Well, it’s back to triple-digits in the deserts, so either try some night fishing or escape to the high cool pines. Or maybe even check you sanity at the launch ramp and brave the heat for daytime topwater action in the blistering sunshine.

This weekend marks the first-quarter of the moon, so using submersible lights for night fishing will be viable. Not hearing a lot of great crappie reports, but the night striper fishing has been phenomenal at places like Mead, Mohave, Havasu and to a lesser degree, Lake Pleasant. Frozen anchovies are by far the bait of choice — use little or no weight and about one-third of an anchovy on a hook (I prefer the circle kind for better hooksets).

At Lake Powell, it’s daytime fishing for stripers. In fact, the striper boils have started in earnest and you can find them actively chasing shad at the surface from dawn until the wind starts blowing. Catching 30 to 100-plus stripers is not uncommon. Please catch and keep all you can. Yep, that’s right, no limit on how many you can keep or how much fun you can have doing it. Don’t ignore the plentiful smallmouth bass fishing opportunities or the delectable walleye.

For the high country, just pick your favorite tree-lined jewel and go. Willow Springs along the Mogollon Rim and Big Lake in the White Mountains have the most surface acreage, but more importantly, also offer the most diverse angling opportunities. You can even catch largemouth bass and smallmouth bass at Willow Springs and there are huge cutthroats at Big.

Anthony at Big Lake said rainbows and cutthroat trout fishing is great right now, but the brookies are few and far between. However, a 5.5-pound, 24-inch-long brown trout was caught recently. Anthony, who fishes the lakes at least two or three times a week, said the trout are still being caught in 5 to 15 feet of water. This could change, or not — the monsoon thunderstorms have started and if they keep going (and water temperatures stay cool), the trout may not be forced deep. Night crawlers and Power Bait are both working, but the trout are chasing minnows, so crankbaits like Rapalas are also working well. Thanks for the report Anthony, keep them coming.

Lesser known, tougher-to-reach lakes are Knoll and Bear Canyon, or if you are in really good shape, Chevelon Lake. I fished Knoll last week and had a ball. If you are willing to walk a ways there, you can almost always find some great fishing solitude where your closest fishing companion might be an osprey diving into the water for a trout. In fact, one angler recently got a nice picture of one.

I also recently fished Upper Lake Mary before and after some recent meetings in Flagstaff and did okay catching nice toothy pike and even a delectable walleye (didn’t have my ice chest, so had to release it). Also watched elk swimming in the lake. Not a bad way to spend the morning. Ashurts also has some big pike to catch, mostly by surprised trout anglers.

Woods Canyon Lake also draws lots of anglers, who in turn catch a lot of trout (from shore and boat). On Saturday morning following a night of welcome mountain rain singing us to sleep, there was a neat mist on the water and a chill in the air at first light. Made for interesting pictures and great fishing. By the way, we just did a lake clean up a few weeks ago in an effort to remove discarded fishing line because of the nesting pair of bald eagles. It was disheartening on Saturday morning to trip over lots of discarded line while photographing anglers in the mist. I picked up what I could. Please do the same.

This is also a good time of year to visit the Williams area lakes. Whitehorse, Dogtown and Kaibab are all quaint little trout lakes where your children can discover lots of adventures along the shoreline. These lakes are also loaded with crayfish.

By the way, take along a bucket for catch crayfish. Sometimes the craws can be as much fun to catch as the trout, they also provide superb fare for the gourmet table. Plus, you’ll be helping the environment — crayfish are not native to Arizona and we ask you to catch and eat all you can. Tough duty, but someone’s got to do it; Any volunteers?

Eating scruptious sweet summer corn, crayfish and fresh-caught trout around a roaring campfire while watching a blazing Arizona sunset lighting up the tall ponderosa pines will become emblazed on your mind (and taste buds) forever. So go catch some memories. Maybe I’ll see you out there. And for those I did see out there this past week, it was great sharing some fishing moments with you.

PS: Our Canyon Creek Hatchery stocked the following waters this week: Canyon Creek, Willow Springs Lake, Show Low Lake, Scotts Reservoir, Bunch Reservoir and Tunnel Reservoir.