmouth we stocked in 2007 are now in the slot and doing real well.  We caught quite a few green sunfish and every one of them looked like they just had a seven-course dinner.  A couple hot spots for bass and sunfish are the Crabtree area, plus we caught a slew of catfish at Pine Cove.  Another hot spot was the area around Burnt Corral.  We picked up a few of the small 3-4 inch trout we recently stocked as a house cleaning effort for one of our hatcheries.

CANYON LAKE – Lake elevation is 1,658 feet, which is 96-percent full.

Fishing is excellent at Canyon. Anglers are using 4-inch Senkos on split shots.  Watermelon and pumpkin worms with black flakes seem to be producing well, but you have to work them slow bumping the rocks.  You need to work under the overhanging vegetation.

A lot of anglers are reporting good success at Canyon but are a bit tight lipped on what they used and where they fished.

However, some anglers have reported huge shad boils at times in the main basin and up lake.

The overhanging vegetation and rocky substrate is what I would be looking for.  Some anglers are giving up some details; jerkbaits and crankbaits are working well for some.  Our sampling also revealed some lunkers along the canyon walls.  If you get tired of bouncing worms off the rocky substrate try bouncing them along the canyon walls.

If you are looking for a place to take the kids to catch lots of bluegills, give Canyon a try.

SAGUARO LAKE – Lake elevation 1,524 feet at 91-percent full.
I conducted a creel at Saguaro on the holiday and believe it or not some fishermen were out braving the recreational onslaught.  Anglers caught largemouth bass using t-rigged worms in the shallows.  Bluegill were taking live worms and meal worms along the emergent vegetation.  Yellow bass were hanging at the points and vulnerable to KastMasters and jigs.

Barry Johnston: Went to Saguaro on Monday at 5 a.m., using minnows off the second pier down from the boat ramps.  My first four attempts landed me LM, the smallest being 8″ and the largest being 18″.  I was using a slip bobber about 15 feet above the hook.  After the LM’s quit biting the yellows started hitting, I landed about 15 of those before heading to Tempe Town at 10: 30 a.m.

Where: Saguaro
When: 05/15/09
Caught: Bluegill, largemouth, yellow bass
Technique: smallest jig I cold find with white 1″ grub cut down to 1/2″ cast into the shallows in the back of coves.
Comments: 2 of us fished for 5 hours from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and caught 81 fish most smaller than my hand but what a blast!
Name: Jim Lindquist

BARTLETT – Lake elevation is 1,794 ft, which is 94-percent full.  Reservoir release is 600 cfs.

An angler caught largemouth on swim baits and had some bites on spinnerbaits and lipless crankbait.  Drop shots worked very well on some graphed fish; most of them were small but a few keepers were in the batch. White jigs were enticing the bite as well.  The fish were between 2 and 22 feet deep.

Another angler fished in the rain and all the fish were hanging around rocky areas 10 to 20 feet deep and crankbait and jerk bait were enticing the bite.
Crappie fishing has been sporadic, with some anglers doing well and others having trouble finding a bite.

Angler reports:

The Post Spawn Blues are over.  As some of you have mentioned…Training Wheels aka Spinnerbaits are now the bait of choice, Bartlett Bass love green and Chartreuse colors.  Also, Crankbaits and Carolina-rigged Zoom Lizards off points are landing good bass. Anything with a wiggle is working well.

My partner Rich and I caught our limit this weekend averaging about 2 lbs a piece: Catch-and-release. By the way, for the Newbies to fishing …no boat was required as we fish from the shorelines. And for those of you who can appreciate a lil exercise while fishing…Bartlett has some of the best hiking trails.
Bassman

Harvey Nelson: 2 of us fishing at Bartlett on 5/6, caught 7 nice bass using spinnerbaits, shad-colored crankbaits, and the go-to bait– Carolina rig with a Senko worm. Most fish caught 15 feet deep in the sandy bottom coves with 2 caught shallow off points where there was a lot of shad visible. All fish 2-3 lbs., no small fish were caught.
Rory,

I fish Bartlett a lot and will try to keep my reports coming in regularly. I read the reports all the time and they often help me find good patterns. One pattern that I used a lot last year was after it gets up to 100 F outside I like to Carolina rig fish the lower lake islands bouncing Carolina rigs down the slope of islands to the 16-20 foot depths. It usually works great but one part of the pattern is wind. It has to be windy or it just doesn’t work. The wind pushes shad schools up onto the island slopes and the fish follow. No wind– no shad schools- no bass.

