Arizona Fly Fishing: Urban Ponds

The pull
The pull

I had a couple of hours free on Saturday morning, and even though I did not have the alarm set, my eyes opened out of habit at 5:00 am. After filling a thermos with coffee and grabbing my 6 weight, I hopped in the truck and drove over to some of my favorite ponds. I had contacted the usual suspect to join my on my walks, but everyone was busy, sleeping, or fishing elsewhere, so I aimlessly walked from pond to pond, looking for feeding fish. It did not take long to get hooked into a spunky koi that did not like the idea of coming to the net.

Whitey
Whitey

I had a green simi-seal bugger tied on and it seemed to do the trick as always. The recently stocked tilapia, who could not seem to get enough a couple of weeks ago, were much more wary, although I did fool one into taking a fly.

Tilapia
Tilapia

The last pond I visited is one of the bigger ones and a bit out of the way. I had never fished it before but found a very aggressive carp who actually chased down my fly, which is definitely out of the ordinary. After letting him peel off line, he let me net him for a photo before releasing him.

Carp
Carp

Fall is in the air here in Phoenix. It was 80 degrees when I left the water and I drove home with the windows down. It is nice to finally feel human again here in the desert…

8 Responses to “Arizona Fly Fishing: Urban Ponds”

  1. shane jones

    Hey Ben – great to see you still getting some fishing done.

    Amazes me that it gets a mention when the temptarure drops to 80 in AZ. Here in the UK, 80 gets on the daily news as one of our hottest days of the year!!!

    Hope to catch up again next year buddy – flights are booked already!

    Regards.

    Shane

    Reply
    • azwanderings

      Looking forward to it. You’ll have to send me over those dates so I can make sure I am in town. Would love the chance to get out and fish with you guys again.

      Ben

      Reply
    • azwanderings

      Thanks Erin. Hard to imagine snow when it’s still so hot here in the desert. I don’t miss scraping windshields and shoveling snow, but every once in a while I wouldn’t mind throwing a snowball at someone…

      Ben

      Reply
    • azwanderings

      We have some funky looking (and smelling) fish in our urban ponds. Sad to say, but sometimes I’m trying to unhook the fish and not gag at the same time. Oh the things we do to feel that pull on the end of the line…

      Ben

      Reply

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