some days nothing happens. but you need to get waders or you are too limited on where you can fish or cast.

when river is high you need to fish deep as the fish will be on the bottom and not surfacing much. those that will are right on the banks.

ot,
at least you got out there. gorgeous day yesterday.
might be a little early for dries on the merced. maybe some bwos coming off late, but the flows in the mountain rivers are cranking and pretty darned cold because of snowmelt until july or so. maybe a big stonefly nymph or even an egg fly or san juan worm fished deep.

just got back from san francisco on my spring poker trip. this is the time it gets good in montana until the runoff starts. in the bay area everyone was catching crabs off the piers so el nino must have been a barn burner for the salt water fisheries on the west coast.

Ray,
october...stripers...bring an 8 wt.

you should make this a FISHING (spin & fly fishing) thread...might get more action/pics that way

Agree. I'm hitting Roosevelt tomorrow and would certainly post some pics/info if the fly fisherman were okay with it. I'm also about 75% certain that I'm buying a bass boat in the coming months so some discussion on boats would be nice as well.

sounds good. and what roosevelt are you going to the one in washington on the columbia river?

as far as bass boats they dont do so well in rougher water so you are limited to lakes that dont get to windy.

Arizona, actually. CharlieDontSurf should know of it. It's probably one of the top five bass fishing hotspots in the Southwest. The lake has a slot program, meaning bass of a certain size have to be thrown back but anything longer or shorter than the slot length can be kept (I just catch and release so I don't really care anyhow) so there is a healthy population of quality fish. There are some gargantuan catfish in there too, there is no doubt in my mind that 100+ pound flatheads live by the dam.


I didn't take any pictures today but I fished from dawn til it got too hot (around 1PM) and caught 9-10 largemouth bass. Air temps started at about 41 degrees when we got on the water and 78 when we put the boat on the trailer, waters temps ranged from 61-68 and clarity varied from clear to slight stain. We caught 4 slots, 2 overs and 2 unders by pitching creature imitations and Senkos close to tree stumps in 4-10 feet of water. I don't think the spawn has started yet as I didn't see any fish on beds so no lizard-on-the-bed action

Pretty good day overall, I plan on making a few more day trips before it gets hot enough that night fishing is the only option.

what is the fishing like at saquarro lake east of phoenix. i was out there and liked the area. people were catching some trout in the river below the dam and i saw boats fishing on the lake.

As far as I know Saguaro was hit with an algae bloom a few years ago and the fish population is starting to get healthy but the fish themselves are still fairly small. Probably a good choice for folks with children because they'll catch decent numbers and there shouldn't be too many other boats on the water.

Here's a 14 pound largemouth that was caught at Roosevelt last week. I think a new state record will come out of there within the next year:

wow is the word. ive caught a bunch of eight or so pounders in florida out of the everglades but never one close to that. the thing is a fat hog.

Anyone here in the DC/NOVA area?

I'm interested in learning how to fly fish. A coworker made these recommendations:

Apparently for the next few weeks there's a shad run going on where it's incredibly easy to catch fish.

I'm wondering what the bare minimum gear I would need to get by would be. Also, if anyone is in this area and is knowledgeable I wouldn't mind meeting up.

the standard now is a nine foot rod for a five weight line. that will get you for almost all fly fishing. as you get better you can get more gear. practice on your lawn or in a park till you can cast where you aim. read a few books at the library and you will be set to begin the torture of learning. keep it simple as you dont have to have all the goodies. they dont add much to the fun just complexity. most times i just take a rod and a few flies and a clipper and a spool of tippet material

you can get good quality gear for inexpensive prices now (compared to years past). check out TFO rods for a great price to performance ratio.
if you're in the DC area, check around for smallmouth streams. I've never fished there, but Ive heard there's good smallmouth waters near the city. imo, smallmouth>>>trout for fun and fight. they're way less picky (- for experienced fishers who want a challenge, but +++for beginners who just want to get into some action).
ditto what ray said about practice off the water. once you get your rod, try taking just the tip and tying a short length of yard to the tiptop. you can practice throwing tight loops inside your house while watching tv.

After this last storm in the Bay Area, there are two shopping center parking lots with horrible drainage nearby that would make excellent casting ponds were it not for all the road gunk.