We tried it this week but couldn’t get the wind and it just did not work–so we went into the points and rock piles in the coves and found nice quality fish there.
Maybe that info can help somebody else too.

Harvey

HORSESHOE – Lake elevation is at 1,990 feet, which has dropped to 35-percent full.  They are releasing water at 400 cfs, so this lake will likely be slowly drained to keep up the lake level at Bartlett. This also means the lake will be rimed by saturated soils, making shoreline access challenging in places. The best fishing will likely be just below the dam, especially in the deeper holes.

Tammy Wagoner: While fishing the Verde River just below Horseshoe Lake, fish were flipping out of the water frequently.  We caught quite a few channel cats, but let most go because they were small. We fished with chicken liver and fish would bite almost as soon as we got our line in the water.  I also caught a largemouth bass on a Carolina-rigged black lizard while fishing on the east bank from a kayak. I’ve been a few times last week and have had better luck there than at Bartlett and Pleasant both. Also caught a carp on chicken liver.

VERDE RIVER – Verde River flow at Tangle is 283 cubic feet per second.  Release from Bartlett Lake is 600 cfs.

SALT RIVER – Salt River into Roosevelt is 393 cfs, and Salt River Canyon is 1,330 cfs.  They are releasing 575 cfs out of Stewart Mountain Dam from Saguaro.
A 47.9-pound flathead catfish was caught in the Upper Salt River real close to Roosevelt Lake two weeks ago.  A live sunfish caught at that location was used as bait.
LOWER SALT RIVER – Stewart Dam release is 1,075 cfs. Trout were stocked last week at Water Users and Blue Point. Expect lots of other recreational users (tubers) along this stretch of river. Flies are working as well as live worms. The fishing is best at first and last light. Largemouth are holding around the overhanging vegetation.

Where: Lower Salt
When:05/06/09
Caught: big grass monster
Technique: fly rod
Comments: tough day. Plenty of strikes but just not hooking up. Water way down (about 500 cfs) Anglers advised me the river was VERY busy last week for fishing. Big grass monster (algae debris, etc.) is growing by the hour. Anglers beware… the recreators are out in force. See ya next time.

Where: Lower Salt River
When: 04/22/09
Caught: Rainbow Trout
Technique: Fly Rod and spinning rig
Comments: Time again? Fished midday. Started slow. Picked up nicely and tapered off around 4 p.m. Spin anglers having a tough time with the big grass monster (algae) a bit tough with the spinners. Small jigs produced some fish. See ya next week.

CREEKS – All creeks along the Mogollon Rim are fishing pretty well. Early mornigns and evenings are best.

Nymphs are working well, as are drifting simi-seals. Blue winged olives are getting popular (size 18). In mid day, try a hopper dropper rig with a No. 16 bead head nymph under it. Dry flies — pay attention  to the hatch and match.

Christopher Creek, Tonto Creek, Haigler Creek and the East Verde have all been stocked this spring. Spin anglers should try night crawlers, meal worms, Power Bait, corn, salmon eggs, small spinners, and grasshoppers.

Game and Fish sampled Canyon creek and there are a lot of browns hiding out in the pools.  Look for root wads as well. Get there early, it’s a popular place.

HORSETHIEF BASIN LAKE – No new reports. It’s a pretty little lake that is worth visiting as part of a Bradshaw Mountain experience, but it is pond sized water where the fish are small; great for kids on a camp out. Bring night crawlers or meal worms and fish them under bobbers.

Bluegill and sunfish are biting well at 4-7 foot depths on worms and mealworms fished along the bottom or under a bobber.

Bass fishing is picking up again during the pre-summer period.  Try small plastics presented with split shot or drop shot rigs in the evenings and early morning.

