February Tonto Creek

February 21 2009

Despite the high runoff from the recent snow that hit our high country a friend of mine, Steve "The Trout Slayer" Longshore, my dog Sage and I spent Saturday fly fishing Tonto Creek. To be honest I was not to optimistic about the fishing given the runoff however Steve had the day open and I was in the area after taking some scouts camping so we figured we would give it a shot.

After rigging up and a short hike through the snow we were throwing flies by 9:30. The river was running high however while still murky it was clearer that I had feared. My pessimism was changed after Steve hooked up with the first fish of the day after a just few casts. I hooked up shortly after and the day was off to a great start.

Despite the snow which was mostly on the West bank it was a very warm day with a slight chill in some of the deeper parts of the canyon. There was a Blue Winged Olive hatch in the afternoon however we still only saw a couple fish rise throughout the day. We were catching mostly small Browns with a few rainbows mixed in. Most of the strikes were soft and we missed several of them. The fishing seemed to die down in the afternoon and then turned right back on near the end of the day. Overall we landed 23 fish and mixed with great weather and good company it was a great day.

The highlight of the day came when we were hiking our way back out of the canyon. Steve pointed me towards a pool he had some success on earlier and he recommended I try it out while he took a break (bad hip...old man...). After a couple casts I brought in a small bow, then a few casts later I set the hook on something a bit more solid, after a little fighting I was starting to think I was hooked into something on the large side. I was fishing light tippet (6X) so I didn't want to force it and after 30 seconds of failing to bring the fish up to the surface I called out to Steve that I thought I had a good one on the line. Just as I called out this guy shot to the surface and went air born. It was a beautiful sight as this monster shot out of the water.

Of course I let out a scream of excitement after seeing him. I worked him down stream to some shallower water and sighed with relief once he was in the net. He ended up being a tad over 17" and was fat like a pig. To say the least he made my day and I was just as happy to let him go to catch another day. Other than that guy I also caught a 14" Rainbow with most everything else in the 10"-12" range.

Tonto Creek

January 31st 2009

After months of getting my fix during the off season by fishing the lower Salt River and Saguaro Lake for stockers I was thrilled when I heard that some of the higher elevation small creeks were fishable after all the warm weather we have been having. So after months of stocker fish I was pumped for the opportunity to throw some casts at some stream bread trout.

I arrived late morning to 50+ degrees and sunny skies. The river was running high from runnoff but was still fairly clear. I started fishing a hopper dropper and after a couple of holes I had a fish shoot up and hit my hopper, only in Arizona would a trout take a hopper in January. I missed that strike but on the next cast over him he took my nymp and he was on. Of course I left my net in the car so he broke free just as I was reaching for him, but he looked to be a 12" brown. I pulled one more small Rainbow out of that hole before moving on (stoping back at the Jeep to pck up my net). For the next couple hours I landed nearly a dozen more fish all Browns in the 10-13 inch range most all came out of deep plunge pools on size 16 nymps, a couple more had hit a stimulator. Near the end of the day with only an hour of light left things seemed to be slowing down a bit so I tied on a small size 18 emerger and things turned right back on but this time it was mostly small rainbows coming to play. I started back towards the car and pulled 2 to 3 fish out of a few holes before it was time to call it a day. All in all it was one of those days I dream of, I never saw another person the entire day, the fishing was on fire, and the weather was perfect.