I called Zach up earlier in the week to see if he could squeeze away for a day to run up north and do a bit of exploring on one of the creeks. I am always interested in new country figured with the weather holding steady for the past week or two, trout would be eager for streamers.

I missed a fish in the first pool and after that the day slowed to a crawl as we worked high off, off color water. Our hopes were not high for the day, but all of that changed when around two o’clock, Zach’s fly rod doubled over. With a few headshakes, one of the biggest brown trout I have seen in Arizona, slid into the net, and the canyon was filled with exclamations of joy and congratulations. After a few pictures and a quick tape, the giant 23″ brown trout slid back into the deep pool, to see another day.

An hour later, as I worked a different pool, a brightly colored brown of my own came to the net making the day complete. Both fish came on streamers and both fish were in excellent condition from the winter. It is exciting to see what this new season has in store.

Zach runs a real nice site and wrote up his story here. I imagine with his recent drawing of a 23N trophey elk rifle tag, we should be seeing some good stories coming out of him.

The post Arizona Fly Fishing: Scouting for Brown Trout appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.

Found some time to make it up north to wet a line. It was later in the morning by the time Antonio and I hit the water. It was a beautiful day with quite a bit of snow on the banks and in the woods. The water was a bit off color, but I hooked into four different fish and didn’t land one of them. While I struggled to put anything in the net, Antonio was able to land a nice brown. It was beautiful day to be on the creek, but all it did was make me long for wet wading and hoppers.

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I had a great morning at the Payson Fly Caster meeting swapping fishing stories and talking about small streams. The guys and gals in that club are involved in a number of different conservation projects here in Arizona, and I was honored to be invited up to their club for the day.

After the meeting ended around 11, I still had the rest of the day to myself. I turned the truck east and walked through the woods to one of the creeks of the 260. I made my way to the stream and tied on a heavy streamer. The melting snow had swollen the creek and the fishing was quite slow. A small brown and a few holdover rainbows came to the net before I called it quits for the day.

I’m caught in that weird spot of the year where hunting seasons are over and the fishing remains a bit marginal. Looks like I will be catching up on some more tying and waiting with anticipation for the summer months full of big foam hoppers.

The post Fly Fishing Arizona: A winter afternoon appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.

One of the best purchases that I made when I began fly fishing in Arizona was Will Jordan’s Fly Fisher’s Guide to Arizona. Living just outside of Phoenix, it was difficult to believe that there was any water in this state, let alone, ice cold waters teaming with wild trout. The Fly Fisher’s Guide to Arizona is a wealth of knowledge about the many lakes, streams, and rivers throughout the state, with detailed hatch charts, tactics, and access information.

Now, as with many of my books, there are notes scrawled in the margins and hand drawn paper maps tucked into the pages of this book. I have read this book so many times, the cover is literally falling off. My edition of the Fly Fisher’s Guide to Arizona is from 2008, but Will Jordan has released a new edition to keep up with the ever changing and challenging water conditions that plague Arizona fly fishermen.

Wether a new or season Arizona fly fisherman, I think that this book is useful tool that can expand your fly fishing opportunities in Arizona. Check out the Fly Fisher’s Guide to Arizona.

Will Jordan currently lives and guides in Montana. You can check out his blog and excellent photos at 111º West .

The post Book Report: A Fly Fisher’s Guide to Arizona appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.

Spent the day in the mountains with my buddy Antonio, who from here-forth shall be known as Samurai Tony. The reason being that Antonio has discovered tenkara. We fished a nice creek and found some willing fish to eat our flies. Watching Antonio fish with his tenkara rod, I could see that he was having fun and I can appreciate that, but at no point during the day did I feel the need to run out a buy a tenkara rod. Without rehashing the tenkara vs. western fly fishing arguement, I did not see any substantial advantage of the tenkara rod over the rod/reel setup. At the end of the day, it was cool to see it in action, but until I see a situation in which a fly rod and reel will not work and only the tenkara will, I probably will not be picking it up.

The weather is turning a bit cooler in the mountains and the fishing has definitely slowed from the summer/fall-bigger-fish-extravaganza to the late-fall-my-fingers-are-cold-should-I-really-be-out-here-extravaganza. I found myself switching flies quite a bit throughout the day from streamers to mini-hoppers to small dries and then repeat. Pretty soon, there is going to be some snow and it will be a bit of a trick to get to some of those creeks. Looks like it might be time for a bit more quail hunting in the desert.