At Green Valley lakes (Payson) fishing is excellent for trout and good for crappie, bluegill and bass.  The final spring stocking of rainbow trout into Green Valley

Where:Chaparral Lake
When:05/07/09
Caught:Channel Catfish
Technique:Crappie rig, worm on both hooks.
Name:Jenna Fjeld
Where:Veterans Oasis
When:05/03/09
Caught:nothing
Technique:hotdog
Comments: Slow -  nobody was catching anything
Name:john
Where:Kiwanis
When:05/02/09
Caught:8 average sized catfish and one 8lb monster
Technique:Believe it or not, power bait. you know the stuff for trout, orange
CommentsOn the all American way road at the very far end about 20ft. out. someone illegally put in about 50 hand sized goldfish on Saturday so if you see them, take them out before they destroy the lake
Name:Andy
TEMPE TOWN LAKE – Fishing is fair for largemouth bass, yellow bass, bluegill, carp and catfish. Try fishing early in the morning and late in the afternoon, especially along the shade lines created by the bridges. Night crawlers fished along the bottom might just get you everything (except carp) this time of year. For carp, try corn.

A recent Tempe Town Lake survey indicate a substantial resurgence of largemouth bass, yellow bass and channel catfish, black crappie and a very large increase in our catch of threadfin shad compared to last year’s survey conducted after a golden algae outbreak and a couple days of high runoff which led to the lowering of couple of the downstream inflatable dams.

Angler reports:

Hello Rory,

I haven’t seen many reports about Tempe Town Lake lately, so I thought I would help with this. My parents and I have been going about three time a week lately in the evening and the cat-fishing has really picked up. We have progressively reeled in bigger fish with night crawlers fished on the bottom. This last time we went our worms had been overheated, dead, and smelly but the catfish my dad caught must have liked it. Attached is the picture of the 6 Pound cat, he was about 25 inches long, and was thick and strong.

Thanks for your tips Rory and hope this helps for the next report,

Christopher Heath

Where:Tempe Town Lake
When:05/03/09
Caught:2 Yellow Bass
Technique:Berkley Gulp Minnow, Rat-L-Trap, spinnerbait, Kast Master. Under Rural bridge on South side of the lake.
Comments:A beautiful day on the lake, not much was biting though. I caught a couple small (6″) yellow bass and not much else. Had a few bites here and there but nothing was really striking hard and you had to be quick to get them. On another note, why do the people from Tempe Parks feel the need to have the rowing people so close to shore? I am all about sharing the lake, but couldn’t they move out 50′ or so. Every time I would get my line in the water another rowing boat would come by and run right over my line and I was only fishing about 25′ from shore. Please guys; there is a whole lake there. Let those of us who don’t have a boat enjoy this wonderful resource.
Name:Barry

Where: Tempe Town Lake
When: 05/03/09
Caught:2 Yellow Bass
Technique: Berkley Gulp Minnow, Rat-L-Trap, spinnerbait, Kast Master. Under Rural bridge on South side of the lake.
Comments: A beautiful day on the lake, not much was biting though. I caught a couple small (6″) yellow bass and not much else. Had a few bites here and there but nothing was really striking hard and you had to be quick to get them. On another note, why do the people from Tempe Parks feel the need to have the rowing people so close to shore? I am all about sharing the lake, but couldn’t they move out 50′ or so. Every time I would get my line in the water another rowing boat would come by and run right over my line. And I was only fishing about 25′ from shore. Please guys; there is a whole lake there. Let those of us who don’t have a boat enjoy this wonderful resource.
Name: Barry

LAKE PLEASANT – Water elevation is 1,693 feet, which is 90-percent full.

Topater poppers are working for some, and not others. The best surface action will typically be at first and last light, but surface feeding can occur at any time of day (or night).

Striper fishing appears to be picking up, especially at night (new moon on Sunday).

A shore angler catfishing near the four-lane launch ramp in Castle Creek said he couldn’t keep the bait on his hook, and even caught a striper.

Another angler fished in Humbug and caught 10 stripers tipping the sacles over 2.5 pounds using anchovies fished 20 to 25 feet deep.

One angler caught 15 stripers between 5 and 6 a.m. fishing the points mid lake on the west side using Lucky Craft Pointers; all stripers were between 15 and 21 inches long.

Other anglers report doing okay at night for stripers drift fishing or slowly trolling pieces of anchovy with little or no weight, especially along the submerged creek channels in the northern coves.

Not hearing much about the largemouth bass fishing, but most should be in the post-spawn mode. Look for largemouth to be feeding toward the surface at first and last light. You’ll likely find them off the points in 10 to 15 feet of water during the day. Try drop shots, small plastic lizards, or even Carolina-rigged worms.

Lake Pleasant Regional Park will host the Tribal Sprint Triathlon the first weekend of June, and the event will close both the north entry into the park and the four-lane boat ramp at 5 p.m. on Friday, June 5. However, they will reopen to the public at noon on Saturday, June 6.

