12/20/09 short AZ report

[sansou]

Got out early this morning super early on my friend Scott's bass boat to Pleasant. My boat is not upshifting gears, so we didn't bother bringing it (though our plans were to buddy boat cause we fish for different things). Original plans were to hit San Carlos, but both of us were too lazy to get our Indian permits done in time.

Played the silly LMB game for a while, mostly drop-shotting down deep at the entrance of coves, and as it got warmer a bit today we fished shallower and followed marks. Managed a few bass a piece with a couple at around 3.5 lbs on the spring scale.

Cranked up the engine and made the long jump to the Fria river cove, and used spoons and rattle traps for schoolie striper. Nothing terribly exciting, but it was a steady pick if you had patience. I forgot the trolling gear in California which bummed me out cause I wanted to really give this lake a little bit of TroutOnly technique to see what it would do. Next time.

As you know, I usually am good about posting pics, but I forgot the camera this time. I'll be sure to post pics this wednesday as a few other of my friends and I are going flathead fishin' at either Bartlett or the other lake right by it. If any of you FNNers find yourself in AZ and want to go fish wednesday, gimme a holler.

Happy Holidays!

[vanillagurilla]

sounds like you guys had a pretty good day. i still want to catch a striper over 1lb haha.

[Troutman65]

Nice going Rich. Thanks for posting up .

[CASTAWAY]

Hey Rich I'm in Buckeye right now. I want to fish with ya....

[Natural Lefty]

Same here, Vanillagurilla. I keep catching these 6 inch stripers. :Confused:A few years ago, I did catch one at Silverwood that weighed about a pound.

[sansou]

Hey Rich I'm in Buckeye right now. I want to fish with ya....

Send me a PM with a way to reach you. Right now I'm headed out to Sportsman's Wharehouse for some tackle, and then to Lilly's for bait.

For anyone else wanting to go: Tomorrow 2 pm, Horseshoe Lake, right around the entrance. Need SUV to get there cause the road is 5 miles of harsh washboard. I'll be in a black jacked up 80s Bronco. Shouldn't be too many at the lake, can't miss us.

[CASTAWAY]

been up all night. just checked this reply. jeez, i'm so tired.... looks like i'm gonna have to pass on this one.... i'll look up horseshoe lake though...:Cool:

[sansou]

Tony,

If you change your mind, we'll be at Horshoe shortly. /make sure you have a car that will make it through the dirt road (6 miles of it with puddles from last night for sure).

Got bait and a couple local yocals with the local know-how. Hope you can make it. PM sent.

[gavin310]

Can't wait to see your flathead report sansou...

[smokehound]

So you didnt target any native arizona trout? Those Apaches get pretty big.

[sansou]

No Apaches on this trip, as we weren't fishing anywhere near where they hang out. You gotta go out to a few places up in the rez to have a solid chance at them. They're not exactly prolific.

One of the guys with us got one solid run, and a back and forth battle on 20lb test that lasted a few minutes, ending with a frayed line over the rocks. Definately a cat, but who knows with certainty if it was a flathead or a big channel...or even a carp for that matter as they will hammer chicken liver every once in a blue moon.

I ended up taking just landscape pics and didn't want to bore anyone with "zero fish porn". Hopefully come April timeframe I'll be back out for the spawn and get lucky on a flathead.

[smokehound]

Man fishing in arizona is crazy.. just about every north american fish you can think of is found there.