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Saturday was a very fine day of fly fishing in Arizona with a good buddy. With mornings being colder, we started late and were on the water by 9. Fish started coming throughout the day on mini-hoppers and parachute Adams, although bigger streamers did the trick later on in the day. Tough to ask for anything better than a few nice fish, but the bottom brown came about 4 o’clock, slamming a crawdad streamer and fighting the whole way to the net. I sat looking, in utter disbelief, at 20 inches of golden brown.

With snow forecasted in the mountains, I do not think there will be many more days of this kind of fishing this year. Arizona fly fishing never ceases to amaze me.

The post Arizona Fly Fishing: New country appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.

I ventured out alone which is something I have not done in a while. I was in need of a little soul searching anyway, so it worked out just fine. The mornings have been very cold in the canyons as the mid-fall sun only spends a bit of time warming the water. I opted for a later start than usual and showed up on the water about 9, but even then I did not see a fish until about 12. I took my time and pretty soon the catching started to pick up. A few nice fish made it to the net in the afternoon, but I missed the hook set on a bruiser that would have stretched 18 or 19. Most of the fish came on the top, but gone are the days of aggressive, splashy takes. Instead fish are rising and almost slurping the fly out of the film and unless you’re paying attention, you might miss the whole scene. I am hoping to squeeze in a few more trips before the days get too cold and short and I’m stuck in town trying to tease a carp out of an urban pond.

The post Arizona Fly Fishing: A solo day on the water appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.

Saturday morning dawned frigidly cold in the north country. We sat huddled in the truck looking at the 29 degree mark (a cold temperature for Arizona boys) that blinked on the dashboard of the truck, and we thought twice about our decision. In the end there was no way we were turning around, so we geared up, put on all available clothing, and headed towards the water. After spotting fish in the first pool and attempting to fish to them, we realized it was far too cold even for the fish to be moving, so we built a small fire and waited for the sun to come up over the canyon walls and warm the water.

Fishing was slow, but around eleven o’clock, I coaxed the beautiful brown above from underneath a large boulder. The fight was brief and Antonio swung the net underneath him. As beautiful as the photo is, it does not do this trout justice, as the yellows and oranges glistened in the sun.

The fishing continued very slowly and we saw/spooked a few big fish. As the sun disappeared, I was worked a long pool and sailed an orange mini-hopper to a likely looking spot. After a slow boil, I lifted the fly rod to find life on the other end. Within seconds, I realized that is a was a large fish and quickly fought him to the shallows, where I stared down at a beautiful beefy brown trout. With a few quick photos, he swam quickly back into the deep green water.

I felt blessed to hold, not one, but two beautiful fish out of this creek. The cold weather is going to put the kibosh on the stellar fishing soon, but until then, I’ll continue to push my luck and try to fool another of these big browns.

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I had a nice change of pace this weekend and was able to head to the high country with my wife Michelle and our good friends Dan and Kera. We camped for the night in one of my favorite spots and enjoyed the cool September night with campfire food. The next morning after laying around camp and cooking a big breakfast, I had the pleasure of sharing my love of fly fishing with my wife and friends. A good time was had by all before we came back down to the Valley. After a wonderful night in the sticks, I imagine we’ll be headed that way together again soon.

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It still is difficult for friends, and especially my wife, to fully grasp the reasons that I get up so early on Saturday mornings to hike my way back into some creek on the off chance I will have a shot at a nice fish. Luckily, I have fishing friends who have the same compulsions that I do. So my buddy Zach and I found ourselves on the brink of a canyon at daybreak, rigging up our fly rods for just such a chance at a couple of good fish.

The water was a bit on the cloudy side, but we found a few wild rainbows who were willing to play. I was more than happy to find the healthy rainbow above on the end of my line, and had resigned myself to the thought that it would be my good fish of the day. We continued to work to the top of the creek  and each pulled several 6-8 inch spunky rainbows out of the creek.

While working our way back down the creek to the hike out, I worked a streamer through a deep pool. On my second retrieve through the pool, the line went taut and the surface of the water exploded with a red streak. After a short fight, Zach was able to put a net under him, and I gazed down at the beautiful fish.

The healthy rainbow had taken the big gray streamer that I had tied up the previous weekend. It looks like I’ll be needing a name for this ugly fly. Fly fishing in Arizona never ceases to amaze me.

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