Where:Pleasant
When:05/02/09
Caught:bass, bluegill
Technique:plastic worm Texas rig
Comments:bass was 14 inches but the bluegill was just as big and weighed in at a little over a pound
Name:Michael Culbertson
Where: pleasant
When: 05/02/09
Caught: bass, bluegill
Technique: plastic worm Texas rig
Comments: bass was 14 inches but the bluegill was just as big and weighed in at a little over a pound
Name: Michael Culbertson
ROOSEVELT LAKE — Lake Elevation remains at 2,150 ft (99-percent full).  Tonto Creek runoff is at 17 cfs while inflow from the Salt River has slowed to 421 cfs.

The Tonto National Forest has instituted fire restrictions, and so has the Game and Fish Department in its wildlife areas (3-Bar and Roosevelt). So be careful out there – the habitat is dry and fire danger is high.

The prime runoff season has ended.  This remains one of the state’s bass, crappie and catfish hot spots.

Some anglers have been fishing  a good topwater bite at first light, others have found the morning bite to be slow. Try poppers, stick baits and soft plastic jerkbaits. Have a second pole rigged with a flutter-down bait such as a Senko if you get hit but no hook up.

A good technique to use at any time can be targeting individual pieces of submerged vegetation using flutter-down baits like Senkos and curly-tail grubs. Or try working four-inch lizards and curly-tail worms. There is certainly a lot of submerged cover that can be worked right now.

Crappie fishing should be best at night (there is a new moon on Sunday). Anglers have been catching crappies in the Salt En i nthemorning trolling blue-black-chartreuse (BBC)  and John Deer grubs tipped with minnows. There crappies were suspended 15 to 20 feet deep.

It sounds like the flathead catfish anglers are out in force, with some hauling in big monsters, but most are keeping the action pretty quiet.

We are not hearing much about the smallmouth action, but try the rocky areas near the dam using crayfish-like baits when the wind picks up.

The action is also pretty good for bluegills and yellow bass. Try using meal worms under bobbers in the backs of coves, or along those rocky secondary points inside the coves.

Channel catfish and carp are abundant – you can probably load up with lots of bottom feeders along any piece of shoreline, and you don’t need a boat. Although daylight fishing is viable for these bottom feeders, this is the time of year when they can also be pretty active at night as well.

Don Stich: 05/15/09 8-11 p.m. area-Schoolhouse
18 yellow bass-13-15oz
5 largemouth 1 over 1 slot 3 unders
12 bluegills & 5 crappies 4 small 1 keeper
05/16/09
Salt end. 3 flatheads 4lb 7lb 13lb
7 p.m.-5a.m.

A father-son duo slayed the fish during a morning of fishing.  Topwater lures worked best for the first two hours in 3 feet of water.   Once the topwater bite slowed the bass went after the large 10-inch worms on Carolina rigs at the main lake points in about 12 feet of water.  All bass caught by this duo were in the slot.  They reported the water temp at 73 F and about 10 feet visibility.

Another family fishing expedition fished on the 9th and 10th of May.  They caught a couple 3-pound largemouth bass along with some smaller ones using Texas-rigged plastic worms and green and white spinners.  They also caught 15 sunfish and had a hard time keeping them away from the lure as they were after some larger fish.  They fished in and around the submerged trees and near cliffs.  They also did some flathead fishing at night and had a hard time staying awake but still managed to catch a whopping 7-inch one!

APACHE – Lake elevation is still 1,911 feet (97-percent full).

Fishing continues to pick up at Apache.  One avid angler caught 30 fish in one day of fishing.  He caught largemouth bass, sunfish and yellow bass.  The largemouth bass are on beds right now and the best fishing is close to shore near overhanging vegetation.  Another tidbit is the fishing seems to be better towards the Horse Mesa Dam as opposed to the other direction.  Fish were biting on crankbait, a chartreuse spinners and purple plastic worms rigged on a drop shot.  People are also catching 6-9 pound catfish near the marina using worms.  A hearty thanks to David who works at Apache Lake for providing detailed reliable fishing reports.

Game and Fish biologists sampled Apache Lake and caught some nice largemouth bass, a whole lot of bluegills and a fair amount of catfish.  We electro-fished and set nets and every time we e-fished near reeds, we would get some nice largemouth. The rocky sites were not as fruitful, although we did catch quite a few smallmouth bass in those areas.

