The urban lakes were stocked with super-sized trout this week, including some insentive fish ranging up to six pounds. These lakes may provide some of the best fishing in the state this weekend.

But the big, big news for anglers is the snowpack and runoff. The Salt River peaked at just below 20,000 cfs on Jan. 8, and Tonto Creek was blasting at around 10,000 cfs into Roosevelt Lake.

The Verde River surged to more than 20,000 cfs just above Horseshoe Lake, which meant Bartlett Lake level shot into the 90-plus percentile.

The Agua Fria River into Pleasant hit around 5,500 cfs at Rock Springs (the flows into the lake could have been substantially higher), providing this lake a nice nutrient-rich inflow to aid fish growth and reproduction. Who knows what the striper reproduction might do in response, but we know it means lots of line-stripping action on the end of the line.

At Alamo Lake, the Santa Maria rose to around 1,000 cfs and the Big Sandy to around 2,000 cfs. While not big numbers like the other waters, this still provides Alamo a nice winter inflow to get the lake turbid and possibly kick-start an early spawn at this lake that resembles a solar bowl in the desert.

Alamo typically has the earliest bass and crappie spawns in the state, although Martinez Lake along the Colorado River can vie for the early-bird honors in some years.

Plus, having great snowpack means the high mountain reservoirs are primed to possibly overflow and provide some great trout fishing this year.

Then there is the snowpack in the Rocky Mountains. The latest report shows the Upper Colorado River Basin at 114 percent of average snowpack right now. Let’s hope it too gets more snowpack. That is good news for the Colorado River lakes along our border.

This may indeed be the year of the Pisces in Arizona. Get a fishing license. In fact, make sure you get a two-pole stamp as well to double your chances and triple your fun.

Just as a bonus, there is a green buzz in the desert, and we should have a pretty good wildflower year – and if we don’t get frost in the next few weeks, it could come early. Just a few more decent storms (and a normal precipitation summer at least) and all you quail hunters can have wide grins as well.

Right now, the hot fishing spots are Lake Pleasant for stripers and Lees Ferry for trout. But get out and enjoy a nice green desert this coming week or so. It’s starting to look a little Irish out there. Can you say Vitamin A?