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One of the bodies of water I fished last week, during a trip to northern Arizona, was a small spring creek that flows at about 7 cfs. This is AZ’s only trophy trout stream, and one that I’d avoided because the water is so skinny. There’s a hatchery where the spring bubbles up from underground and each year, from Oct. 1 – March 31, rainbows and apaches from about 17” to about 28” are stocked in a 1.3 mile stretch of the creek. During these months the fishing regs change, and the creek becomes a fly and lure only catch and release destination. My buddy, John, had fished there before, and this was one of our 4 fishing destinations for the trip.
What we didn’t know was that because there was infrastructure work scheduled for the hatchery, all the large trout had been stocked a few days before we arrived.
The bows all had frayed tails, acquired in the cement hatchery runways, although the few Apache Trout that I caught were cherry. They were either raised elsewhere or in a different hatchery runway.
There are a number of pools and beaver ponds on the creek, which afforded some unbelievable fishing. Yeah, they were stockers and a little ratty, but they put up great fights, especially in the shallower water where they could only swim laterally, since there was no depth. I imagine that bonefish fight in a similar fashion.
The water was a bit turbid so darker flies were the ticket, especially #12 black or purple woolly buggers with a little krystal flash. I caught fish stripping in my streamers and also suspending them from an indicator. The 4X tippet often held, but not always. Many fish were lost, probably about 50%.
On our first afternoon I landed 4, the smallest of which was 18”.
The next day started with a bang, but at about 10 a.m. the water began to muddy-up. Work was being done on the hatchery and one of the runways was being hosed down. We continually moved downstream to avoid the mud, since the bite stopped when the visibility dropped to about zero. After a long, late lunch, we headed up to the top of the creek where the water had cleared a bit and the bite resumed. I landed 10 that day and John twice that number. He almost always out-fishes me. My smallest fish was a 17” apache and I have no idea how large the big guy was. We tried to get the trout back in the water as soon as possible after snapping pix. I guess it was at least 6 pounds and about 25”, but who knows? When I return there again this weekend, I’m gonna weigh the fish in my net.
We only fished for a few hours the next morning before the mud started moving downstream again, but the bite was just fine until then. I landed 6 including a 19” Apache Trout, my largest to date.
John wanted to “see some new water”, so we left to fish two different lakes in our last 1 ˝ days. I hooked one and John landed a 15” brookie. You don’t leave fish to find fish, but it wasn’t worth arguing about with a buddy.
Once home, I immediately rearranged my schedule to be able to return to the creek, which is about a 7 hour drive from my house. You could definitely look down on fishing for stocked rainbows in a small stream but my heart sure leapt a number of times during that trip.
(Damn! Tried to include a photo along with this post, but my shots are over 800 dpi. Anyone know how I can make a photo file smaller?)
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