Apache Trout Pictures:

[AzTrouter]

Every once in a while I like to take a few home from our healthy home waters for a good meal :- )

With the monsoon rains and dropping temps our AZ creek fishing is coming along nicely. Water color is off, but not enough they weren’t picking up a Stimulator/Copper John dry dropper.

 

[spm]

Nice catch, AZ. And there is nothing wrong with enjoying a trout dinner. I certainly do, on occasion.

steve

 

[AzTrouter]

Thanks Steve I couldn’t agree more in regard to eating a few trout from time to time. I might just be going though my midlife crisis or something or maybe I’m just a little burned out with popular culture fly fishing haha.....but I’ve been reverting more and more back to my youth :- )

Clicker reels, fiberglass rod and a trout dinner from a cast iron skillet.

 

[spm]

Thanks Steve I couldn’t agree more in regard to eating a few trout from time to time. I might just be going though my midlife crisis or something or maybe I’m just a little burned out with popular culture fly fishing haha.....but I’ve been reverting more and more back to my youth :- )

Clicker reels, fiberglass rod and a trout dinner from a cast iron skillet.

Some might say I never grew out of my youth.

steve

 

[jangles]

If you can stand the taste of those things , go for it .

 

[AzTrouter]

Apache Trout taste and fish a lot like the cutthroats of our native MT to us haha When in AZ fish AZ trout we say and we’re delighted AZ has taken an effort to save their native species.

The put and take attitude is strong in this state. AZ could have MT/WY grade mountain fishing if fisherman were more interested in habitat than Labor/Memorial Day weekend campers limiting everyday on invasive species.

My wife and I were up in ‘Apache’ country yesterday and caught around 2 dozen Apaches and Browns between us in 4 hours of brisk creeking. No fish tacos with hand rolled torts, pico, guacamole and queso this time though :- )

It was just a nice day of fishing together ‘leap frogging’ up the creek in shorts and sandles tossing terrestrials/nymph rigs. A certain amount of valley clowns ‘road hunting’ and complaining, but once we put a mile or two past the usual access points fishing was good :- )

 

[jangles]

No fish tacos with hand rolled torts, pico, guacamole and queso this time though :- )

One can always count on a certain type of people to put a huge dent in the population .



but once we put a mile or two past the usual access points fishing was good :- )

There's the kicker for me , I can no longer hike in so I have to float in to wade or fight the masses . It really sucks getting old .

 

[AzTrouter]

Too bad to hear about your mobility issues, there is some good creeking on the Apache Res that doesn’t take more than 100 yards to the creek on pretty flat ground.

I’m not so sure eating a couple limits of Apache Trout from a creek with a large population of stream breds and hold overs is putting a ‘huge dent’ in the population. Especially in a creek that has fish holding in really mediocre lays and we are C&R a couple dozen a day :- )

The Apache folks do a pretty good job managing put and take and with the stream breds with waters for all kinds of fisherman, but they are aggressive with enforcement.

You know if you don’t like Mex-Tex tacos, my wife does a really good Cajun Fry that will match any wine you choose haha

 

[jangles]

I'd love to be able to do what you are doing but I can't. 100 yards sounds good but I can't hike the miles to find those places and I'm not internet scouting .
All the places that i do know of that I can hike to have been cleaned out , that's what I meant when I said,what I did .

I don't care how many trout you eat or don't eat , I personally don't like them .
Now give me a bluegill and Cajun and the elbows start flying .

Regards,
Ron

 

[AzTrouter]

Just read an AZ F&G report that the Walleye in Show Low lake have been under-fished :- ) I’m not any kind of a warm water fly fisherman but Show Lake is close and walleye are good eating haha

 

[jangles]

So did you fish for Walleyes ?

 

[AzTrouter]

Not yet, worked straight though the weekend, probably going to be that way till the San Juan trip in mid Oct. We have three duplexes under construction and they need to be finished and site work done before winter :- )

 

[myt1]

Here's one I caught a couple of years ago at Christmas Tree Lake, during a weekend fish camp.

I love the subtle coloring.