The smallmouth we stocked in 2007 are now in the slot and doing real well.  We caught quite a few green sunfish and every one of them looked like they just had a seven-course dinner.  A couple hot spots for bass and sunfish are the Crabtree area, plus we caught a slew of catfish at Pine Cove.  Another hot spot was the area around Burnt Corral.  We picked up a few of the small 3-4 inch trout we recently stocked as a house cleaning effort for one of our hatcheries.

Swim baits ought to work pretty well there.  Come to our Anglers Roundtable, scheduled for May 21 at Bass Pro in Mesa from 6 to 8 p.m. to see photos of the real nice largemouth and smallmouth bass as well as the 30+ pound flathead.  We will also report on the health of the Salt River Reservoir lakes.  Apache is recovering albeit a little slower than Saguaro and Canyon.

CANYON LAKE – Lake elevation is 1,657 feet, which is 95-percent full.

Many thanks for the UAAF anglers who helped stock largemouth bass in Saguaro, Canyon and Apache lakes last week.

An angler waiting for the Game and Fish stocking truck to deliver largemouth bass caught some nice largemouth bass using 4-inch worms.

Another angler caught a couple good sized 3-plus-pound largemouth bass.  He also caught about 15 small ones and two 3-inch feisty smallmouth bass took 4-inch worms.

A happy couple fished late afternoon till about midnight and caught two largemouth bass and a yellow bass on a crankbait near shore.  They also caught a small catfish, a bluegill, and a little smallmouth on a worm.
A couple anglers fished from about 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. and caught five largemouth bass with the largest being a 3 pounder.  All were caught on watermelon/red Zoom worms on Texas-rigs or drop shots.

SAGUARO LAKE – Lake elevation 1,525 feet at 93 percent full. This is a hot spot for bluegill and yellow bass, which are hitting KastMasters worked in 5 to 15 feet of water.

For the plentiful bluegills, try areas next to emergent vegetation. Worms and meal worms will entice any self respecting bluegill.

Not hearing much from bass anglers right now, but they have been catching lots of yearling bass. This is a good time to fish at night using submersible lights for both largemouth bass and yellow bass using live minnows and small jigs.

Where: Saguaro
When: 05/15/09
Caught: Bluegill, largemouth, yellow bass
Technique: smallest jig I cold find with white 1″ grub cut down to 1/2″ cast into the shallows in the back of coves.
Comments: 2 of us fished for 5 hours from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and caught 81 fish most smaller than my hand but what a blast!
Name: Jim Lindquist

BARTLETT – Lake elevation is 1,790 ft, which has dropped slightly during the past week to 88-percent full.  Reservoir release is 1,100 cfs.

Fishermen are caqtching largemouth bass using spinnerbaits, crankbaits and plastics in the morning. The evening bite seems to be a little better; try using Carolina-rigged worms or lizards along with poppers and crankbaits. Try working the main-lake points, islands and reefs. The islands and reefs can be very productive at times.

Smaller bass and bluegills are suceptible to slow-trolling curly-tail grubs on small jigheads (1/16 to 1/8-ounce) up-lake from the Yellow Cliffs.

One angler caught 10 fish, with some nice ones (one weighed 4 pounds) mixed in.

Another angler used lipless Rapalas and Rat-L-Traps to catch 12 bass in the 8- to 12-inch range.

Some anglers are doing well for crappies using small jigs (and catching bass as well). This is an excellent time to fish at night using submersible lights. Try jigs or live minnows.

This is also a good time of year to target flathead catfish. The larger flatheads will often hold in the deep holes along the upper end of the lake, but it is possible to catch these voracious bottom feeders just about anywhere, night or day, but nighttime might be a little better right now. Try live bluegills or small carp.

Channel catfish and carp are also plentiful. Try corn and hot dogs on a small treble hook fished on a slip sinker. Remember, it is legal to chum in Arizona, so bring a can of corn and liberally toss some in the water where you are fishing to attract catfish and carp. These bottom feeders rely heavily on their olfactory senses, and can literally smell your plentiful chum.
Angler report:

Harvey Nelson: 2 of us fishing at Bartlett on 5/6, caught 7 nice bass using spinnerbaits, shad-colored crankbaits, and the go-to bait– Carolina rig with a Senko worm. Most fish caught 15 feet deep in the sandy bottom coves with 2 caught shallow off points where there was a lot of shad visible. All fish 2-3 lbs., no small fish were caught.

