06-25-2015, 04:08 AM
Ok before anyone calls me crazy or tells me that I have a death wish, no I did not tube cataract canyon or the rapids on the Colorado.[:p] This is a lake just outside of Williams, AZ. Having heard that this is a popular fishing hole for the locals I wasn't too surprised that on a wednesday it was pretty much devoid of people. There was only one other small boat on the lake when we got there and soon left after we launched. We started a little late, not my usual break of dawn stuff but I probably would have had better action rather than at 10:30 am. My daughter hooked into one rainbow but that was it for the two of us. The water at launch was a cool 73 degrees and choppy with the wind that was kicking up. Cataract Lake is in the Kaibob National Forest and is a small reservoir similar to what one would find in the uintas. In this case it has trout, bass, and catfish in it. However I am not sure what other fish are there though. I did mark fish ranging from 6 feet to 12 feet hanging around different humps and drop offs. The deepest I found in the lake was about 20-21 feet. Due to the heat and the wind I headed to shore, ate lunch and called it a day.
While checking out a map of the city I found another small reservoir just to the south pretty much in the city limits as well. After checking with the local sporting goods store I decided it would be good to check out when it cooled down. He said it would be good for trout.
This reservoir is called Santa Fe Reservoir. It is small and the water is stained a bit. Definitely not the clear waters of Utah that I am used to. Although when we arrived at 6:30 things looked promising. Lots of topwater action and fish jumping. My daughter was the only one who wanted to wet a hook this time so I handed the camera to my fourteen year old son. Not so sure if that was a good idea or not. I will let you be the judge. The first four pics are of Cataract and the rest following are of Santa Fe.
We were just going to do a little bank tangling since the res was so small and didn't have a lot of time. I figured spoons would be a good starting point. Nope, nothing hitting spoons. So I hooked on a silver spinner and had my son fill a bubble for in case I needed to switch to a fly and a bubble. It wasn't long before I started getting hits from the small trout??? I hooked into a small rainbow, then I got a little surprise of a small crappie on the same silver spinner. Then soon a larger rainbow hit. I worked the shore down to the dam and back and had another nice rainbow hit then a larger crappie took the spinner. The sun was setting so the bite ended but had I put the fly and bubble on I would have had a lot more hookups from the troutskis. My daughter didn't fair too well this evening. Had a couple of hits but no hookups. For never fishing Arizona before I call this day a success.[cool]
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While checking out a map of the city I found another small reservoir just to the south pretty much in the city limits as well. After checking with the local sporting goods store I decided it would be good to check out when it cooled down. He said it would be good for trout.
This reservoir is called Santa Fe Reservoir. It is small and the water is stained a bit. Definitely not the clear waters of Utah that I am used to. Although when we arrived at 6:30 things looked promising. Lots of topwater action and fish jumping. My daughter was the only one who wanted to wet a hook this time so I handed the camera to my fourteen year old son. Not so sure if that was a good idea or not. I will let you be the judge. The first four pics are of Cataract and the rest following are of Santa Fe.
We were just going to do a little bank tangling since the res was so small and didn't have a lot of time. I figured spoons would be a good starting point. Nope, nothing hitting spoons. So I hooked on a silver spinner and had my son fill a bubble for in case I needed to switch to a fly and a bubble. It wasn't long before I started getting hits from the small trout??? I hooked into a small rainbow, then I got a little surprise of a small crappie on the same silver spinner. Then soon a larger rainbow hit. I worked the shore down to the dam and back and had another nice rainbow hit then a larger crappie took the spinner. The sun was setting so the bite ended but had I put the fly and bubble on I would have had a lot more hookups from the troutskis. My daughter didn't fair too well this evening. Had a couple of hits but no hookups. For never fishing Arizona before I call this day a success.[cool]
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]. My old man does the same thing.[fishon].
