Arizona Fishing

How did I miss this?! It's my new favorite thread

Anytime I go, I'll post when, where, and my setup. I usually go in the White Mountains because I have a cabin up there with all my good gear, but occasionally I'll go elsewhere around Tucson. Within the past two months I hit up Patagonia lake and Silverbell lake and actually caught a few good fish at each.

Also, everyone wish me luck! I applied for a summer internship with the Apache Trout crew up in Whiteriver, so hopefully I get it!

 

I go fishing about every weekend up to Bartlett, and since its warming up there is nice fishing.

 

Yeah man, Bartletts been on fire! The spawn there was killer!

 

pics of minnow trap?? sounds cool

nice man! good luck with that

bartlett was dam good when i went a few weekends ago.

it sure has been.
we went like 2 weekends ago and were catching fish all day. we had live shad but still, had a great day of catching fish. and we didnt even start fishing till noon, and we stopped at like 4 pm and everyone caught good fish.
i hooked in a 5lb large mouth

 

Ya i plan on heading out there this saturday, I did a little work to my boat. i want to see how it handles out on the lake.

 

i normally dont take my boat to bartlett cause its so far out of the way. i normally wheel there since i can get there from the 87 freeway which is right by my house.

i normally take the boat to saguaro, canyon, and parker.


in parker on the colorado river, there is some nice small mouth to be caught. i tore it up last time i was there too.

 

right on, i want to try saguaro lake sometime. i havnt fished there at all yet.

 

saguaro is really a hit or miss.
but if you can catch live shad then your golden
right now the water is super clear and you can see fish spawning. great time to fish saguaro.

 

Here's the minnow trap in full view, with the bait/offload door open. I just cut a hole in the trap and cut a separate piece of curved wire mesh larger than the hole size, used some zip ties for a hinge, and put a metal hook on a spring. Close the door and hook it closed. Makes it easy to re-bait and empty out your catch into a bucket. This trap is about 20" in length and about 8" in diameter. It's light but strong, and sinks just fine. The mesh bag is for bait, and I just close the trap door on the nylon cinch rope on the bag to keep it centered.




Here's a closer shot of one of the ends. The trip itself is just an 8" diameter roll of 1/4" gauge chicken wire mesh, cut and rolled so it overlaps and is zip tied. Overlapping the seam by a couple inches adds stability and creates a spine for strength. The ends are just cut pieces that I offset rolled into a cone to fit in the hole. The end cones are just zip tied as well. The small end of the cone where the minnows enter is about 3/4" diameter with the wire flared out away from the hole.




Another view of the end cones




And here's the collection of homemade crawdad traps next to the minnow trap, which is on the far right. The green trap was my first make, using hog clamps instead of zip ties. That method took way too long and the hog clamps rusted, but it still works great. I used mesh for the entrance cones on the green one, then got smart and used wire mesh on the other 2. I also have 6 more collapsible wire/netting crab/crawdad traps as well, not pictured. The green one got hung up on a log last year so it's a bit warped but it survived to live another day.




Just tie some nylon rope to the end of the trap and throw it out there with some bait in the mesh bag. For minnows, a piece of bread does just fine. Even when the minnows are smaller than the 1/4" mesh, they still get stuck in there when you pull it out of the water quickly. I like to only use the bigger minnows, so I retrieve it slowly so the small ones can escape out of the mesh. For catching crawdads, a cut piece of fish works best. Any kind of meat, really, but they love a cut trout or bluegill and will come from all over to check it out.

The larger crawdad traps work good for catching mid-size bluegills, too. Bread also works fine for them.

 

Heading to the white mtns ... Fish on!

 

Git some! Let us know how it goes.

 

Will do! Hitting big and crescent lake . Then heading over to reservation lake for a Couple days!
Temps in the 70's. I just hope the wind will lay down ....
Az

 

Nice. We're headed out to Bartlett this weekend to go for some big cats. Hoping to catch more of these this year...

 

Let us know how they are. I hit up reservation every year, use to be pacheta but it has never been the same since it dried up to a puddle and became catch and release. Have you fished any of the trophy lakes up there?

 

Me and my brothers are planning a camping trip up to the white mountains this month. I haven't been up there yet so we are just planning on fishing the black river.

 

Where is that? Rattlesnake Cove? I just got all my fishing gear out because my son is wanting to go. We usually do a lot catfishing but haven't been yet this season.

If anyone is looking to go to Bartlett soon, count me in. I have a new reel I haven't got to try yet.

 

I'm actually on my way to Show Low too tomorrow for a couple days of work. Hopefully I can find time to get out on the boat!

 

I've fished christmas tree and cyclone but it's been a while. Also fished pacheta before it was catch and release. Also drift fence, Hawley , earl park and horseshoe and Sunrise. Back in the day, I would get my year fishing permit and was up there as much as possible.

I will give a report, when I return, I've got my new ARB fridge for this trip. Pretty excited!

Az

 

Hit the backside of Saguaro Lake yesterday and the Bluegill are spawning we couldn't get a line out of the water w out a bite. TONS of fun.

 

SB cove, so not far from Rattlesnake. I used to fish Rattlesnake cove all the time when you could drive right down to the water, now they have that damn parking lot. Last I checked, they had the group area closed off. I should call my friend at the forest service and see if it's back open again. Great place to reserve and have a big meet.