Rory,
I fish Bartlett a lot and will try to keep my reports coming in regularly. I read the reports all the time and they often help me find good patterns.
One pattern that I used a lot last year was after it gets up to 100 F outside I like to Carolina rig fish the lower lake islands bouncing Carolina rigs down the slope of islands to the 16- 20 foot depths. It usually works great but one part of the pattern is wind. It has to be windy or it just doesn’t work. The wind pushes shad schools up onto the island slopes and the fish follow. No wind– no shad schools- no bass.
We tried it this week but couldn’t get the wind and it just did not work–so we went into the points and rock piles in the coves and found nice quality fish there.

Maybe that info can help somebody else too.

Harvey

HORSESHOE – Lake elevation is at 1990 feet, which has dropped to 35-percent full.  They are releasing water at 400 cfs, so this lake will likely be slowly drained to keep up the lake level at Bartlett. This also means there the lake will be rimed by saturated soils, making shoreline access challenging in places. The best fishing will likely be just below the dam, especially in the deeper holes.

Tammy Wagoner: While fishing the Verde River just below Horseshoe Lake, fish were flipping out of the water frequently.  We caught quite a few channel cats, but let most go because they were small. We fished with chicken liver and fish would bite almost as soon as we got our line in the water.  I also caught a largemouth bass on a Carolina-rigged black lizard while fishing on the east bank from a kayak. I’ve been a few times last week and have had better luck there than at Bartlett and Pleasant both. Also caught a carp on chicken liver.

VERDE RIVER – Verde River flow at Tangle Creek has slowed to 113 cfs.  Release from Bartlett Lake is 1,100 cfs.

SALT RIVER – Salt River into Roosevelt is 421 cfs, and Salt River Canyon is 387 cfs.  They are releasing 375  cfs out of Stewart Mountain Dam from Saguaro.

A 47.9-pound flathead catfish was caught in the Upper Salt River real close to Roosevelt Lake two weeks ago.  A live sunfish caught at that location was used as bait.

LOWER SALT RIVER – They are releasing water out of Stewart Mountain Dam at 375 cfs. We are still stocking trout below Saguaro at Water Users and Blue Point sites.  Trout are scheduled to be stocked this week. Flies are working as well as live worms. The fishing is best at first and last light. Largemouth are holding around the overhanging vegetation.

Where:Lower Salt
When:05/06/09
Caught:big grass monster
Technique:fly rod
Comments:tough day. Plenty of strikes but just not hooking up. Water way down (about 500 cfs) Anglers advised me the river was VERY busy last week for fishing. Big grass monster (algae debris, etc.) is growing by the hour. Anglers beware… the recreators are out in force. See ya next time.

Where: Lower Salt River
When: 04/22/09
Caught: Rainbow Trout
Technique: Fly Rod and spinning rig
Comments: Time again? Fished midday. Started slow. Picked up nicely and tapered off around 4 p.m. Spin anglers having a tough time with the big grass monster (algae) a bit tough with the spinners. Small jigs produced some fish. See ya next week.

CREEKS – All creeks along the Mogollon Rim are fishing pretty well. Early mornigns and evenings are best.

Nymphs are workingwell, as are drifting simi seals. Blue winged olvies are getting popular (size 18). In mid day, try a hopper dropper rig with a No. 16 bead head nymph under it. Dry flies — pay attentiong to the hatch and match.

Christopher Creek, Tonto Creek, Haigler Creek and the East Verde have all been stocked this spring. Spin anglers should try night crawlers, meal worms, Power Bait, corn, salmon eggs, small spinners, and grasshoppers.

Canyon Creek was stocked recently.

Dave Duhigg: Sunday afternoon, May 10 at Tonto Creek my girlfriend and I caught 6 or 7 trout between us in about two hours. Just followed the creek ’till we found a nice pool and dropped in a line with orange Power Bait nuggets. Let it churn around in the current and waited for the fish. Most were around 9 inches; one was a little under 11 inches. Our first attempt fishing Tonto and we weren’t disappointed at all!

HORSETHIEF BASIN LAKE – No new reports. It’s a pretty little lake that is worth visiting as part of a Bradshaw Mountain experience, but it is pond sized water where the fish are small; great for kids on a camp out. Bring night crawlers or meal worms and fish them under bobbers.