I've fished Lees Ferry and love it. I've heard good rainbow fishing extends for miles into the Grand Canyon but few people fish below the Lees boat ramp because access is difficult. I've also heard you can hike down side canyons and find short stretches where you can access the river.
I want to do that. In fact, I'm thinking of trying this weekend. Get out of the smog into sunshine. Hike a slot down to the river. Catch a big rainbow. That would be a real kick for a mid-winter adventure.
I've been searching and I've found a couple canyons I'd like to try, but I'd appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience there.
Thanks,
Dave W
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We have hiked down the Kaibab trail and caught some big browns in the Brightangel river, landed a few bows in the main river, the side streams are smaller and better to fish though, if you are hiking with camping gear and rods etc. you better be in good shape, you can stay at phantom ranch in the bottom or camp in the campground, they even have Tecate at the ranch.
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I grew up in the small town of Fredonia AZ., right north of the Kaibab. We hiked down into the canyon several times a year,usually starting about now through the end of march, too hot after that. We hiked several of the canyons south of Lees Ferry. The one we hiked the most was a not too far down stream, a side canyon called Badger canyon. We were in highschool and in good shape and we'd hike it in one day several times a year and catch some very large rainbows up to two feet. Hooked some bigger ones but they usually broke the 6lb line we used. The canyon comes in from the west, you access it from a dirt road that comes off the highway and goes across the head of the canyon and then down the south side of it, it dead ended at the trail head. The hike took us less than two hours to get in and about two hours or more to get out. One spot in the bottom you have to rope off a 40 foot drop off. It's been a long time since i've been down there and I know for a time my brothers couldn't get out the dirt road and would start down the canyon right where it crosses the highway as it turns to the north up toward the head of it. Maybe my brother can tell you more when he sees this.
We also hiked other canyons that where atleast two day hikes. One canyon further down called Rider, and another called North canyon. Just down from Badger canyon is a popular canyon for tourists and scouts called soap creek which we never actually went down since we heard the fishing was never as good with all the traffic. All the canyons we hiked down had real good fishing back then but about ten years ago they started doing controlled floods which destroyed the fish population for the following years. It would strip all the moss and vegetation off the rocks and flush it down stream and the fish would all turn skinny and unhealthy looking. They've tried recently to correct some of the problem by also dumping large amounts of dirt and debree into the controlled flood to make it more comparable to a real flood, but they can't get enough stuff in there to make a difference or add anything back to the beaches that are being washed away. Since they've been doing the floods we haven't been down much at all, so I don't know how the fishing would be these days.
The hike, however, is worth it by itself. Awsome scenery and we usually spotted some desert big horns on every trip sooner or later.
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All of the locations mentioned are great places to hike. It's difficult to say on the fishing, but you'll certainly get into some. Areas mentioned by Fishindaddy are all accessed from the west side of the canyon below Lee's Ferry--there must also be access directly across the canyon from Badger Canyon as we've seen people hike into there. There are actually several places to access the canyon, but be very careful on any of them as there are dangerous areas. I think the ledge in Badger Canyon is closer to 20'--we used to climb it with a rope, but have used a rope ladder when others needed it. I'm not sure what's happened over the last several years as far as access, but Soap Creek is probably the easiest to find. We certainly did have to hike from the highway the last few times we went down Badger. I don't think I'd recommend North Canyon, it's very difficult. I also don't think I'd recommend the Bright Angel trail because it's a further drive and a further hike (drops off near the rims, way further south) Good luck--I hope your able to find a way in.
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