AZ third in most public fishable waters in the nation!

FAOL Community Fly Anglers Online
1

Reluctlantly make this post. I think you guys are fed up with me posting or mentioning my state. I like where I live. But most of the state I would not prefer. I live in the higher elevation with trout and elk. Not the desert. But am interested in re-locating to where there is much more than just trout fishing. Considering Mountain Home, Ark or the PNW. I really like the PNW but have never fished it. But my health feels so much better on the coast. I breathe so much better and my sinus’s stay so cleaned out there. But very expensive.

So apogize for the post.

But was pretty interesting to me. Last night a speaker stated Arizona has more fishable public waters than any other state in the nation, except Montana and Alaska. That includes Minnesota? Wow.
(including reservations, because we can buy permits and fish there)

Just a fact that I was not aware of. It surprised me to hear that. Especially being a mostly desert state. The speaker is the, uh, kind of forget. The Fly Fishing Manager of an Orvis store in the valley? She had a much more impressive title than that, I just cannot remember it. She just won 1st place in some kind of national fly fishing thing. She will be competing very soon in Utah representing this state. So she must know what she is talking about.

Just trivia information.

Jim

2

I’d love to know the general area where the most small streams w/trout are located. I’ve been going to CO. for many years and have never fished in AZ.

3

I guess I’m suprised and impressed. I wouldn’t have thought that you had us for overall fishable public water.

4

Yes, interesting since one time a person posted a question on here. Said he was going to be in PHX for a week and wanted to know where to fish. A person in MN posted “you are forgetting one thing…you need H2O!” Man was he way off the mark.

Take a look at a map of Arizona. Find Mt. Baldy in NE AZ and all the streams running from it. Also take note of Show Low, AZ…and points east, south east, and south. On that map you will see a ton of streams. Those are mostly all on the Apache Indian reservation.

Also what we refer to as Rim country. That is specifically the area between Payson and Show Low. Which BTW is NOT considered part of the White Mountain area.

BTW, the last two days have been beautiful in Show Low, but the four days before that, woke up to a ground covered with white snow every morning. Melted off but by nightfall was snowing again. The first day I must have had 4-6" of snow sitting on the hood of my pick up. It is pretty good here. I think just the right amount of sun, snow, and rain. But too much wind.

A fellow stated last night that we have 1250 miles of trout stream. I have never heard that before. I think he is wrong. But it is published in a booklet touting our area for vacationers…that there are 800 miles of trout streams and 50 lakes. That is just on the Show Low-Springerville area. Not the whole state. That is printed in black and white. This area we all refer to as the White Mountains. Just as an area.

Or go to azflyandtie.com and look for posts about fishing the White Mountains. Not the urban lakes. And pay particular attention to posts icw Silver Creek. You should see quite a few posts showing pics of browns, rainbows, and apaches on the lakes. And then there is Silver Creek. I live 5 minutes away. I can have a fly in the water in 7 minutes from my front door. I can post pics of trout from Silver Creek…and I have not fished it in four years. Understand this year has been a banner year for big trout there. It has become so well known I just don’t go there. It is not all that crowded, just in my mind I decide to go somewhere else.

again just fyi for those who may be interested

Jim

5

oh, BTW Silver Creek is a live underground fed stream that never freezes over. Hence fish can live throught the winter and get bigger. You can actually walk up to the headwaters where it comes up out of the ground. They have a wall built around it. It is only fishable for about 1.25 miles, then is private property till it dumps into White Mountain Lake.
Jim

6

If you are going anywhere near south east CO. slip on down to the San Juan River in NW NM. You probably already know about the famous San Juan. People from all over the world fly in to fish there. You have to know exackery how to fish it or you will be skunked, despite all the trout you can see. Abe’s lodge, last time I went was only $40 per night. A guide would be expensive, but…if you have the bucks extremely well worth it. An all day float I did I caught fish all day long. Approx 35. Contact Bubba Smith. He is a member of this site. uh…I will look up his handle and post it.
Jim

I thought I knew it but wanted to verify. Yes, he is on here as himself. Bubba Smith. You can pm him.

I often wonder if the San Juan would make an outstanding “FAOL Fish In” but have never been to one, therefore lack of knowledge how to put one together.

