George Washington's Birthday

I visited some family on my Dad's side this weekend and got my hands on Grandma's family tree. Included on this side are former Mayor of Portland, Or, Bud Clark and the eldest traced relative, George George. Born 1650 in Wales.

George George?

Anyway, I had Monday off and went fishing all day. I decided to spend the weekend exploring the urban scene like my previous post discussed. I started Sunday night at a canal on Alma School Rd. near the 202/Red Mountain Fwy. It sucked. No signs of fish and depressing scenery. Went to Dobson Ranch and met up with Friendly neigbor, Scott, to hit pond 7. As usual, Scott caught one fish and I caught zero. We have fished together 4 or 5 times, I think, and I have consistently been skunked 1-0. Lots of bites here and there, but the little buggers shake loose a lot. It seems like they are swimming right at you and there's no way to get a good hook set. Here's Scott's fish from Sunday:


The next morning, Monday, we headed back to pond 7. A front had come through and fishing was slow. The upside was that I finally got to reciprocate the results for once. I caught one bass to Scott's zero.

This seems to be the size of bass we catch and see so far. The box is 13" across and the handle is 4.5". I figure the bass is 1 year old. All the bass I saw were on spawning beds. The one I caught wasn't spawning, I assume. A full moon just passed, so we have a while for the next group to spawn. I saw 2 bass on a bed that were 15" or so. But all the rest were small. I can't believe they are beddin' in February. The spawning and weather are just like Oregon in May.

After Dobson Ranch, I went and got a fishing license and then decided to swing by the ASU Research Park. The scene was about the same... cold wind from the front and all the fish were spawning.

I caught one bass about an inch smaller than the one from Dobson Ranch. I did see quite a few big bass on beds there. A couple were really big.


I met a guy fishing there that does a lot of bass fishing. I got some good information from him:
1. The canals suck. He agreed with me that there are a lot of better places to go.
2. The algae that killed a lot of bass in the resevoirs (I talk about it in a past post) also killed fish in town that got water from certain canals. Dobson Ranch and the lake in Tempe that I mention in that old post both had a huge amount of fish killed the last couple of years. They have both been restocked, which explains why there are so many little bass in the Ranch.
3. Tempe Town Lake has a lot of big bass in it and they are biting right now. The marina has big lights that stay on all night and attract fish. The guy I met has also hiked above Tempe Town Lake to the pond I wanted to fish... It's shallow and all muddy with no fish.

After making a loop of the pond there, I decided to go check out Tempe Town Lake. Once I got going, I decided to go east and explore. I would rather go to TTL in the evenign. I ended up driving out to the Bush Hwy and out to the Salt River where it runs from Saguaro Lake to Granite Reef Dam where it goes into canals. From where I parked, I walked up stream towards some riffles and pools.
It was muddy, smelly, and shallow. Near some trees and a little deeper water I caught this sunfish.

I hiked further upstream to see if there were any deeper pools. Because of mud or overhanging trees, I had to trudge through the sand up on the bank above the river.

I went pretty far and found nothing better. On the way back down to the car, I heard some splashing and walked towards the water... It was a big steer running across to the opposite side.

Back at the parking lot, the river goes around a bend and gets narrower and much deeper. I went down for a closer look and saw a lot of deep pools and rocks to fish around. Right where I walked up to, there were two big bass -- biggest bass I'd seen all day. They were on a spawning bed like everywhere else. It was getting dark, so I only fished around there a little bit. I saw 5 or 6 more bass and they were all at least 2lbs. One of them was close to 18 or 20 inches. The one I caught was smaller than the other ones I saw (of course!).

Super Bowl Sunday

It is going to be 80 degrees today and there is a nice layer of clouds in the sky. I haven't been fishing since I moved to Dobson Ranch on December 15th. My neighbor Scott caught a bass out of a Ranch pond in early December when we went out for a few hours.

Now that it's warm, I am getting the itch to go after 'em. I want to spend this year exploring the urban bass fishing in the Phoenix area. My neigborhood has a pretty good sized lake system.

Dobson Ranch:


Look at all the water I highlighted on this zoomed out map: And this is only my part of Mesa.

Notice the canal that splits through the middle of the picture. There are many canals in the city and they all have fish, I've heard. There are lots of neighborhood lakes all over the Phoenix area and I have caught bass out of the ones I have fished --- which is four, I believe. Most of the ponds, and even the fountains, use water out of the canals that have fish in them. In Ahwatukee, I caught many, many bass out of a tiny pond/fountain that I don't think anyone would expect to find fish. I wouldn't have ever bothered if I didn't see two bass cruising the side while walking a dog.

There is also the Tempe Town Lake that is stocked with trout, bass, and catfish. Upriver from the lake, there is a small set of ponds where the Salt River barely flows towards the lake. The river bottom is normally completely dry this far into town, but now they let a small creek run from the big resevoirs to keep the Tempe Town Lake full. The ponds are not part of the man-made Tempe Town Lake, so there is a lot better habitat like reeds, rocks, and weed mats. I can't wait to check those out --- once I figure out how to get down to them.

I will not focus on the ponds/lakes that are run by the Urban Fishing Program because the AZGF already has plenty of information on them and they get too much fishing pressure to be very good.

The post preceding this one shows a decent bass I caught out of an urban pond about a mile from Dobson Ranch called the ASU Research Ponds. I would like to go there some nights this year and try for some catfish. The area has lots of room to set up for night fishing and it's farely romote and safe. There are supposedly some big catfish in a lot of the ponds and canals. I will also try Dobson Ranch, of course.

Some links to places to investigate:

Bass Oasis near the airport -- private access, but you can pay to fish.

Gilbert Canal! Check out the bass this guy caught!

Stripers, smallmouth, and TARPON in canals?!? I don't know what he caught, but no way was it a tarpon -- there a lot of reasons that it couldn't be tarpon, but here's the most obivous: they live in salt water. However, the rest of the article is very intriguing.

This from a forum dated 03/05 at www.azbasszone.com: "you might want to try out the Val Vista lakes to if only for the fact if you remember the young kid who caught that 11lb largemouth that qaulified him for the junior big bass championship came from that lake. The crossroads are Baseline and Val Vista pull into the Fry's parking lot and park in front of the store and walk that long bank that borders the parking lot. True that bass was caught jeeez I think 6 years ago BUT them genes could still be swimming around.".

This one is from 01/05: "If you like "commando fishing" the Dobson Ranch golf coarse has a few lakes in it. In the early 90s we used to catch some really nice fish in there, 3 to 5 lbs. I'm just to fat to run the the greenskeepers anymore. Park in the apartments to the south and find a hole in the fence. Best on summer nights!What about Ocotillo. In 91/ 92 a kid caught a 12 lber out of there. Go down Price just past Queen Creek rd, on the left will be some new office buildings and a park. The pond is right there. They used to have security that would show up and boot you, don't know about security these days. ".
Of course, I am a Dobson Ranch resident, so I don't need to "commando" and I have always found either public places or fairly hidden spots on other lakes. I have never been run off. Kock on wood!

Another 01/04: "...where mcdowell hits the new 202 freeway. so take val-vista to were it hits mcdowell and turn left till u hit the canal. the fishing there is slow now since its winter. last year in the summer i cought 2 about 2lbs bass in about an hour on a crankbait that runs about 5 feet. ".