I was pretty happy with it, but my buddies said the fish were small that year and the next year they didn't have the camp at all due to some sort of infection in the fish.

They had the camp this year, but I don't know any details.

 

[AzTrouter]

That’s a great picture, dead trout coming out of a creel really aren’t the most photogenic :- )

I haven’t fished Christmas Tree yet, it’s on my short list. AZ creek and river fishing is good but fickle and I need a stronger still water game.

 

[myt1]

That’s a great picture, dead trout coming out of a creel really aren’t the most photogenic :- )

I haven’t fished Christmas Tree yet, it’s on my short list. AZ creek and river fishing is good but fickle and I need a stronger still water game.

Keep an eye open for the fish camp offered by the Apache Reservation. This year it was Mothers Day weekend.

I thought it was worthwhile to do once, but I'm not sure I will do it again. They even supply small boats with electric motors, although I just used my float tube.

You are being very kind calling AZ stream and river fishing fickle...I can think of other words to use, especially after just returning from fishing five different states in the west and finding fishing, even in low water rivers, better than anything in AZ.

 

[jeep.ster]

I will be in show low manana to fish for some apache stockers fri. Fishing ditch creek is what it is. I will enjoy it. Come monday the upper section opens and been there done that. I agree about az fly fishing. That's why I'm in new mexico fishing the juan.

 

[AzTrouter]

I have enjoyed myself fishing AZ, it’s not fair comparing a bumper snow pack in the Rockies to virtually no snowpack in AZ :- )

I’m going to stick up for AZ trout fishing, I’ve had a good time here, sure it’s not the Gallitan or Shoshone but it’s interesting and in beautiful country :- ) Very much like WY and MT 80% of folks fish 20% of the water here and it’s not hard to be fishing by yourself on good water if you want too. AZ streams produce some big browns and we’re else do you catch Apache and Gila trout in a short sleeve t-shirt in Dec? :- )

We’ve gotten the same dry conditions in WY and MT too you know and lots of CO got them this year, it also goes the other way. They had so much snow pack in our part of WY my son couldn’t get on our home waters till Aug and now it’s freezing at night and snowing, most waters had a very short fishing season this year.

I fished AZ though last winter and into spring before the freestones temps went into the high 60’s and a trickle. Glad I did, that was this years fishing season :- )

 

[AzTrouter]

I will be in show low manana to fish for some apache stockers fri. Fishing ditch creek is what it is. I will enjoy it. Come monday the upper section opens and been there done that. I agree about az fly fishing. That's why I'm in new mexico fishing the juan.

I’m not far from that section in Show Low, last year I was building over there and it was in my commute :- )

Its a good after work and a beer spot after the 29th :- ) Probably fish it tomorrow evening after work (with a beer) haha It will likely be small scale Juan style combat fishing on the weekends for awhile. I fish it small like the Juan, same midges (all stages) and do pretty well even on pressured days. Water is up and off color some, but later it will drop and the sight fishing there is a hoot. I haven’t talked to Ken yet to know what’s going on with the ‘incentive’ fish situation:- )

How can you complain about catching fish like that in your work clothes on the way home? :- )

 

[jeep.ster]

I wish I lived that close to fly fish after work. I stopped and fished a couple places in the wht mtns on my way home but never saw a trout. At show low the water in the ditch is as clear as I've seen it and the upper section looked great for opening day monday. I went to the top of the lower section and never saw a fish but I love to walk the half mile along the creek. The bait chuckers caught three at the bridge. Said some fish were dumped in there for them but no fish caught anywhere else.

 

[AzTrouter]

It does look a lot better than when I was there, definitely fishing it tomorrow evening :- ) 10’ 4wt, 6’ leader butt section to a tippet ring, nothing but 6x from there, strike indicator (cut back white yarn) to a single #24 or #26 midge, probably a Desert Storm or Black Krystal Flash, natural sink, no weight, no fly line on the water, set medium on everything boom boom boom! Haha

My son’s coming down from WY mid Oct and I’m meeting him on the Juan for a few days. How’d you do over there, recent reports sound good.