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.
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4 comments:
I am probably going to require a 'fishing dictionary' to understand your posts. I admit I am a dud when it comes to any basic knowledge. I still call that long thingy a pole. I was corrected by Cindi----a rod!
hey nate, great posts! looks like you hammerd tonto. judging by the photos you were below hw260 maybe bear flats? if you dont mind id like to have an idea were you were. but i respect the fact if youd rather keep it to your self. cause i have a couple spots i wont let go :). eather way good job!
Oh wow ... those are some beautiful fish! My favorite is the first fishy. I am afraid the longer I sit here on my couch not fishing ... you won't take me with you again.
hey nate, thanks for letting me know. iv always loved going to bear flatts, but i always stared at the bridge and went down stream iv never been up stream. i have been wanting to go up stream to where christopher creek runs into tonto. wandering if you were able to make it in that far?
and for me i wouldent go this weekend. the rim got over 2 feet of snow with that last storm and is suposed to get about 10+ inches tonight through tommorow! then this weekend is supposed to be warm weather. so alot of snow will be melting. but if yo dont mind fighting high currents and muddy water, then give it a try. ill be up in payson this friday working on my parrents place. i can go see how high the flows are and write you to let you know. if you want. sorry so long. p.s. the raod to upper christpher gets real muddy and slippery when wet. i would recomend a 4x4 or a quad.
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