It looks like the traditional fireworks display at Lake Pleasant is not happening this year due to budget constraints.  However, Tempe Town Lake is having its 58th Annual Fireworks Spectacular from Mill Avenue bridge. This spectacular family night Fireworks Show will be choreographed to patriotic and classical music. Happy birthday America!

By the way, Tempe Town Lake has some pretty decent bass fishing, has plenty of yellow bass (use gold KastMasters), the lake is loaded with sunfish, and the shallow water makes it catfish heaven.

The full moon is July 7, which means this will be a pretty time to be on the water at night, but don’t expect your submersible lights to work as well. Check the moon rise and set times though.

Also, with moisture coming in from the Gulf (we used to call this monsoon season), the weather service is saying there is a good chance each day for thunderstorms and rain showers. These storms can make fishing in the desert and mountain lakes pretty good, but you also need to exercise caution and not be caught on or near the water during lightning events.

When the clouds build up and the barometer starts to drop, fish will typically begin actively feeding, sometimes at the surface. For our desert lakes, look for topwater action to pick up. In the mountain lakes, switch from bottom fishing to top-of-the-water-column techniques. Dry flies for fly fishermen and things like spinners, Rapalas, casting spoons (like KastMasters) and even flies on casting floats for spin anglers. When the rain starts, it can knock bugs out of the air, so bug-like lures can be devastating.

If you have kids, get them to catch grasshoppers in the meadows. A wiggling hopper on a small hook (I like a No. can drive trout nuts, especially in the gurgling streams. Also, listen for cicadas at home or in the forest. These little rascals can also drive trout and bass nuts. It’s a blast.

Also, when those mountain thunder bumpers gather, the wildlife can also get active. It’s a great time to slowly drive narrow mountain dirt roads looking for elk, deer, turkey and other critters. But be bear aware — keep a clean camp, and be sure to wash away all fish smells from your body before going to bed at night. If you eat s’mores, be sure you and the kids wash up thoroughly. You don’t want to smell like a nighttime treat for a hungry bear (or even a skunk).

Be sure to put on plenty of insect repellent, no matter where you fish.

I hear from Terry Gunn at Lees Ferry that the cicadas are starting to sing so this is the leading edge of the cicada bite right now. Fishing the Ferry in summer can be a hoot. Your upper torso can be sweating while your legs are turning numb from the cold water. It’s an Arizona fishing adventure just waiting to tantalize you in summer. A wild and rambunctious rainbow attacking a cicada at the surface will get your heart racing.

Also in the northern hinterlands, the great topwater bite is underway at Lake Powell. It’s time to hit the  “slurps.”

July nights are perfect for going after those bottom dwellers either from shore or boat. Use slip sinkers, treble hooks, and corn, hot dogs or stink bait (live chicken liver).

Please do everyone a favor — don’t drink alchohol and operate a boat. Our lakes are just too congested to have any impaired judgment or reflexes. Add in sun, boat vibration, and other things that numb the senses and you have a prescription for disaster. Don’t risk your life or anyone else’s. On the flip side, if you insist on drinking and boating, we’ll do our best to catch you and the consequences are dire. We are operating OUI checkpoints on some of the lakes. I don’t mean to be a safety pest, but please put on that PFD — it might just save your life.

On a lighter note, I will be gone this coming week (fishing the White Mountains, northern New Mexico and Colorado), but my good buddy and able co-worker Jim Harken will be filling in for me to assemble the report. But I’ll try to put together some tips before I leave. Maybe I’ll get to see you while I am fishing out there — could happen.

Had an interesting episode last week right in the Game and Fish HQ parking lot. A boat that had been on Lake Pleasant for 10 years was pulled out, but it was too tall to go down the freeway. They parked it in our parking lot. This boat was not only full of quagga mussels, it had the largest most mature quagga mussels any of us have seen coming from an Arizona lake. Folks, please Don’t Move A Mussel. Clear, dry and drain you boat each time you visit a lake, any lake. If you have a boat moored at a qugga infested lake, such as Pleasant, Mead, Mohave or Havasu, you need to take extra steps and have the hull and other submerged sufaces hit with a high pressure, high temperature power washer — by those who know what they are doing.