7

Wisconsin has over 10,000 miles of classified trout streams, 95% have natural reproduction.

http://dnr.wi.gov/fish/species/trout/streamclassification.html

Because of the Public Trust Doctrine in the Wisconsin Constitution, virtually all flowing waters have public access. We have the right it walk all streams as long as we keep our feet wet. This is despite the fact that the landowner owns the stream bed. The state owns all lake bottoms.

We can exit the river to bypass obstruction even if that means exiting the stream onto private land as long as we take the most direct route around the obstruction. If a stream will float a kayak or canoe during the spring runoff, we can fish it through private property.

“The public trust doctrine is a body of common and statutory law that provides that the state holds title to navigable waters in trust for public purposes… A waterway is now considered navigable if it is capable of floating any boat for recreational purposes. Furthermore, the waterway need not be continually navigable. It need be navigable only on a regularly recurring basis, such as during spring runoff periods. The trust also applies to artificial navigable waters that are ?directly and inseparably connected with natural, navigable waters.? Klingeisen v. DNR, 163 Wis. 2d 921, 929 (Ct. App. 1991).
The state has traditionally been the owner of lake beds up to the ordinary high-water mark. The ordinary high-water mark is the point on the bank or shore where the water, by its presence, wave action or flow, leaves a distinct mark on the bank or shore. Accordingly, the trust doctrine encompasses not only navigable waters, but also the beds underlying those waters …”

http://www.legis.state.wi.us/lrb/pubs/consthi/04consthiIV4.htm

8

I think ditto for AZ Silver. But icw our Silver Creek, it is not much worth the effort to go beyond the private land line anyway. Would be a big PIA to do so.

Jim
Good information. Thanks

9

it’s not mentioned that lake havasu, lake mead and 1 or 2 other large reservoirs are included in public fishing waters. maybe that’s why they tally so much fishing water.

10

“JUST TROUT FISHING!!!” Is there anything else to fish for? Jim, Jim, Jim… What are we going to do with you?

11

Wes,

That’s what puts us in te top tier of ‘public fishable’ waters. Lake Powell, Lake Mead, Lake Havasu, Pleasant, Roosevelt, Apache, Saguaro, San Carlos…lots and lots of reservoirs here, some of them absolutely huge.

You can get trout in the mountains, but it’s mostly stillwater. Almost all of our ‘trout streams’ are hard to get to or have only fair to middlin fishing. The best of all of these are on indian land…with all the attendant permiting and such before you can fish. All that being true, Arizona probably has the best concentration of outstanding bass lakes anywhere in the world besides Florida. Folks that live in Phoenix have within four hour access to over 1 million acres of prime bass waters.

Buddy

12

In the line of lakes from Roosevelt to Phoenix. Buddy mentioned two of them. There is also Canyon Lake in that mix. Now off the top of my head, as far as lakes go, there is Alamo, Williams, Chevlon, Willow Springs, Woods Canyon, Deadhorse, Bartlett, Urban Lakes Tucson, Urban lakes Phoenix, Bog Tank, Big Bear, Little Bear, A-1, Horseshoe Cinega, Hurricane, Cyclone, Christmas Tree, Lee Valley, Reservation, Hawley, Becker, Lyman, Luna, Cooley, Spellman, Nelson Reservoir, Scotts Reservoir, Rainbow, Show Low, Fools Hollow, Big Lake, Sunrise, Blue, Mill Pond, Carnero, Crescent, Seneca, Drift Fence, Earl Park, Woodland, Lake of the Woods,…well I ran out of memory. I am sure I am missing quite a few, because I by all means am not aware of all the fishable lakes…oh, Patagonia, Arivica, Pena Blanca, uh…now I’m done.

13

What effect do you think it might have if President Obama moves forward with his plans under the National Monuments Act? Given the anti fishing bias of some of his associates, I would be concerned.

14

I don’t think he/it will affect Indian Reservations? If this is true I am very lucky. I live very close to the best fishing rez in the state, and within striking distance of two others.

Jim

15

[QUOTE=Buddy Sanders;357352]Wes,

“All that being true, Arizona probably has the best concentration of outstanding bass lakes anywhere in the world besides Florida. Folks that live in Phoenix have within four hour access to over 1 million acres of prime bass waters.”

Some folks in Texas might tend to not agree with you on that claim.