MOONED IN SHOW LOW (AZ)

[TubeDude]

[cool][size 1]This last weekend was both our 24th wedding anniversary and Father's Day on the 15'th. We decided we needed to run away to get out of the Phoenix heat, so we arranged for someone to look after my mother and we headed for the cool White Mountains of northeaster Arizona. Our destination was Show Low, above the Mogollon Rim, where daytime temperatures had been about 20 degrees cooler than Phoenix.

There is a city water reservoir, coincidentally known as Show Low Lake, that produces some large fish of several species...trout, walleyes, largemouth, sunfish and catfish. At least it has in the past. On this trip, we arrived on Friday the 13'th...the night of the full moon. Double whammy.

We should have known what to expect when we went down to the lake in the evening to locate a good launch site for an early morning excursion. We stopped by the single small launch ramp and found everybody launching, and nobody coming in. The locals advised us that during a full moon "You fish for trout until 8, then walleye until midnight and then catfish until daybreak." They shook their heads ly and knowingly when we told them we intended to try for some walleyes in the morning.



We found a secluded spot to launch, up in the inlet area. This was Friday evening, before all the intelligent locals hit it for the night's action.



It was already light when we launched. We started seeing fish on the sonar as soon as we moved away from the bank. But, the only bite TubeBabe had all day was a large crawdad that latched on to her baitbug while she let it sit on the bottom while fooling with tackle. It got away.



About the only fishermen on the lake were a handful of tourists in their "cabin cruisers"...trolling various flashers and bait combos for the little newly-planted hatchery pet rainbows. There were also a few bank "tanglers" soaking assorted "bottle baits" for trout with minimal success. We saw two trout about 16" taken by one of the old retirees who lives on the lake and fishes it every morning. Other than that, we saw one 8" hatchery pet.

I ran through my whole arsenal of potential walleye enticements, and fished from shallow to deep and back again. I metered quite a few concentrations of fish over humps and rocky points, but from what I could see on the sonar, they all had sun shades on their eyes and zippers on their mouths. I had several bumps while retrieving small RoadRunners and other lures at middepth. I suspect they were only the tiny tyke rainbows that were also taking newly hatched cicadas from the surface on occasion.

It was a beautiful morning, and a non-stop wildlife parade. In our float tubes we often have all kinds of critters come right down to the water's edge to drink...remaining undisturbed by our silent passage. The first such treat was a pair of little grey foxes. They were too far away to get a good pic, but they were pretty little things.



I kicked under a large dead pine tree that had a couple of cormorants drying their wings in the morning sun, after a hearty breakfast of hatchery trout.



I also made friends with a rock squirrel foraging along the bank, by flipping him a small piece of my peanut butter and honey "fuel" sandwich.



We are wildflower enthusiasts and love to add new pics to our collection. We put on slide shows of Arizona flora and fauna for the winter visitors (snowbirds) and are always on the lookout for flowers. This is a type of penstemon...related to snapdragons.



The pretty but formidable "prickle poppies" look like a cross between thistles and daisies. Their sharp spines will penetrate leather gloves.



On our way back to Phoenix, on Sunday, we were treated to the bloom cycle of several showy members of the agave family...also called "century plants".

TubeDude [/size]
[signature]